99 Problems But a Pitch Ain’t One

Media relations has been the most difficult aspect of public relations for me to learn so far. Unlike other PR activities, such as researching and creating prep books, some media relations activities include direct contact with journalists. Writing pitches, coordinating interviews and speaking with reporters on the phone are just a few examples of challenging tasks. We’ve all heard practice makes perfect and media relations is no exception to this rule. My teammates at Eisbrenner Public Relations have really pushed me to gain experience and have boosted my comfort level working with the media by having me write pitches.

I’ve picked up a number of handy little tricks so far; one of them is to package my pitches. If you can do the majority of the legwork for the reporter it’s more likely they’ll pick up the story, or at the very least, they’ll take a closer look. I recently wrote a pitch and we first called the client to get more general information on the company, what they do, how they do it, etc., then we confirmed some people who could be contacted by the reporter for interviews. They can be customers or experts in their industry, or anyone who can provide a different perspective to the story to help create a more unique angle. As a result, when we sent the pitch to the journalist he/she already had everything they needed for a great story!

I also picked up on what I struggle with; it’s a little something I like to call “cutting the fluff.” I don’t believe that’s a technical term, just one that I use. In the process of writing conversationally, I seem to add a lot of unnecessary words and information (are any of you noticing that now?). Reporters don’t like that; they want you to cut to the chase on why the story is important to them. I constantly remind myself to “cut the fluff” while reading back through the pitch. If the info doesn’t seem vital, I get rid of it.

A great blog to check out is fittingly titled, Bad Pitch Blog. It offers really good advice on media pitches and has information for PR professionals at all stages in their career.