Why not take a step back, decide what works and what doesn’t, and treat journalists like the truth-tellers they are. You’re as exhausted as the journalist by the endless pace of news. In fact, you want them to be skeptical! It keeps everyone honest.īe the change you want to see in PR. Remember that the journalist has seen way more than you have and they’re going to be deeply skeptical. Startup coverage in particular is a tricky topic with journos because they’ve been burned by ideas that are too early (or too late). Most comms professionals already know this but you absolutely have to manage expectations when it comes to coverage. A quick DM and a quicker “No thanks!” can save you hours of headache. DMing them is always fair game and if you’re not using that channel then you’re doing yourself a disservice. Look: journos are hanging out on Twitter anyway. Unlike MailChimp, SerialMailer will use your personal mail servers which will make things less likely to be caught in spam.īothering journos on Twitter is fine. If you still think you need to send it out to a wider list, use a tool like SerialMailer that will send out emails from your inbox directly. If the news is important, send it to a small subset of your list and follow up using the method described above. There are two factors at work here: first, you will run afoul of spam filters almost immediately and you end up in the “Promotions” inbox in Gmail.įurther, you run the risk of appearing like another piece of junk mail in a journo’s inbox. When it comes to important client information, however, don’t do it. I know how tempting it is to send a million emails and hope something sticks. If you send a third email and the journalist doesn’t respond, it’s probably not in the cards.Īvoid spam filters. They usually consist of something simple like “Hey, do you want to see this cool new thing we made?” Then, when I don’t respond to that, I usually get a follow-up, equally simple, that puts why I should care about the news in context. They’ll always be looking for a story and they’re in the right position to write the news. If you’re trying to access the WSJ, don’t email the bonds desk editor, email the reporter who covers bonds the most. My best piece of advice is to always target one level below the main editor. When you have a piece of news that simply needs to go up on a specific website, target your pitch carefully. So how do you break through the noise and capture attention? Here are my top seven tips. My job is to hear that story and see where it fits in the grand narrative associated with everything from global politics to the gadgets in our pockets. My goal, always, has been to offer clarity under difficult and ever-changing circumstances.Ĭomms professionals are in the same business, only their goal is to tell a story for their brand or a client. I’m a professional journalist and I’ve been taking pitches for at least 20 years. When everything is noise, how do you get someone to listen to your signal? This is one of the biggest problems both comms professionals and journalists face on a daily basis.
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