I have said that the PR pitch is dead. As I explained in that post, the lumbering, one size fits all mass blast is an anachronism. Further, the mindless flogging of information has no place today (not that it ever did, but it was tolerated back in the day). Today, journalists are under the gun and neither they nor bloggers suffer fools (or doe-eyed PR newbies, who have blessed little understanding of the areas they are promoting) gladly.
But pitches as approaches designed to draw interest are very much alive. They are, however evolving (or should be). Let’s take a moment and re-examine relevant trends:
- Retrenchment of traditional media means fewer reporters covering more beats, meaning it is harder for your news to qualify as “hard news.”
- The growth in voices and online clamor means it is harder to get attention for your information. People you are pitching want to write that headline that pops and soft news angles just don’t cut it. What does is the scoop, the intriguing rumor, and again the undeniably hard news.
- These same trends means less time and space are devoted to thoughtful analysis. Articles and magazines are tacking shorter. This increases the pressure to to get your story across in the fewest possible words. People are not going to take a lot of time to understand it or devote a lot of space to explaining it.
- More information coming at everyone at a faster clip and competition for eyeballs mean shorter shelf life for news and stories.
- At Fusion PR, we covered some of these trends in our survey of the impact of social media on tech journalism.
- Millions of blogging soapboxes and many people discussing their work and personal lives in social networks means there are precious few secrets and it is harder than ever to control the release of information. This means that exclusives and embargoes are more challenging to pull off.
- Finally, the way information is consumed and delivered is changing. Reporters get information from blogs, micro blogs, social networks and other channels. Your pitch could be delivered in these channels, be a comment on their blogs, etc.
- Their are new websites for delivering pitches and news. See NewsVetter, PRX Builder and PitchEngine (all inactive).
The fact is that it is harder to break through the noise these days challenges those wishing to get attention for their ideas, information, products, and spokespeople. On the other hand, as I wrote in my post about User Generated PR, there are more places than ever to get your content posted.
What this boils down to is that objective for your next campaign might not be to snag that briefing, series or briefings, or exclusive. In rethinking the PR pitch and campaign you need to ask yourself several questions:
What is the potential market for our news?
Who is most likely to care or do something with it? Is it a seller’s market (really hot information or hard news) or a buyers’ market (everything else)? The only way to understand this is to have a good sense of the the market you work in, competitive lay of the land, what has already been written / announced, and a sense of how your news relates.
What content, assets, etc. do we have or can we assemble that supports the story?
Self explanatory.
What key gatekeepers or influencers can make a difference in our campaign?
Who do we need to educate and convince that what we have is significant? What audiences do they reach and what is their reputation with these audiences?
