Survey of reporters: 9 in 10 journalists say they delete these PR pitches

It takes time to build familiarity and prove your relevance to journalists; no response to PR pitches isn’t the same thing as “not interested,” it’s more like a “not right now.”

Not too long ago, there was one reporter whose attention I was trying to get.

The company I was pitching hadn’t done much PR, but it was a buzzy and well-defined space with a lot of innovation.

I had sent a few well-timed and customized pitches that fit squarely into his historical coverage. No response.

Next I had a new product announcement that was genuinely novel. Again, crickets.

I followed up a few days later with a new angle. Nothing.

After a follow-up or two, I began to wonder if the company had done something prior to my involvement to get blacklisted. I finally wrote to ask him directly, albeit diplomatically.

A day later, he wrote me back:

“Not at all. I simply don’t have time to reply to every email or pitch, much less cover everything. You’ve put [company name] on my radar — keep the news flowing.” Thanks!”

This is just the reality of the current media landscape. Reporters are busy. We live in an information rich environment. It takes time, patience, resolve and consistency to break through.

That’s a good set up for this survey of journalists. If you’ve been sending quality pitches and getting no response, this survey gives you a window into their world.

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A window into the journalist’s world

PR software vendor Muck Rack recently polled 897 reporters in their database for its State of Journalism Report. A little more than 80% of the respondents are based in the U.S.; 58% are employed full-time by a publication; nearly half (46%) hold the title of “reporter,” while another 25% hold the title of “editor.”

The report provides some insight into the challenges of journalism:

Never have enough time for reporting. Just 18% say they “always” have time to complete their work to their own standard. Another 15% say they “rarely” or “never” do.

Journalists’ roles have expanded. About one-third of respondents (29%) say their roles have expanded “significantly,” and another 33% said “somewhat.”

Meaningful work for unmeaningful pay. 65% describe their work as a journalist as “meaningful,” more than half (56%) say their employment is stable, and 75% report their compensation as landing between $40k-$100k annually.

Those three findings provide a high-level perspective of what it’s like to walk a mile in the shoes of a reporter: They love their work but have more to do in less time, and are compensated relatively poorly.

That gives you a sense for their motivation, which you’ve got to bear in mind when pitching a story.

Journalists perspective on media relations

The report also contains about a dozen pages dedicated to media relations. The survey asked various questions about the pitches they received. These also provide insight into what goes on in their minds when reviewing those pitches.

Here are a few of the findings that stood out to me:

Many reporters choose their stories. 40% of reporters say they choose their own story ideas and pitch those in editorial meetings. By contrast, just 3% say they only cover stories assigned to them by an editor. The rest fall in the middle, with 55% saying “it’s a mix of both.”

Social media matters. Businesses that do media outreach ought to be active on social media. 65% of journalists surveyed said social media is at least moderately important for their work. The report does note that this has declined in the last few years.

Most reporters do value PR relationships. About half of reporters (53%) say relationships with PR are “very important” (30%) or “important” (23%). Another 20% say they are “moderately important.”

Most stories start with a PR pitch. Some 86% of reporters surveyed said some of their stories start with a PR pitch. Of those, 51% attribute between 1-10% of stories to PR. Another 17% put it at between 11-25%; 12% say it’s between 16-50% and, finally, 5% say more than 50% of their stories start with a PR pitch.

The report also provided figures on the volume of pitches received. I was surprised to see that just 14% of reporters say they receive more than 21 pitches a day.

I would imagine the volume of pitches is highly dependent on the beat. In B2B tech, I routinely hear from reporters that they easily get upwards of 100 pitches a day. It’s been that way for years. The trade reporter mentioned above certainly does.

One former Wall Street Journal reporter said she used to get emails at a rate of one per minute. Assuming a standard eight-hour day, the math works out to 480 emails per day. That would overwhelm anyone.

Another reporter I spoke with a couple of weeks ago has completely given up on email. His email address bounced, so I reached out to him on LinkedIn. He responded right away and explained he was getting too many irrelevant pitches, which rendered his email unusable.

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Why reporters delete PR pitches

Reporters rarely responded to pitches.

More than half (54%) said they rarely responded to pitches. Another 25% say they respond about half of the time. Lastly, about one in five “usually” (15%) or “always respond” (6%).

Why? Most pitches are not relevant.

Nearly nine in 10 reporters (88%) delete pitches because it’s irrelevant to their coverage. That’s not the only reason why they might disregard a pitch.

The survey asked: What causes you to immediately disregard or delete a PR pitch?

Here’s how the responses broke out:

88% said it’s irrelevant to my coverage;
71% said it’s overly promotional or advertorial;
50% said it looks like a mass email;
46% said it’s sent repeatedly without response;
40% said it’s too long or unclear;
35% said it’s addressed to the wrong name or outlet;
26% said it lacks any source access; and
3% cited other unspecified reasons.

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What makes a good PR pitch?

Relevance is the operative word in effective PR pitches. The survey asked respondents: What makes a pitch genuinely relevant to your audience, not just your beat?

78% said it directly affects the community my audience belongs to;
45% said it has a clear local or cultural context;
28% said it includes voices from the community impacted;
28% said it avoids generic or stereotypical framing;
20% said it reflects my audience’s lived experiences; and
3% cited other unspecified reasons.

How well do PR pitches adhere to these guidelines?

Not well. According to the report:

“Just 3% of journalists say PR outreach always reflects the community their outlet serves, and 13% say usually.”

Rules of thumb for PR pitching

Muck Rack has been running this same survey for eight years. Over time, reporters have been consistent about the tactical aspects of pitching.

Use email. “62% of journalists prefer to be pitched via 1:1 email.”

Most don’t care what day you pitch. “50% don’t care which day they are pitched, but of those that do, 18% prefer to be pitched on a Monday.”

Pitch before noon. “78% want to receive pitches before noon.”

Be succinct. “69% prefer pitches that are under 200 words.”

Follow up, sparingly. “50% say one follow-up is ideal, and 51% say it should come within 3-7 days later.”

These are all just table-stakes – the constraints within which PR has room to be creative.

No response isn’t a “not interested”

That trade reporter in the opening of this post goes to show that no response isn’t the same thing as “not interested,” it’s more like a “not right now.”

If you take his words at face value, he didn’t cover the story I was pitching because he wasn’t interested. He didn’t cover it because the brand is unfamiliar and he’s busy. However, he’s aware of the company now, which improves their chances. It’s a step in the right direction.

This is an important point: It’s unrealistic to expect to go from no coverage to lots of coverage without a few steps in between. This speaks to factors we don’t see often in surveys of journalists, nor in surveys of PR professionals: Patience, resolve and consistency matter a lot when trying to break through the noise.

It takes time to build familiarity and prove your relevance. You have to do all of the things mentioned above – and do it reliably over time.

Media relations is a game of momentum. Even for the best PR practitioners, there’s no magic button, but there are clear signs of progression.

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