Targeting beats volume, every time.
A journalist's inbox is a hostile environment, and mass blasts made it that way. Our media relations work starts from small lists: the reporters who genuinely cover the subject, checked against what they have written recently, not what a database claimed two years ago. Twenty right people beat two thousand wrong ones, and the difference shows up in reply rates and in how the next pitch is received. The same data story might suit a consumer writer at Metro and the money pages of The Independent, but never for the same reason, and the pitch has to know the difference.
How we write a pitch.
The subject line does the heavy lifting, because it is the only part guaranteed to be read. The first two sentences carry the story, the way an intro would. The asset is linked or attached so nothing needs to be requested, and the whole thing is tailored to the journalist's beat rather than topped and tailed from a template. If a pitch cannot say why this reporter, for this story, this week, it is not ready to send.
Embargoes, used properly.
An embargo gives desks time to prepare a piece without losing the news moment, and it works when the story deserves it: data releases, launches with a fixed date, anything a long-lead title needs early. It fails when it is used to make a modest story feel important. We set embargo times journalists can actually work with, and we honour the deal absolutely, because one broken embargo follows an agency around for years.
Exclusives, and when to offer one.
An exclusive trades reach for prominence: one title, but a bigger and better-placed piece, often with the journalist investing reporting of their own. It suits stories with a natural home, the kind of data piece a title like The Guardian will invest real reporting in, and clients who value depth over volume. It spends the story once, though, so we recommend it deliberately rather than as a reflex. When we offer an exclusive we mean it, and the offer is never running at three outlets simultaneously.
Follow-ups that do not annoy.
One follow-up, a few days later, carrying something new: a regional cut of the data, a sharper line from the spokesperson, a peg the first email lacked. Then silence, because silence is an answer and pestering converts a maybe into a never. The rule applies to everything we send, from data stories to expert comment.
The long game.
Good media relations is cumulative. Reliable data, fast quotes, samples that arrive when promised and pitches that respect the beat: journalists remember sources who make their job easier, and they remember the other kind vividly. We protect that reputation on every send, because it is the asset every future campaign draws on.
It is also why this craft sits inside every retained programme rather than being sold separately; our digital PR services page shows the whole machine.