Media-pitching mistakes with Jason Mudd

On Top of PR podcast: Common media-pitching mistakes and how to fix them with show host Jason Mudd episode graphic

In this solocast episode, host Jason Mudd discusses how to improve your media pitches and craft news releases journalists will notice.

Tune in to learn more!

Watch the episode here:

Listen to the episode here:

5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:

How to improve four media pitch examples
Keep your pitch short and visually appealing.
Tailor your pitch to match the journalist's beat.
Offer value — why should the journalist care?
Have a copy editor review the release.

About Jason Mudd

Jason Mudd is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia in July 2002. Forbes named Axia one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

Clients love Jason’s passion, innovation, candor, commitment, and award-winning team. In an increasingly tech-forward world, Jason’s grasp of technological demands on companies provides his multiple-sector clients a unique advantage in reaching their target audiences. After teaching himself HTML in 1994, Jason helped pioneer internet marketing strategies as an early adopter of e-commerce, search engine optimization, and social media, inspiring tech giants like Yahoo.

At Axia, Jason oversees strategic communications for the firm’s national clients and attracts, develops, retains, innovates, and leads top PR talent. He provides high-level consultations with leadership teams at billion-dollar global brands, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer, advising them on spokesperson training, crisis communications management, analytics, social media, online reputation management, and more. He also speaks frequently to corporations and industry groups and writes about public relations trends and best practices for American City Business Journals and other national companies.

Quotables

“About half of the news stories they write come from media pitches. So media pitching works when it's done right. Media pitching works when you have a relationship or attempt to build a relationship; you don't need a relationship to get media coverage.” — @JasonMudd9
“You just want to send a teaser and have them say, ‘You know what, I would like to hear more’ or ‘This isn't a good fit for me.’ But instead of doing it in 10 paragraphs, what if you just did it in three sentences?” — @JasonMudd9
“That's why we believe in having copy editors on our team who are grammarians. They're experts at what they do — the red-pen police or the people who correct your grammar in public that you don't like.” — @JasonMudd9
“If you can't tell me who said it, then I'm probably not going to quote you on it.” — @JasonMudd9
“You should not send a news release, or even a media pitch, through blast … think 1-to-1 with each media pitch that you send out.” — @JasonMudd9
“More targeted, more selective pitches are going to help you be more successful.” — @JasonMudd9
“Just like in dating, just like in sales, in media pitching, the intent of the first meeting is to get a second meeting.” — @JasonMudd9

Resources

Additional Episode Resources from Axia Public Relations:

Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR podcast.
Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

Episode Highlights

[06:40] Pitch example #1
[07:59] Understanding journalists’ timelines and keeping it simple
[16:54] Pitch example #2
[26:58] Pitch example #3
[27:07] Context is key
[33:10] Pitch example #4
[34:17] Copy editing for mistakes

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:29

Announcer

Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd, presented by ReviewMaxer.

00:00:09:29 - 00:00:30:23

Jason

Hello and welcome to On Top of PR. I’m your host, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations, and today is a solo cast. If you are a regular, fan of On top of PR, you know that every fifth episode is a solo cast where we don't have a featured guest. Instead, it's me and I am walking you through topics, tips, and trends to help you stay on top of PR.

00:00:30:25 - 00:00:54:00

Jason

Today I wanted to talk about media pitching and, how to be better at it and how to improve your media pitches. I want to start off with kind of setting the stage. So I am a public relations practitioner or a public relations professional. I've owned Axia Public Relations for about 23 years. And to that end, I'm clearly not a journalist.

00:00:54:01 - 00:01:22:13

Jason

I'm not a reporter. But because I write for Forbes magazine, I've written for, 45 American city business journals across the United States. And I also have this podcast. Sometimes I end up listed in a media database by a company that provides, media contact information. As a content creator, as a podcaster and as a writer.

00:01:22:15 - 00:02:05:24

Jason

Of of business type articles. But truthfully, I'm not really a journalist. I'm a public relations professional, and I advise corporations and organizations on how to, create a good, reputation in the marketplace, how to build visibility for their brand and their organization through, public relations, thought leadership and content marketing. I'm setting the stage to tell you all this, to say that not a week goes by, and often not even a day goes by where I'm not receiving some sort of pitch from another public relations professional or somebody just trying to build their, their name in the marketplace for their organization.

00:02:05:26 - 00:02:26:07

Jason

And so when I get these pitches, I'm often responding to them just kind of saying, you know, hey, just curious why I'm getting this and, and how you thought or why you thought it would be a good fit for me. And I would say half the time I get no response. And the other half of the time I get, hey, sorry about that, you know?

00:02:26:07 - 00:02:59:25

Jason

But what it really is to me is kind of a wake up call to our colleagues that you should not send a news release, or even a media pitch through blast. Like you should get to know, or at least think 1 to 1 with each media pitch that you send out. I've said it before, on the show, that in Major League Baseball, if you bat what's called three hour 300, which means, basically, 30% of the time you get on base, right?

00:02:59:25 - 00:03:24:08

Jason

They call that batting 300. If you bat 300 in baseball, you're probably, a Hall of Fame baseball player in the long run. If not, you know, considered to be an all star or key player on your team. I have used that example to illustrate that when it comes to media relations, if you bat 300 or meaning, you know one out of three of your media pitches land, you're a Hall of Famer.

00:03:24:11 - 00:03:51:12

Jason

In my opinion. And I've ran this by some colleagues and there tends to be consensus that that's that's a pretty fair statement. Now, some people, would think, okay, so the smart answer is if if, you know, one out of three is going to work, then I need to go out there and pitch a hundred, different media outlets, or I need to pitch 3000 media outlets so I can get, you know, 30 hits or, 100 hits or 1000, hits and by hits, I mean media hits.

00:03:51:12 - 00:04:12:28

Jason

And that example is not perfect because a pitcher is pitching and a batter is batting. And so, you know, you might confuse those terms, but at the end of the day, getting one out of three pitches to work means that you're really good. And just like in baseball, that doesn't mean you swing more. It actually means you probably swing less to get the perfect, pitch that you want to hit out of the park.

00:04:13:01 - 00:04:40:19

Jason

So if you follow that illustration, great. If not, I apologize. Either it was confusing, or maybe you're just not into baseball, but moving on. Point is, is that, more targeted, more selective pitches is going to get you help you be more successful. During this episode, I wanted to take a look at three and if we have time, maybe four pitches that I've received in my inbox, basically this month or more specifically in the last week.

00:04:40:21 - 00:05:00:07

Jason

And I just kind of want to walk you through some of the pros and cons of each of these pitches. Now, if you're listening to this audio version only, number one, you might want to pivot to the video version of this, but I'm going to do my best to set the stage. Paint a picture for you and help you see what we're looking for.

00:05:00:09 - 00:05:21:24

Jason

And I have a feeling that will probably link to the PDF version of these media pitches or news releases that I received, in our episode notes, so that you can take a look at them later. But if you if you want to listen to this again, you know, please consider the video, but I'm going to tell you information that's going to work, even if you're just listening to the audio version.

00:05:21:26 - 00:05:43:25

Jason

And if you're like me, even if I repeat listen to a piece of content a second time or consume a piece of content the second time, I'm always going to consume and identify and remember or see another tidbit or something that would be helpful. So I hope by reviewing these pitches, and what I think they did well and what I think they didn't do well will help you ultimately improve.

00:05:43:28 - 00:06:01:00

Jason

Your work. And if you're ever interested, I can certainly, be available, in a paid consultation to review a release before you send it out. Maybe you want to submit it, and I can do it in a video, and share it with my, my followers or even do, you know, an upcoming episode.

00:06:01:00 - 00:06:18:14

Jason

If you guys like this format. Just let me know where we are reviewing. Some releases. I can tell you from experience that, companies that have hired us to take a look at a release and maybe a release that just didn't get coverage, we've really been able to kind of open their eyes a little bit to why that's not working.

00:06:18:22 - 00:06:40:08

Jason

And ideally, and more importantly, I think look at a piece of content or a pitch before it even goes out, before anybody else gets a chance to see it. So with that, I'm going to show you a couple of pictures on my screen here. I'm going to walk you through them. I would love to hear, in the comments or otherwise, the parts that you thought were valuable or the parts maybe you agreed or disagreed with me on.

00:06:40:17 - 00:07:02:28

Jason

Okay, so this is the first example that I want to share. This particular one, is Labor Day Reflections, five tips for Comfortable and Independent Retirement. Now, this is the subject line of the email that I received. You can see that there's two messages. One is the pitch, and then the second one is my response where I kind of just ask them, okay, why am I getting this exactly.

00:07:03:01 - 00:07:35:28

Jason

And as I mentioned, you know, it's in the last week or so, and so there's the time stamp and, you know, I give them, you know, some kudos to getting this to me and a reasonable timeline before the holiday. But keep in mind what I write for, Forbes and, and American City business journals across the US, which I'm not currently doing, but I have done, with Forbes, it usually takes about two weeks from the time I submit my article to have it go live, with the American City Business Journal.

00:07:35:28 - 00:07:59:07

Jason

It's usually at least six, eight, nine or more weeks. In the past, when I've done that and when I do a podcast, I'm usually recording the episode, when we've got our act together about eight weeks, maybe even 16 weeks ahead of time. To be honest, it's lately been more like between 1 and 4 weeks. But again, this timeline doesn't give me enough time to even respond to it if I wanted to.

00:07:59:09 - 00:08:21:15

Jason

But moving on. And so the the message there just to hammer this home is you've got to know the outlet that you're pitching. And you got to understand what their timelines and deadlines are. Magazines, are working way in advance. Just like the example I gave with Forbes and even American City Business journals. But the end of this is the Wednesday afternoon.

00:08:21:15 - 00:08:45:21

Jason

Look at that time stamp before the holiday. I feel like there's still a little late, maybe at a daily paper. That could work, but at a weekly, publication, a monthly publication, or even, you know, maybe even some online situations that just might not be enough notice or not enough turnaround time. Given the evergreen topic, it's not breaking news for whatever reason.

00:08:45:23 - 00:09:07:16

Jason

But let's move on. First of all, I just I want to give, kudos to this person, and I've redacted the company name and the person's name to kind of protect their privacy. Because I don't want to call anybody out or embarrass anybody. But what I like here is honestly. Hi, Jason. So first of all, they took the time to personalize this, whether they did it through a mail merge, or whatever.

00:09:07:16 - 00:09:33:20

Jason

At least they took the time to put my name in there and make it look like it's a personal email. Whether it is or it's not. What I also like about this, and this was recently a LinkedIn post that I can add to the, episode notes. That kind of sparked a little bit of conversation, which was, hey, when you're pitching media, should you be cordial and say good morning, good afternoon, or greetings or nice to meet you, or how are you or something like that?

00:09:33:22 - 00:09:49:12

Jason

And there was quite a bit of conversation around I kind of lean and on the side of, you know, the person, right? Then, you know, talk to them the way you normally would, but if you don't know them, then maybe you don't say something, or maybe you do because you want to be, polite and cordial and warm them up.

00:09:49:16 - 00:10:08:00

Jason

I would say no matter what you do a always be polite, but be don't don't waste your time with flattery and don't waste your time. You know, don't waste their time with, unnecessary pleasantries. So diving into the pitch here, as Labor Day approaches, which is good because it's setting the stage. It's. Give me a time.

00:10:08:06 - 00:10:31:12

Jason

It's it's give me a place. It's showing that this is kind of relevant now, right? It's time to reflect on the hard work that has shaped our lives to celebrate the opportunities that retirement brings. Okay. So to me, immediately, kind of a little bit of a long sentence, right. And then, it says for many seniors, this chapter is filled with possibilities, but it can also represent, challenges and maintaining comfort and independence.

00:10:31:12 - 00:10:49:14

Jason

Now, I'm not going to read the entire pitch to you. But what I like about this pitch, again, focusing on the positive here, initially, I like the numbered list. I think that's really cool. I like that they are, bolding some of the care, some of the, sentences or portions of the sentences here in the paragraph.

00:10:49:16 - 00:11:06:15

Jason

But getting back to the numbered list, I like it because it allows me to scan and skim, read, it allows the journalist to, you know, quickly kind of consume what they're looking for instead of trying to go, okay, what's the point in having to read each paragraph to get to it? This really kind of highlights and summarizes what's going on here.

00:11:06:15 - 00:11:33:10

Jason

So, you know, just looking at we've got a five, you know, listicle or five things, or here's what they're calling five essential tips for enjoying a fulfilling and independent retirement. Now, what I might have done personally is I might have either repeated this or moved this five essential tips. Right. Put it in bold, and put it, I would say put it, kind of right here, above the numbered list.

00:11:33:11 - 00:11:53:17

Jason

So, so that I can quickly understand what are these five things, instead of having to go back up here and read it, and the body of the text of the message here. So they've got five essential tips for enjoying a fulfilling and independent retirement. Now, first of all, think about this. I write about the topic of public relations.

00:11:53:17 - 00:12:17:24

Jason

I write the topic about helping organizations improve their reputation using thought leadership, using content marketing, using earned media and public relations activities. Why would this be a good fit for me or my podcast or whatever? It's just not it's not at all a good fit for me. So, you know, they have probably sprayed in parade or shotgun, this announcement all over the place.

00:12:17:26 - 00:12:36:21

Jason

And I just saw on Twitter and on LinkedIn this week where a journalist basically just said, hey, you send me crap like this and it doesn't fit my beat. I'm permanently blocking your, your, your, email address and not only your email address, but your entire organization's domain, because I don't have time for amateur hour. And I wouldn't say that's harsh.

00:12:36:21 - 00:13:03:17

Jason

I think that's kind of a reasonable response. You know, the guy in particular was saying, hey, look, I cover tech, in technology, and if you're sending me things that aren't about tech, then I shouldn't. You know, there's no I'm not giving you permission to email me anymore. And so if this went to a tech writer, you know, unless he's got, you know, highly technology, tech knowledge, we focused options that are essential tips for fulfilling an independent retirement, and mobility solutions.

00:13:03:19 - 00:13:09:18

Jason

Probably not a fit. And honestly, even if it does use technology, it's probably not a fit for a technology writer.

00:13:09:27 - 00:13:29:06

Jason

Okay, so moving on again, this reads like a great blog post to me. And then again, I would put these five essential tips, with a header, above it and then list out these tips in a listicle, which I think is great. And then it ends here. Kind of celebrate your achievements and embrace new opportunities as you celebrate Labor Day and reflect on achievements.

00:13:29:06 - 00:13:54:18

Jason

Remember that retirement is a time to enjoy you know, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. For more tips and insights on maintaining comfort, independence, retirement, visit us. And then the company's website went here, but we redacted it. Now a couple questions here, right? Number one, I'm not retired. So to me, in a big way, this reads less like a media pitch and more like a newsletter.

00:13:54:21 - 00:14:21:22

Jason

It reads less like a media pitch, and more like a blog post or an article that they might try to get published somewhere. But, you know, it may be a little too shameless self-promoting for them here. It says, let me know if you have any questions. And it was sent from a PR coordinator. And again, I redacted their name and their company name to respect, their privacy and to, you know, not be, kind of picking on them for any reason.

00:14:21:22 - 00:14:45:07

Jason

So just kind of looking at this immediately, it's not clear to me that this is a media pitch that should be adjusted. Number one. Number two, it should be a teaser. And I if you follow me on LinkedIn, I'm a big advocate. I talk about this of three sentence media pitches, three paragraph media pitches. This is one to plus the five is seven.

00:14:45:10 - 00:15:07:26

Jason

The close here is eight. Nine. So it's arguably nine paragraphs. If you count this as a paragraph, let's just call it ten. So ten paragraphs way longer than just being three. And again I would recommend three sentences. All the media pitches is a teaser. You don't have to give them all the steps, all the tips. You can even just say, hey, I've got five essential tips.

00:15:07:28 - 00:15:30:08

Jason

Here's an example. 1 or 2 of them. Would you be interested more? Because just like in dating, just like in sales media pitching, the intent of the first meeting is to get a second meeting. The intent of the first conversation, the first date, the first presentation is to get a second presentation, a second date, a second meeting.

00:15:30:11 - 00:15:46:16

Jason

So in this particular case, pitching media, you just want to send a teaser and have them say, you know what? I would like to hear more or tell me more, or, you know, hey, this isn't a good fit for me. But instead of doing it in ten paragraphs, what if you just did it in three sentences that look more like this right?

00:15:46:19 - 00:16:06:16

Jason

Or worst case, even three paragraphs, right? And real quick, the outline should always be this right? Here's what I got. Here's why it matters. Here's what I'd like you to do. So paragraph number one or sentence number one. Summarize what you got. Sentence number two. Paragraph number two. Here's why it matters. Here's why you should care. Here's why your audience wants to know.

00:16:06:16 - 00:16:19:18

Jason

This is why your audience needs to know this. This is how will be helpful to them. And then finally the close. Here's what I want you to do with it. I'd like you to do a feature story. I'd like you to brief this. I'd like you to interview our CEO. I'd like you to talk to a customer.

00:16:19:20 - 00:16:37:22

Jason

About, you know, what their life was like before and after. There's a lot of these types of things that can be done, in a media pitch. Point is, this is way too long. It's not too. It's not specific enough. For more tips and insights on maintaining a retirement, visit us at whatever. So I don't know if they think this is a submitted article.

00:16:37:27 - 00:16:59:26

Jason

I don't know if they think this is a newsletter. I don't know what this person wants me to do or why they've sent it to me. I just don't know anything. And, I hope you can see this as well. So, I'm going to move on to the next item here. This one is, about 90 marathons in 90 days.

00:16:59:28 - 00:17:22:22

Jason

And so here, you know, again, we talked about the introduction. Right. Hi, Jason. That's great. I hope you're having a great summer. Yeah, so do I. And so here we're saying a well-known UK musician is currently running 90 marathons in 90 days. Along the PCT, which I don't know what that is, honestly, but, you know, maybe if I was in the UK or in Seattle, I would know more about what that means.

00:17:22:24 - 00:17:41:24

Jason

But I don't immediately know what that is. Maybe it stands for Pacific Coast. Something, to raise awareness for mental health. Hey, great. Cause love this, right? But why am I getting this? I don't write about mental health. I don't write about music. I don't write about sports. I don't write about marathons. I don't write about running.

00:17:41:26 - 00:18:03:02

Jason

Please see the press release below and let me know if you can share this news with your audience. Okay, I'm happy to facilitate an interview with. And that's the person that's running the marathon, right. So check this out. Again, please see the press release below. Right. So good. So literally this couldn't theory be a three sentence pitch.

00:18:03:04 - 00:18:22:20

Jason

I would do it a little differently. Right? I hope you're having a great summer. A well-known UK magician, a musician is currently running 90 marathons in 90 days. Blah blah, blah. Please see the press release below. We'd like you to cover this, and si, you know, and he's available for an interview. Period. That's it.

00:18:22:25 - 00:18:46:25

Jason

Three sentences. Love it. Or it could say, you know, instead of saying, please see the press release below. I'm sorry, I meant to say this. Instead of saying, please see the press release below. What she or he could have said is, would you be may I send you the press release? May I send you more information? And then you can say, we'd like you to share this news with your audience and my seat, and I can make my CEO available.

00:18:46:25 - 00:19:06:25

Jason

Do you see how it's kind of just three sentences as a teaser, and then we start a conversation about it, as opposed to just dumping all this into my lap. Now the PR person is probably thinking, hey, one email, I can send it all and have it done. And then if they're interested, they've got everything I need. It's very transactional, very convenient, but really, this is a lot to read.

00:19:06:28 - 00:19:32:05

Jason

But immediately I'm normally hitting delete in my inbox because, raising awareness for mental health and marathons, in music do not fit my realm of what I write about. So this was just basically, honestly, spam. And, you know, I could have marked them as spam and then, impacted their domain authority score, their spam score, and make it so that I don't ever get messages from them again.

00:19:32:09 - 00:19:55:19

Jason

And you better believe that journalists are actively doing this, because one, by nature, most journalists become very cynical. You know, that's not all of them, but a lot of them are in number two. They're fed up and frustrated with these types of, untargeted, spammy email blasts where they just happen to be in a media database like I am, and they get a whole bunch of unsolicited, pitches.

00:19:55:19 - 00:20:14:09

Jason

So, now again, so what precedes here is basically a dump of the news release. And, you know, the news really seems fine to me. You'll see a lot of gaps here because we want to take out their information and and things like that. And so there's honestly probably off the cuff, this is a well written release.

00:20:14:09 - 00:20:43:06

Jason

This is a UK musician, so maybe it's a UK, PR person or PR agency. There's stylistically some things, and the reason I mentioned is stylistically there's some things that are not consistent with, AP style, which is what most news outlets follow. And therefore my recommendation, most news releases should follow two. And so I'm going to give them a pass that maybe some of these things are not standard because it's UK English instead of, U.S English.

00:20:43:09 - 00:21:06:18

Jason

But ultimately it looks like it's a decent news release, kind of thing. You know, it's interesting to me, the news release here says please follow along the journey on Instagram and donate to the cause. I think that that's reasonable to put into a news release because you're hoping maybe the media outlet copies and paste it and publishes it.

00:21:06:25 - 00:21:24:21

Jason

But the truth is, it would just be better off, I think, to write a pitch in this particular case. And if they're interested, then you could send the news release later, or you could even offer just to write an article which is aka looks a lot like a news release. But you know, if a journalist looked at this the wrong way, they might say, well, you're asking me to donate?

00:21:24:23 - 00:21:43:01

Jason

Because, again, the call to action here is not super clear. There's not a question being asked. It's just I'm happy to do an interview. Now, most journalists get that this is a news release, and, you know, they're not thinking, okay, these guys really want me to donate. Everything else here looks pretty good. I'll just be honest with you.

00:21:43:01 - 00:22:03:10

Jason

But again, it's long or the the big issue here, it's completely off target. And then there's micro issues like it could be shorter. Could have been a conversation, could have been an ask, you know, for permission to send the release. But anyway, point is I think this is I hope this is helpful. By the way, I like the subject line, 90 marathons in 90 days.

00:22:03:13 - 00:22:20:25

Jason

Wow. Right. So that gets your attention. That applies to one of the ten elements. And news will put the elements of news and news factors linked to our, blog post where we cover that in the episode notes. But you know, this this appeals to one, you know, one or more of those elements of news. So 90 marathon fans in 90 days.

00:22:20:27 - 00:22:43:06

Jason

That's odd. So appeals to oddity. It's unique. It's interesting. It's not something I've ever heard before. So it does get your attention, especially if I'm a runner or, I cover marathons or I write about running. And then again, mental health is also important, but that's kind of missing from the subject line. I'm okay with that. I actually don't mind that because, again, this is a really good subject line.

00:22:43:09 - 00:23:03:23

Jason

But if you're sending it to a mental health reporter, might be good to put something about mental health in the subject line versus if I'm a mental health writer and I see 90 marathons, 90 days, I'm moving on quickly because I don't have time to read this whole thing. And I probably, by the way, here inside tip, I probably have 3 to 5 to maybe even 100 other stories I'm working on or pitches that I'm getting in my inbox.

00:23:03:25 - 00:23:23:14

Jason

So this one really has to stand out. I really think whatever this abbreviation is should have been spelled out. That's a stylistic preference that, you know, we won't spend a lot of time on, even though I mentioned it earlier. And then the other thing is the musician part, if this person is a musician, that probably would and it's going to a music magazine, it probably should gone up in the subject line as well.

00:23:23:14 - 00:23:43:18

Jason

One thing this just triggers in my mind is the the use of the word press release. So the term press releases is dated, the more modern term is as news release. And that's because there's a lot of media that don't depend on press to print their news outlets. And that might sound like a real subtle nitpicking nuance or something like that.

00:23:43:25 - 00:24:13:10

Jason

But I'm going to it triggers a story that I want to share with you, which is when I was an intern in the mid 90s, I worked at an advertising agency that had one of those bolt on PR firms or PR departments. And, you know, that company's primary focus was, advertising, graphic design, etc.. But, you know, when clients ask for some PR, they're like, oh, we got some people over here can do PR and honestly, they did a really good job at producing events, and some other PR and community relations type activities.

00:24:13:12 - 00:24:32:06

Jason

So it was a good team, no doubt about it. But my point is, just say I was interning there and I loved the experience, but I was pitching a story. And I remember calling a local TV news affiliate, network affiliate station. I said, hey, I got this press release about X, Y, and Z. Do I have your permission to send that over to you?

00:24:32:06 - 00:24:50:28

Jason

And and I caught the news, assignment, editor. Or the assignment desk. Director. Must, you know, maybe on a day he wasn't in a good mood, I don't know, I got to know him better. He has a lot of respect for me now. Because we've done a lot of good things together. But I will never forget this.

00:24:51:01 - 00:25:10:04

Jason

He told me I could stick my press release in the trash because they are not the press. They're news and they do television news. And if I want to send a press release, I should send it to a newspaper or magazine. They want a news release. And, you know, his language is a little more, a little more colorful than that.

00:25:10:06 - 00:25:27:15

Jason

And, you know, I just took it in stride and said, okay, yeah, my bad. But honestly, ever since then, I've just called it a news release. At one point, AP style was news release. One of our copy editors has told me that. Now it just says either one is acceptable, but I error out towards news release because one, I learned a lesson.

00:25:27:17 - 00:25:47:00

Jason

You know, I got a little bit in a, I wouldn't say a fight, but I, distracted, the assignment editor with with my my phraseology or the word that I use, that that made it so that, you know, he had a rebuttal to my response so he didn't have to get another, you know, news release sent his way.

00:25:47:02 - 00:26:10:15

Jason

So my whole point in telling the story is basically that a, you know, reduce your barriers and get with the language and follow AP, AP style as much as possible. So I've tried to always talk about news releases instead of press releases. I will use the word press release occasionally because it's more commonly termed that. So it's better for search optimization to use words like press release.

00:26:10:18 - 00:26:28:13

Jason

But if you want to position yourself as a professional, you have to realize that most media outlets are digital now, and, they're just not printing on a printing press like they used to be. And, you know, a century ago, everything perhaps was press. And so that's why it made sense. But now it's news release instead of press conference.

00:26:28:13 - 00:26:51:26

Jason

It's news conference. Although they slang still call them pressers. You know, instead of a, and, you know, another term is like media release or media advisory and things like that, but, you know, just kind of stay sharp with your, keeping up with the latest, lingo and jargon and be thinking about habits we have, you know, like, you know, taping the news is now recording the news, for example, right.

00:26:51:29 - 00:27:07:25

Jason

So that seems nitpicky, but it's, you know, a barrier that I faced early in my career. All right, so we've got another one here. It says hi, Jason in the subject, which I know a lot of people are fans of doing that. I'm personally not per se, but there's nothing wrong with that. So this one is.

00:27:07:25 - 00:27:27:28

Jason

Hi, Jason, for the subject line, colon company name, which we redacted acquires London based company name. Right. And let me just tell you, when I got this, never heard of either one of these companies. So, does that subject line matter to me? Not based on what I know here. So, number one, don't know the players of the company names.

00:27:28:01 - 00:27:47:27

Jason

Number one and number two, there's no additional context on why this matters to me. So if I've never heard of these two companies and they're merging or they're getting acquired, that might not be what I read in the subject line or even in the headline. Here is something that I'm going to share that most organizations really struggle to get their head around.

00:27:47:29 - 00:28:09:21

Jason

But a survey was done of most viewed news releases that were posted on a newswire and the most viewed news releases had three things in common. I'll do another episode, if we haven't already, on this topic. And if we have, we'll. And if we have. And when we do, we'll do our best to add it to the, episode notes for this episode.

00:28:09:23 - 00:28:38:09

Jason

But one of the three things that, the press releases had in common, or the news release is my bad had in common was, that the company name was not in the headline of the content, of the news release. And when we think about leaving out a company name in the headline of a news release, most clients would be like, hey, you made a huge mistake.

00:28:38:11 - 00:28:59:28

Jason

But the truth is, it would be a calculated decision to do that. And to be honest, if these were the three most popular, most viewed news releases on a newswire, in a given quarter, maybe that's something we should pay attention to. It may not be. It may be provocative, contrarian, or a unique way of doing it.

00:29:00:01 - 00:29:19:01

Jason

But if the data points you to something, then you might want to do it. I have an expression. If we have data on this, let's follow the data. If we don't have data, let's follow our instincts or recommendations. So in this particular case, maybe leaving out the company names from the subject line or the headline and tell me more about why.

00:29:19:01 - 00:29:37:25

Jason

Why should I care? Why this matters would help the journalists express more interest. So here we go. We're jumping in. Hello Jason. Happy Wednesday I trust you're having an enjoyable summer. There's a theme here about summer, I guess, but the point is, this is short and sweet. It's okay. It would have been fine without it. The hello is decent enough.

00:29:37:29 - 00:29:57:09

Jason

Most journalists are very pragmatic. Most journalists are very busy. They don't have time to be waiting around for pleasantries, and most of them just don't want them because they know you've you're asking me to do something for you. So let's just get to it. Right? Here we go. I want to share important news. Okay, first of all, important sounds subjected to me again.

00:29:57:09 - 00:30:27:17

Jason

I've never heard of these companies. So why is this important? Okay, I want to share important news regarding this company's third acquisition in less than a year. And then here we go again. Company name, a London based, award winning media communications agency, will join blank to enhance the company's integrated medical affairs and scientific expertise, and partner to deliver exceptional support in the to clients in life sciences across both continents.

00:30:27:17 - 00:30:58:13

Jason

Click to press release here. Maybe that means click to view. Click to see click press release here. I'm not sure, but, feels like that's a typo. So the next paragraph, this is a major development coming on the heels of blank acquisition of blank, a clinical communication company based in greater, Philadelphia and Switzerland. A couple months ago, and another company name last fall, as well as the launch of blank.

00:30:58:16 - 00:31:21:09

Jason

You know, another service they created last summer. Again, never heard of any of these companies. Don't necessarily have a connection to Philadelphia, Switzerland, London, etc.. So again, why am I getting this? I write about public relations topics. This is not for me. And even you might be thinking, well, these are communications, you know, agencies, but they're not.

00:31:21:09 - 00:31:51:00

Jason

They're not really, PR firms or agencies. They're doing other type of communication activities. But again, what I write about a competitor. No. Probably not. Right. So there's more information, just kind of about the company, about some of their, high profile clients and, and you know what? I recognize their client names, for sure, but I've never heard of them, so we'd love for you to speak with fill in the blank of, you know, probably their CEO or something like that this week to learn more about this exciting announcement.

00:31:51:00 - 00:32:14:23

Jason

Again, exciting. So it went from, what is it? Important news to exciting announcement, and their shared commitment and vision to delivering cutting edge, high impact services for clients worldwide. Greatly appreciate your interest. I'm not interested and look forward to discussing next steps. One amenable. So again, I've I've edited out, the person's name and their contact information, just out of respect for them.

00:32:14:23 - 00:32:32:07

Jason

But again, this is something that I didn't ask for. This is something completely unrelated to what I cover. And I would argue what I cover, which should never really get, a news release sent to me at all. What I do get are a lot of pitches for guests to be on our podcast. I could do another episode about why the.

00:32:32:07 - 00:32:53:02

Jason

You know, some of those are bad and some of those are good. Point here really is this feels just like, a, an assembly line of mass production of getting a press release sent out to a whole bunch of people really quick. No consideration of, you know, how I might cover this custom for my outlet and the type of news stories that I cover.

00:32:53:05 - 00:33:12:28

Jason

No mention of why I think, why they think this is related or valuable to me and my audience. Very just kind of one sided feeling in this whole, you know, experience that I, that I got here by receiving this. All right. I've got one more here. This one is completely different and unique from the ones I receive.

00:33:12:28 - 00:33:35:13

Jason

So, you know. Hi, Jason. I'm. I'm not sure if we redacted more after here, but I don't think we did. And interestingly, they kind of followed some advice you'll see only in a few places. Do they even mention their company name, which I thought was good. That's that's progress. Right? You're focused on the substance and the content, not on the shameless self-promotion of the organization.

00:33:35:13 - 00:33:54:28

Jason

So here we go. They lead with three bullet points. And as you heard earlier, I like bullet points. It helps me read this a lot quicker. But then there's a lot of paragraphs here, including a large table, that comes here. So anyway, I want to move on here. So there, give me three bullet points, which I think are really good because it kind of summarizes the whole thing.

00:33:55:05 - 00:34:17:16

Jason

Right. New study reveals the city where it's hardest to date is Mesa, Arizona, where people have the lowest interest in dating apps. California stands out with four cities being on the list. Of course, because California has a lot of big cities and then New York is the most expensive city to date. With an average date costing $130, on average.

00:34:17:16 - 00:34:36:26

Jason

Now, first, average restaurant date. Now, first of all, they've got the word average in here twice, which just a copyediting mistake, which, by the way, that's why we believe in having copy editors on our team. Copy editors on our team, who are grammarians. They're experts at what they do. The the red pen police or the people who correct your grammar in public that you don't like.

00:34:37:03 - 00:34:55:02

Jason

There are people who might not be fun at parties, but they're really good at what they do and making sure our content doesn't have things like this. And it will little, grammar or typo issues or sentence structure issues. They know AP style. They know inverted pyramid. They know how to write for media outlets, and they customize the content that we're sending.

00:34:55:04 - 00:35:33:06

Jason

So it matches that style of the news outlet. But anyway, you know, obviously New York and probably San Francisco would be number two on their list. So there's nothing really, profound here that I couldn't have figured out. Minus Mesa, Arizona. That was interesting. So what they've done is they've, they've they've done some research and now they're productized it and pitching it for media coverage, which, again, if I didn't cover public relations and, content marketing and thought leadership and, crisis management, reputation management type topics, this might be interesting to me, but instead of being a B2B story, this is very much a B to C story, which just doesn't fit

00:35:33:07 - 00:35:51:25

Jason

my my writing, my my topics, my expertise or the audience that I serve. But here we go. A recent study conducted by the organization. Now, it's telling me, you know, kind of putting these bullet points into the background, which I think, again, was well done. I like how they bolded some of their, phrases and things like that.

00:35:51:25 - 00:36:21:14

Jason

Now, keep in mind, a news outlet is very unlikely to bold this same content. So one challenge with bolding it is, yes, getting my attention as the recipient that you're pitching. But two, I can as easily copy and paste this and run it as is. Which to me is the ultimate compliment that you did. A great news release is when they copy and paste it and run it verbatim, and anytime they run our news release very similar or anytime, I notice that they basically have taken our news release and ran it, published it.

00:36:21:16 - 00:36:41:00

Jason

I then like to have my at least my copy editor, ideally the account manager, maybe the person that pitched it or Senate and even me from if I have the time just for my own knowledge. What did they edit and do I agree with their edits? And do I think their edits were better? Honestly, a majority of the time I'm like, oh, I see why they did that.

00:36:41:02 - 00:36:58:26

Jason

And they were able to do that because they're not as close to it as we are. Maybe because, you know, our client made us do it a certain way, and then the editor edited it, or a copy editor changed it. But I learn from and try to find each way. They made those, they changed the, the news release so we can consider that change in the future.

00:36:58:28 - 00:37:21:20

Jason

And with our passion and core value of getting 1% better every day. Moving on. I, in addition to having bold sections, are bold, terms in this paragraph. I really love the table. It's clean, it's clear. It makes sense. You can follow along. There's there's labeled columns, and then the rows. You're easy to read. There's a different color, for each row, which is great.

00:37:21:22 - 00:37:44:00

Jason

Surprisingly, you won't see news outlets run bullet point list as often as I would like. You won't see them bold sections. You'll see a blog do that. You'll see some online publications do that. But, you know, this could make for a good graphic that would go in the article. Although I guarantee you if somebody picks this up nine times out of ten, they're not going to publish, this table the way that, it's presented here.

00:37:44:02 - 00:38:03:18

Jason

But they do a good job. Then they've got some other points. Right. They kind of summarize the same things you saw above. We're starting to get into two pages, which I think is really long, and longer than I would recommend. I really think we need to keep it to one page, your news release. But again, I'd rather see and have received a pitch first.

00:38:03:18 - 00:38:22:19

Jason

So I can tell them, hey, I'm the right guy. No, I'm not the right guy. We could start having a conversation about it before he just drops. He or she just drops a news release in my inbox. And here's yet another email that I've got to look at. All right. The one thing I want to point out about this release is that, I had my assistant highlight the word, spokesperson.

00:38:22:21 - 00:38:51:25

Jason

So a spokesperson from Blank Company commented on the study. Okay. And there's a quote right here. All right. So I had to point this out. First of all, a spokesperson from company comment on the study with this quote. No one, no credible news outlet number one is likely to take a quote from a news release. And most PR people don't know how to write a great quote in a news release anyway, but that's a whole nother solo cast for another day.

00:38:51:27 - 00:39:22:06

Jason

What I wanted to dive into here is this generic a spokesperson, right? If you can't tell me who said it, then I'm probably not going to quote you on it. Number one. But number two, why can't you say who the spokesperson is? What? What? I can't even in my mind think of a reason why not to do that in less the news release writer, the media relations professional could not get someone in the organization to stand behind the quote or get the quote approved in a timely manner.

00:39:22:11 - 00:39:55:13

Jason

And with that I would empathize, but at least in this case, put their name in it. The person sending the release. Right. But you know, Jason Mudd, a spokesperson from name of the company, commented on the study, but to just put spokesperson is either lazy or just a disconnect from understanding what the media wants and requires. The other thing I've seen, is in a, in a news release, and I don't have an example to show you today, but when it says, you know, Acme Corporation said the following, and it's like a company can't speak, right?

00:39:55:13 - 00:40:18:13

Jason

A company does not have the ability to to say something. A person would have to say something. And if you want to be a smart aleck, you can say, well, I could say something. Well, okay, so, Acme Inc's AI engine, you know, said the following, but that sounds too silly. But I've seen two things happen where a quote is in a release that's attributed to the company, which is very similar to this.

00:40:18:13 - 00:40:44:28

Jason

Right. Which really means nobody said it, but somebody had to have said it. So let's give a real name. The other thing I find, and this is funny, is I see where, you know, when one of these companies that have two co-CEOs or co-presidents or or two owners, co-owners, they'll try to put a quote in the release. And because of the politics of them being equal in rank, you know, they end up attributing the same quote, one quote to two people.

00:40:45:01 - 00:41:04:18

Jason

And I'm like, okay, what happened? Did they say the same thing? They finished each other's sentences. They said the same quote in unison, spontaneously together, that there was this magic moment where you had to cite both of them as being the source to the quote. That's dumb. Like that's just dumb, because no credible news outlet is going to run a quote from a news release.

00:41:04:18 - 00:41:30:11

Jason

Number one. And number two, if they do, and they will occasionally, but it's rare if they do it, they're not going to attribute it to a, corporate entity or to a building. And they're certainly not going to attribute it to two people saying it. And, you know, at the same time. And, you know, honestly, depending on the type of story, if it's a feature, they might they might include, two quotes from two people within the same organization.

00:41:30:13 - 00:41:54:25

Jason

Even. That is extremely rare. So I hope you found this helpful. I wanted to share with you just kind of some of the ways and some of the things that I see out there that I'm getting, as a public relations professional who's a content creator, who's writing for news outlets because journalists tell us they receive, between 10 and 100 pitches every day, depending on the visibility and the reach of the news outlet.

00:41:54:28 - 00:42:17:21

Jason

They also tell us it's at a minimum and a minimum, three times as much opportunities or pitches than what they really cover. But they also tell us that about half of the news stories they write come from media pitches. So media pitching works, media pitching works when it's done right. Media pitching works when you have a relationship or attempt to build a relationship, you don't need a relationship to get media coverage.

00:42:17:26 - 00:42:55:25

Jason

You need a good story. You need a newsworthy story. But as we dissect and go through these different types of pitches that I shared with you today in these news releases, I hope that you saw one, two, or three nuggets from each example that you could apply in your organization today to help you stay on top of PR, to help you secure more wins when you pitch to improve your pitch batting average, and to enjoy more success from the power PR, of which one of the most recognizable power of PR values of PR is earned media coverage from good media relations.

00:42:55:28 - 00:43:16:18

Jason

But media relations is not the only type of public relations that there is, and I want to make sure that's clear to look. This has been fun for me to go through this. If you enjoyed it as well, let me know. I'll do more of them. If you've got a sample news release that's yours, or pitch that yours, or one you've received from somebody else, I'd be happy to look at it, and share my feedback.

00:43:16:18 - 00:43:36:01

Jason

And, if you're interested in a 1 to 1 kind of session, we do offer those types of consultations on our website. I believe it's either under resources and training or resources and consultations or something like that. We'll put a link to that in the episode notes as well. I'm glad to have done this. I'm glad to be here, and I'm glad that you're here too.

00:43:36:01 - 00:43:58:27

Jason

If you found value in this conversation today, please take a moment to like, this, share it and send it to a colleague you think would benefit from it. My hope is that somehow today, I've enhanced the profession by giving back to the profession to make it so that we're better, sharper, and more, as public relations and media relations practitioners, but also.

00:43:58:28 - 00:44:20:15

Jason

So hopefully we're making journalism better. We're making the life of a journalist easier, and we're working with them in a more collegial way to help tell your story, but also to help them do a good job of being a good reporter, a good journalist. And because the more efficient we are with their time, the more they can accomplish, the happier they are and the happier you are. Anyway, this has been Jason Mudd, thank you for tuning in. I hope some great having you today. Be well.

00:44:20:15 - 00:45:16:06

Announcer

This has been On Top of PR with Jason Mudd presented by ReviewMaxer. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode and check out our past episodes at ontopofpr.com.

About your host Jason Mudd

On Top of PR host, Jason Mudd, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

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