How To Write Media Pitches Journalists Actually Open And Use

Welcome And Guest Introduction

My guest today is coming to rescue. As a former journalist and book publicity, after spending years on the receiving end of the SOG Journalist Attention, and she's going to share that with you today. Now, as president and co-founder of Pacific & Court, Kourtney Jason helps authors and publishers bridge the gap between publicity and editorial storytelling. And she joins me today from Brooklyn, New York. Courtney, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks so much for having me today, Peter. I'm excited to uh talk us talk about all things PR and and media relations.

Well, thank you so much. And we'll I'm certainly looking forward to it. There's no question about that. Now, my first question to you is how long were you a journalist and on the receiving end of the numerous pitches? And then what caused you to shift to becoming a book publisher?

Yeah, that's a great question. I started my career m in 2007, moving to New York from California, and I worked for a couple different magazines as an writer and editor for three to four years. Around that time, my the magazine was having layoffs, and uh even a couple years after that, it folded, unfortunately. So that was my time like on staff, you know, as a journalist, receiving pitches, pitching to my editor for you know what the content would be in the magazine every single month. After, you know, those four years, then I freelanced for a year. So that was me using those editorial connections that I had made over those four years, pitching to, you know, men's health. I was pitching to Cosmo, pitching to very well-known traditional print magazines for long lead, you know, deep, long lead, you know, long storytelling, long format um journalistic writing, magazine writing. So I did that for about a year. Um, during that time, I also wrote my first book for an independent publisher named Ulysses Press. Um, and when my book was coming out, they had an opening in their PR department and offered me the job. So the PR opportunity sort of came to me. Um, but the VP of the company at the time said, You worked in New York, you understand media. I think you're gonna be able to understand what PR looks like just being on the other side of it. And here we are, you know, 16 years later, and I have my own PR company. I still work with that independent publisher, Ulysses Press. They're one of my longtime clients since I launched my company. Um, so yeah, so I but with that I still continue to freelance write. So I'm still writing for, you know, now I write pretty on a regular basis, at least an article or two articles a month for my hometown magazine in Northern California.

Why Most Pitches Get Ignored

Well, let's start with the very, very first basic question. Why do most media pitches fail? And how to write one that actually does get a response?

The main reason is because they're not tailored. Like you really do have to go to the outlet and find the person that has written on the subject or has written something similar. Um, I'm constantly, you know, researching the actual news site that I'm looking for. You know, I'm constantly using Google Alerts just to tell me, you know, I'm working on a book right now that's about relationships. So I just have a daily Google Alert set up for dating and relationships. So I'm seeing constantly who those journalists are that are writing about that topic on almost a daily basis, so that that way I can grasp my pitch to be exactly tailored to what they're writing about within the world of dating and romance and relationships. So it's really taking that extra step. You can, you know, some people, there's certainly times where you may want to, you know, go broader with a pitch or just sort of see what interest you can get. And there's, you know, time and place for that. But when you're doing that for every single campaign, you know, that's when you're not going to get the responses that you want.

So, so sort of in a nutshell, what you're saying here is that if you want to pitch to a particular writer or reporter, you need to maybe do a little bit of homework on what it is they write about. Uh, you know, just that's that that makes a lot of sense to me and certainly understandable because you know, if I'm uh you know doing uh research on or write about uh let's say the the um the rocket launch today and you come along and say you want to talk to me about a uh I don't know an a new device you have for your computer, that's the those two things won't go together.

Correct. And people's people's beats can be very broad, you know, even in sort of media databases that are used in the PR industry, Fission, Muckrack, you know, there's a few different ones out there. You know, they have journalists that might just say health and wellness, okay, but what are they actually covering within health and wellness? If I have a health book, a fitness book, you know, I need to be very specific. And, you know, certain there's sort of beats that are listed in those media outlets are very, very broad. I have, you know, a dear friend, she is a journalist and she covers the Mets. She gets very, you know, yes, she covers sports, but she only writes about the New York Mets. The amount of pitches or the times that she'll text me saying, like, I got this pitch that's nowhere near related to the Mets. That's all she covers. So it's the fact that there's some publicists that'll come to her just not even knowing that all she writes about is one specific team. She's not writing about baseball in general. She is dedicated to one team. So it's it's you know, making sure that you're paying attention to when people have very, very specific beats or you know, writing direction.

Well, I mean that that makes perfect sense. Uh I really have no difficulty with one at all, and hopefully uh other people realize that as well, that that uh, you know, it's a major issue in making sure you get the person is that covers the beat that you want to talk about. So what do publishers get wrong about journalists?

That's a great question. I think that there's sometimes a misunderstanding in how journalists might work. I think there might be a misunderstanding in terms of, you know, deadlines or timing. What the our job is to make the journalist job as easy as possible, and they are inundated with pitches. I mean, I know some freelance journalists that get anywhere from 500 to a thousand pitch emails a day.

Oh my gosh.

That is mind-boggling. Like I know I send probably close to that in terms of emails a day, but that's just, you know, I cannot imagine being on the receiving end, you know, they're having to spend, you know, a couple hours a day just doing admin work on their inbox to clean it out, file it away. I think something that publicists should keep in mind is that even if a journalist doesn't respond that day to your pitch, it doesn't mean that your pitch wasn't accurate or tailored. The thing that I always like to tell my clients when we're just starting a campaign is that yes, you know, with book publicity, our campaigns are, you know, pretty structured. They're typically three to six months long, and then we, you know, sort of move on. That said, with nearly every campaign that I run, I'm getting responses to my pitches six months to a year after the fact from one of those key media, you know, that top tier A-list media that we are going after because why? One, I know my pitch was written well, two, I know I was targeting the right person. It all just came down to timing. It came down to when that journalist was going to be able to write about this topic. They don't need to tell me, yes, I filed this way, that's a waste of their time. I sort of need to trust that if my pitch was written well, it was targeted, they're going to save it until they need to use that book or that expert. And I just sort of have to play the waiting game. And that's, you know, sort of the cliche. I remember hearing this a lot in college as well from my professors when I was, you know, trying to get that first job. No news is good news. When it's not a direct no, it could be a yes down the line. And that's, you know, I was telling a client that this week when we were booking national TV, like we haven't heard a no yet, so it could still be a yes. And it turns out it's a yes, and she'll be flying to New York next week for a national TV show. So it's just one of those things where yeah, it's just sometimes you just have the patience and waiting, is what we have to remind ourselves. Things can't always be as urgent as we want them to be.

Subject Lines That Earn A Click

You know, what I actually am getting out of this is because you said so many journalists are pitching. Those pitches can come, I would imagine, by email, by letter, or by telephone calls. Um is there some unique way? I don't know, maybe you can have a special delivery to uh to a journalist uh so that that they'll pay attention to yours sooner than maybe working their way through 50, 60, 70 emails. Does that help if in fact you target the right journalists with the right bit of information that they cover?

I think that's where it all comes down to what is your email subject line. It needs to be the story, it needs to give them as much of the information that they can understand what the email is. How is it answering the questions? Is it telling them that they have an expert on XYZ topics? Is it telling them that they have, you know, uh, is it giving them a new story idea that they can pitch to their editor based on their B? You know, really making sure that your subject line is doing as much as it can for you. And, you know, I know that AI is a very touchy, polarizing, you know, changing everything type topic and, you know, industry impact right now. But I will say that that is a place where I feel comfortable using AI to help me brainstorm a couple different email subject lines. Um, I like to, you know, it is something I spend a lot of time brainstorming on, and I think it's a very, you know, subject lines is going, that's what's going to make a journalist open your email. So I will take the extra brainstorming when I can and sort of, you know, see if it's coming up with other words or different ways to say what I want it to say.

Now, is timing important? Uh, you know, obviously you mentioned that um uh you have a friend that covers the myths. Uh uh it depends upon what it is they're asking of her or trying to pitch to her, but how is timing uh important in terms of getting your message out?

You know, you want to see with books, you know, we have a very specific time hook, which is typically the book's publication date, but we also are looking around that, you know, how can we tie this book to other sorts of of you know news hooks? So, you know, sometimes with more gifty books, we can also pitch around holiday gift guides. Some gift guides we're working on six months in advance, some might be more shortly, so it might be, you know, six weeks in advance, a month in advance. Um, so I always just have a calendar, you know, where I'm looking ahead of what are these, you know, next big, you know, sort of holidays or anniversaries or you know, important dates that we want to keep in mind around our pitching and making sure that we're pitching well in advance.

Uh, you know, the other thing I think about uh it just sort of popped into my head is that you know inviting the journalist to lunch is uh or a cup of coffee in the morning. Uh does that work at all? Because, you know, now you've got them one-to-one and hopefully if you if they agree to that that you've got the right pitch. I'm just sort of thinking outside of the box on this. Is that I I know now if you're cross-country that's that's different. But uh, if you're in the same city, does that make a s uh a lot of sense?

I think it can. I think it's something that just has to be planned in advance. I think journalists, you know, depending on if they're on staff or freelance, that's a different, you know, sort of approach. That's you know, if you're working with a freelancer, then you are sort of, you know, interrupting what might be their work day. They have to factor in travel time. Um, so I think you'd want to like make it as convenient as possible. I know there's some journalists I subscribe to their substaff newsletter. So if they're coming into a new city, if they're, you know, traveling, they'll put it out in their newsletter that they'll be, you know, maybe they live in New York and they're going to Chicago for a couple days and they'll say, you know, I'm happy to book, you know, meetings with journalists while I'm in town so that they'll let you know their availability. And I definitely think it's important to, you know, get yourself in that environment if you can, you know, in-person contact. Thank goodness we can have that again after, you know, what happened a few years ago. Um, and it's, you know, I think we're all eager to have that, that, those in-person relationships and you know, putting people, putting real people to the their names in the inbox and not just a sort of you know disconnect of of digital digital distance, if you will.

Well, you know, I think that sort of leads into or maybe even answers my next question because it was about timing, uh, is this everything, and you know, being able to master pitching so it's at the right moment. So I think you've you've covered that. Uh maybe the one or two other pieces that might add to that issue.

Yeah, I think I also like to test pitching at different times. So sometimes, you know, if I'm pitching in advance, I might schedule some emails to, you know, go out the next morning at 9 a.m. or 8 a.m. so that I know that they're in, you know, the journalist's inbox when they sign on and you know, as they do their their first look at their email for the day. Um, I've you know been doing more targeted direct pitching, you know, in the afternoon so that it shows up, you know, and that has actually been getting me more responses than than I thought, like getting immediate responses, you know, within five to ten minutes. So it's been interesting to sort of just test what times of day work compared to other times. You just, you know, it's always changing and you you sort of never know.

Write The Pitch Like A News Story

Mm-hmm. How much detail do you think when someone's pitching? I mean, you know, obviously you I would think that you want to put the most important uh issues and uh uh uh items or concerns right at the top of what it what it is you you're pitching so that you're not wasting time and the journals will understand right away. But uh in terms of preparation and what you're going to say and when you're going to say it and how you're going to say it, those things are also important, aren't they?

Yes, and I think that is where my you know journalism background comes into play. A lot of my pitches are drafted as if it's, you know, a new story. You know, it's certainly not going to be 400 or 500 words, but those first few paragraphs are going to, you know, I'm still following the journalistic principles, the inverted triangle, um, you know, really getting what those who, what, where, when, why is up at the very beginning of the pitch, um, you know, sharing what talking points could be, sharing what story ideas could be based on this book and author. Um, so that way I'm, you know, trying to give the journalist as much as possible to use and, you know, hear our story ideas delivered to you with the expert who can answer the questions that you would have. And I think that's, you know, that's letting them know that I'm a team player and I'm trying to make their job as easy as possible.

Now, as uh information coming to journalists, I I would imagine the first thing that they're interested in as they read it is uh you know what it is you're saying to them and making sure that you know it's directly related to what it is that they cover. Uh because maybe some people missed overlook that.

Expand on that.

Well otherwise, I mean if if somebody is covering let's say um uh preparing uh uh a wedding cake. You know, you need to uh uh open up about your why you need to talk to them about a wedding cake. Well, here's what I need to wanted to talk to you about is wedding cakes and how you make them, blah, blah, blah, blah, as compared to. You know, and also I do uh um oh, I don't know, stakes on the side. So yeah, I mean you those two things shouldn't go together in the immediate pitch if in fact they're covering something like a wedding cake.

Yes, correct. You want to, you know, you want to definitely be focused in your pitch and make sure things are straightforward, streamlined. You know, you're not trying to tell tet 12 different stories at once. You know, what is this one story that this one journalist can tell within these topics?

Build Trust By Being Easy

Well, you know, and I brought that up because it sort of dawned on me because years ago when I was uh uh uh in in radio um uh here in the Washington DC area, I had a program that dealt with uh small business. And uh, you know, I had people calling me up to talk about things that had nothing to do with small business whatever. And their basic response, well, I just wanted to be on the radio. Well, those things also don't go for the happen. So that's not the way to get the uh a journalist, uh uh a writer to a journalist's attention is to make sure that the excuse gives them what they go with. So let's talk a wee bit more about building credibility between you and journalists. Uh uh obviously the thing, I mean obviously the button uh you know you've mentioned sending information about what they cover, topics that they cover. What other things are reasonable in terms of building credibility and becoming a source for media?

Yes, certainly it's meeting their deadlines, you know, understanding exactly what they're looking for, providing, you know, if it's an email interview, if it's a phone interview, just making sure that all communication is there, everyone's ready to show up. Um, you know, I it's paying attention to if they're using, you know, if they're requesting image assets from you, making sure those are labeled properly so that they can download them and find them easily on their desktop. Um, there's so many things, it's just a whole bunch of little things to let them know that you are giving them what they need without, you know, causing more stress or or you know giving them a headache. Um and so the more that they see that you're doing those and and providing those deliverables as they need them, um, that really, you know, lets them know, okay, this is someone I can rely on. This is someone who's going to deliver. Um, you know, after you do that a few times, those journalists, you know, we have journalists that come to me and they're like, hey, I'm looking for an expert on this topic. Do you have anyone in mind? And, you know, I work with so many authors. We work on, you know, anywhere from 30 to 50 campaigns a year. So it's 30 to 50 experts within their fields every year. So that that's helping, you know, we're building sort of a Rolodex of all of these experts in different fields. So then those journalists can come to me and I will probably have someone that I can, you know, get them, get them to and, you know, be an expert for their articles. I have journalists that came. I worked on a financial book last year, and you know, the author did an interview at the San Francisco Chronicle. This week, that same journalist reached back out and she's like, I know, you know, you're probably not working on this book anymore, but I'd still love to interview this author. Is she available? And it's like, great, this is a year later, but we're still working with that journalist. We're gonna get another PR hit for that author, you know, even though it's a year later, but it was still building that relationship both on the PR side, but you know, having that author show up and deliver and be a good source, you know, has now built this relationship.

Book Publicity In A New Media World

Well, it's interesting now because you you just mentioned book pub publicity. Why is it that in some cases traditional tactics are not enough when you're dealing with book publicity?

Correct. I think just that media's changing, you know, what is considered traditional media doesn't necessarily sell books the way it used to. Podcast, you know, with most book tours, we're going to try to set up a podcast tour, you know, making sure that the author is booked on, you know, a handful of shows that align with their their genre and topic. Um, there is truly a podcast for everything. So, you know, that is a great avenue. I think it's especially helpful for authors that might be a little more green when it comes to, you know, being media ready. So I think podcasts are a great way to even just practice your messaging. There's, you know, it's not live. It gives you a chance to figure out your messaging, practice answering questions about your book, about your expertise, and it's long form. So you're not rushed to try to cram all of that information into a three to four minute radio or TV segment. You have 30, 40 minutes to really get through a more detailed topic, talk about it in the in you know, longer form. Um and then Substack newsletters, that's a whole new area that's really become, you know, more mainstream in the last, you know, year or two. So we're also re-researching Substack pretty regularly. There's different rankings to see, you know, which newsletters are trending based on different topics. Um so there's just a whole variety of of new media that has very dedicated audiences, and those are the people that are going to be active consumers as well.

Well, Cody, we've covered a lot about dealing with uh publishers and reporters from a publicity angle. Are there any other issues you think that we need to cover on that particular topic?

I think it's knowing that it's like, you know, very much a symbiotic relationship. We rely on each other, you know. There's certainly no as publicists, we do have to protect journalism in a sense and make sure that it's it's still there and still reporting the news and that people still, you know, pay attention to it. Um, you know, I do think there's, you know, so many publicists per journalist. So it's keeping in mind that ratio of how we outnumber, you know, active journalists in this country. But yeah, I mean it's you know, it's a beautiful relationship when it works really well and when you can, you know, get that beautiful, you know, national incredible investigative piece or whatever, you know, when you're getting those really great PR hits, I think it's such a thrill for everyone involved.

Well, Courtney, let me say this. You certainly did bring us some information that we can use, and I'm sure my listeners are going to appreciate a lot of the information that uh you brought to them today. So I want to certainly say thank you. Uh, my guest today has been Courtney Jason. She is the president and co-founder of Pacific in Court. And obviously, she's doing exceptionally well because she's brought us some exciting information. So, if you need some information or help with uh your uh linkage to uh the publishers and others, give Courtney a call. Pacific in Court is in Brooklyn, New York. And uh, Courtney, let me say thank you for becoming a guest and joining us today on the Public Relations Review Podcast.

Thank you so much for having me, Peter. This was such a fun conversation.

Well, thank you for joining us. And to my listeners, we host we certainly hope you've appreciated this information. And look for the next edition of the Public Relations Review Podcast.

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