Day 16: PR Pitch Writing
The Concept
Most company PR pitches fail before the journalist reads the second sentence. Not because the product is uninteresting, but because the pitch is written from the company's perspective rather than the journalist's. It opens with a company description, moves to product features, and ends with a request for coverage — in that order. This is the structure of a sales email sent to the wrong person.
Journalists are not in the business of covering products. They are in the business of covering stories their readers will find interesting, useful, or important. The fastest way to get a pitch deleted is to make the journalist do the work of extracting the story from your product description. The fastest way to get a reply is to hand them the story fully formed, in the first sentence, in language that matches how they already write about their beat.
AI is genuinely useful here for two things: identifying which angle in your existing news a specific journalist will find interesting, and structuring a pitch in the way journalists prefer to receive information rather than the way marketing instinct tends to produce it.
Lead with news, not product
The structural discipline of a good pitch is simple to state and hard to internalise: the first sentence must be news, not context. Not "We are a project management platform for architecture firms" — that is context. Not "We are excited to share" — that is noise. The first sentence should be a fact, a finding, or an event that a reader of this outlet would find interesting on its own terms, without knowing or caring about your product.
The journalist's test is blunt: could this opening sentence appear in the publication without any mention of your company? If yes, you have a news lead. If no, you are still writing a product pitch.
Target like a journalist, not a marketer
Marketers instinctively think in audience segments — demographics, job titles, company sizes. Journalists think in beats — the specific territory of topics, debates, and communities they cover. A pitch appropriate for the technology editor of a general business publication is wrong for the same publication's retail correspondent, even though they share a readership.
Effective pitching requires genuine research into what a specific journalist has covered recently, what their section tends to prioritise, and what kind of sources they typically quote. AI can help you reason through how a particular outlet's readership thinks about a topic, but you must provide the specifics: the journalist's name, the section, the outlet's typical angle. Vague targeting produces vague pitches.
The exclusive as currency
One practical lever that most in-house marketers misuse is the exclusive. An exclusive offered to every journalist simultaneously is not an exclusive — it is a misrepresentation that gets remembered. An exclusive offered genuinely to one journalist, with a realistic embargo and something of real value — early data, on-the-record sources, access to something the competition cannot offer — is the highest-value currency in a media relationship.
Fill in the exclusives field honestly. If you have nothing beyond the pitch itself, say so. A clean, well-targeted pitch with no exclusive is significantly more effective than a vague promise of one.
Why 180 words is a constraint, not a limitation
Journalists read pitches in under ten seconds before deciding whether to engage. A pitch that requires reading to the end before the news is clear has already lost. The 180-word limit forces the discipline of leading with what matters and cutting everything that does not. The note explaining why the pitch works is there to help you build the skill over time — understanding the logic is how you stop needing AI to write every pitch from scratch.
Prompt of the day
Copy this into your AI tool and replace any bracketed placeholders.
Prompt
You are a former technology and business journalist who now advises companies on media relations. You understand how journalists think, what makes them open a pitch email, and what makes them delete it in under three seconds. I need you to write a journalist pitch that leads with news, not product, and is precisely targeted to the outlet and journalist I specify. My company and what we do: [e.g. we make project management software for architecture firms] The news angle I have right now: [e.g. we have just published research showing that 67% of UK architecture firms missed at least one project deadline last year due to poor handoffs between design and construction teams] The outlet I am targeting: [e.g. Dezeen — the leading architecture and design publication with a professional readership of architects and studio owners] The journalist or section I am targeting: [e.g. the business and technology section — they regularly cover how studios are adopting new tools and the business pressures facing the profession] Any exclusive or added value I can offer: [e.g. exclusive access to the full research report before publication, plus two architects willing to speak on the record] Write the following: 1. The subject line — maximum 8 words, written to be opened by a time-poor journalist receiving 200 pitches a week. No puns, no exclamation marks. 2. The pitch email — 180 words maximum. Open with the news in the first sentence, not with who we are. Paragraph two: why this matters to this outlet's readership right now. Paragraph three: what we are offering and what the journalist gets. One low-friction call to action to close. 3. A follow-up message — for use five working days later if there is no response. 50 words maximum. A value-add, not a chase. 4. A brief note — two to three sentences explaining why this angle and structure works for this specific outlet, so I can adapt the approach for future pitches.
Your 15-minute task
Identify one genuine piece of news your company has right now — research with a real number, a partnership, a product milestone, or a client outcome with a compelling result. Choose one specific journalist at one specific outlet whose readers would find this interesting regardless of your product. Fill in the placeholders with those specifics and run the prompt. Send the pitch today — not next week. A pitch sent is infinitely more useful than a pitch refined.
Expected win
A complete, ready-to-send journalist pitch — subject line, 180-word email, and follow-up message — targeted to a specific outlet with a news-led angle, plus the strategic reasoning so you can repeat the approach independently.
Power user tip
After you have your pitch, send this follow-up: 'Read this pitch as a sceptical journalist who receives 200 emails a day. Tell me the three most likely reasons they would delete it without responding — and rewrite the opening sentence and subject line to address each of those objections.' This single follow-up typically produces a sharper subject line and a tighter opening than anything you would write in isolation.