Effective Media Relations: 10 Pitching Best Practices
I first worked in media relations in 2013, back when my job involved lining up spokespeople for photo ops and approving press releases that cited corporate partners. A lot has changed since then. The channels have fractured, the definition of “media” has expanded, and most teams have had to get much more intentional about where they place their bets.
What hasn’t changed is a well-timed, well-told story still does real work. It shapes perception, builds credibility, and opens doors that no amount of paid spend or perfectly optimized copy can quite replicate.
Importantly, media relations isn’t about getting reporters to write a story your way. Rather, it’s about providing what they need to write for their audience.
What follows isn’t a manifesto or a list of hacks. It’s simply how I think about building a multi-channel communications strategy today, informed by the realities most of us are operating in: limited time, limited attention, competing priorities, and stakeholders who often want different things at once.
If you work in PR or media relations, whether in-house or agency-side, much of this will probably feel familiar. This is intentional.
Where PR Actually Does Its Work
Public relations, PR, is about managing how a brand is understood and talked about over time. Not just what’s said in a headline or a single placement, but the accumulation of messages, signals, and stories people encounter across channels (like a company website, newsletters, social media, events, and more).
The work usually looks repetitive from the inside. The same key messages show up on the website, in newsletters, on social, at events, and occasionally in the press. The repetition isn’t laziness; it’s how memory and trust are built. Consistency is rarely exciting, but it’s doing more than it gets credit for. PR is about more than one-off hits, it’s about long-term, sustainable success.
Media relations sits inside that broader PR system. It’s one channel, an important one, but still just one. Thought leadership, corporate communications, awards, partnerships, events, they all serve the same larger goal of shaping narrative and demand. If PR is the story you’re trying to tell, media relations is simply one of the ways you "turn up the volume."
The mistake I see most often is treating media relations like the strategy itself, rather than a tactic in a broader content strategy.
What the Media Actually Needs From You
Media relations, in practice, is about helping journalists do their jobs. Not controlling the narrative, not getting your talking points copied verbatim, but offering something that genuinely serves their audience.
That sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget when internal momentum is high / everyone wants to “get the word out.” And yes, a surprising amount of your career will be calmly explaining this over and over again. I get it. Partnerships, awards, and product launches feel meaningful internally. They boost morale and signal progress. Externally, on their own, they rarely rise to the level of a story.
How risky are you willing to be?
There’s no right or wrong answer, but your job is to find a balance between what might spark attention and what’s appropriate, and decide when to share it. In other words, you must advise your clients or company on what’s newsworthy. As a reminder, news is information about recent events or developments that’s timely, relevant, significant, and of interest to the public.
When coverage does happen, it’s usually because the announcement connects to something larger, a market shift, a regulatory change, a behaviour pattern, a tension people already care about. Data helps. A human angle helps. A media kit that makes a journalist’s life easier helps more than most people realize.
Even then, strong pitches don’t guarantee coverage. That’s the part we don’t always say out loud.
The hook isn’t cleverness; it’s value. If you can’t articulate why someone who doesn’t work at your company should care, you probably have a topic, not a story. And editors are very good at spotting the difference.
This is also where relationships get over-romanticized. A large media Rolodex doesn’t compensate for a weak angle. It never really has. Being known helps, but I think resonance matters more. Think about it: an outlet’s mandate is to deliver information that matters to its audience. A good editor won’t run a story that’s of no interest to anyone other than those at your company. This applies whether you have a relationship with the reporter or not.
When the angle isn’t there, I don’t force it. I look to owned and shared channels instead. These channels are often where your audience actually forms opinions anyway, for better or worse. (Your audience can be both your best advocates and biggest detractors depending on how you communicate with them, and owned and shared channels are great for distributing announcements.)
Why I Still Use Press Releases (Even When I Don’t Pitch Them)
There was a time when every announcement seemingly warranted a press release, mostly because that was the default distribution mechanism. Today, people question their relevance, especially if they don’t result in coverage.
I still find them useful, just not for the reasons most people expect.
A press release is a durable piece of messaging you control. It supports SEO and discoverability, yes, but more importantly, it creates a public record of what you’re doing and how you talk about it. Over time, this record becomes a reference point for journalists, partners, analysts, and even your own sales team.
I don’t put everything on the wire, and I’m selective about what I pitch. But I almost always think about announcements as potential building blocks for a broader content system, customer stories, blog posts, sales enablement, internal alignment.
Even when no one picks it up, it’s rarely wasted work.
What I’m saying is I think press releases are still important for reasons unrelated to the media. I think it’s a format that still works in a channel strategy, regardless of whether it gets picked up.
Having said that, I’ll continue to focus on earned media because I think it’s still the most misunderstood.
Let’s dive in.
10 Media Relations Pitching Best Practices
Most pitching advice sounds fine in theory and falls apart under real conditions. Deadlines move. News cycles collide. Spokespeople cancel. Editors change beats without warning.
A few patterns I’ve learned to trust anyway:
Know your industry – Knowing your industry isn’t optional. Having your finger on the pulse of reactive news, whether it’s a regulatory change, new technology, or new consumer behaviour trend, can help establish you as a thought leader and drive brand awareness campaigns. Knowing your industry also helps you pinpoint which outlets, reporters, and influencers to target. Tip: Set up Google Alerts for industry-related keywords and the types of stories you want to be the first to know about.
Understand the media – Each outlet has its own focus, audience, and style. Some are all about national breaking news, while others focus on analysis or feature long-form storytelling. The ability to spot potential stories goes hand in hand with reading the news. It shows immediately when someone hasn’t done their homework. How can you craft effective pitches if you don’t know what journalists are covering, what the hot topics are, or where the conversations are heading?! Tip: A press release for a niche or trade publication can include more industry jargon and acronyms than one for the mass market.
Tailor each pitch – Researching outlets is a start, but selecting the right reporters and journalists is even more important. Again, do your homework. Look for opportunities to engage with writers on relevant topics by following their LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Substack. Build relationships, not just transactions. Tip: If you want to succeed with flattery, send kudos before you need something, in an email with no asks. Failing that, include something specific you liked about their article, not just the headline or that it was great. Be useful even when you’re not pitching by sharing sources and flagging trends. Basically, be someone they recognize as thoughtful, not transactional.
Nail the timing – Timing is unforgiving. “News-world timely” is a real thing, and it rarely aligns with internal calendars. If a national story is dominating the media, hold off otherwise your message, email, or press release may be buried. You can piggyback off national days, regulatory or legislative changes, or industry events to give your company’s profile a boost, but use discretion when it comes to a crisis — you don’t want to be perceived as an opportunist. Tip: The need for good timing doesn’t stop at the pitch. Confirm the segment in an incredibly timely manner. Not real world timely manner, news world timely manner.
Choose the right spokespeople – Identifying spokespeople means picking people who can effectively represent your brand and communicate its messages. Look for people with deep knowledge about key aspects of the business, including industry trends, products, and services. To be seen as an authority, they should be articulate, engaging, and comfortable with public speaking. Tip: Traditional media training that focuses on tight soundbites and message bridging techniques that work for print is dead. The new media era favours people who can weave multiple, complex narratives together to paint a larger vision for the future. In a video-first medium environments, your spokespeople need long-form conversation stamina (fewer rehearsed soundbites) and deep domain expertise with examples and data points (aka authentic storytelling capabilities).
Train spokespeople – Annual internal training or support from a third party is ideal. It’s helpful to hone skills ahead of time instead of doing it on the fly. However, I work at a startup and I know how these things go. At the very least, prepare approved key messages. Tip: Instead of asking to see a journalist’s interview questions in advance, try this: “Can you help give me an idea of what topics you want to address?” This works best when it’s something the reporter has reached out to you about — if you ask about this in response to something you’ve pitched, they’re going to say that they’re going to ask questions in the realm of what you’ve pitched.
Craft a compelling pitch – I’ve included an example in another post, Breaking Down a Cold Media Pitch, but my go-to format includes a: 1) Clear subject line, 2) Short, personalized message, 3) One-sentence pitch — Cover the “five Ws”, 4) Clear offer, and 5) Contact number. If you’re including a press release, you can put the content in the body of the email rather than an attachment, so the person doesn’t have to go clicking links to here, there, and everywhere. Pitching a story about “yesterday’s news” won’t cut it, but there could be an opportunity for your expert to add to the conversation or share a different perspective. Wire services often update their stories as more information becomes available, so there could still be time to weigh in with expert commentary. Tip: Reporters will search their inbox when they’re looking for an expert opinion on a subject they’re writing about. If you do a good job of inserting the right keywords in your pitch you might still win a placement down the line.
Include media – Make your media kit a one-stop-shop for every asset needed to press “publish” — including high-resolution images (portrait and landscape). You can make your news stand out with rich content like graphics and videos. Include the copyright details for any media so the reporter doesn’t have to chase. I also like to put the credit in the picture file name so they send it off to the picture desk with even more ease. Tip: It's generally better to send a reporter a link to your media kit on your website rather than a PDF. A link is more convenient for reporters to access, especially if they’re on a mobile device.
Be available and responsive – If a reporter shows interest, respond promptly and be available to provide additional information, interviews, or resources. Understand and respect their deadlines. Tip: If your spokesperson has limited availability, they’re not a good choice.
Follow up thoughtfully – If you don’t hear back, one polite, brief follow-up can be effective. Offer additional information or a new angle without being pushy. If an editor or reporter says “no” accept it gracefully.
Telling Stories That Matter
Good communication doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of understanding your industry, respecting your audience, and making deliberate choices about what’s worth amplifying, and what isn’t.
If you’ve spent any time in PR or media relations, you know the job isn’t really about sending pitches. It’s about judgment. Knowing when to lean in and when to wait. Deciding which outlet actually makes sense for a story, and which one just looks good on a coverage report. Thinking about how to support a narrative over time instead of chasing a single hit and moving on.
The media landscape is always going to change. Platforms come and go, formats shift, attention fragments. What’s stayed consistent, at least in my experience, is the value of telling stories that matter and placing them in a way that respects how people actually read, watch, and listen. That’s the part I’ve learned to focus on, because it’s the part that still holds up when everything else moves around it.