How to pitch journalists: what reporters told us about PR outreach that actually works

Most press releases never get read. The reason is the pitch, and even the headline around it often ignores how journalists actually work.

To find out what separates a published story from a deleted email, we surveyed over 50 journalists and editors and 50 PR specialists. The results should be uncomfortable for anyone doing PR outreach by “spraying and praying”, and useful for anyone willing to improve the outreach.

Most of the pitches are simply irrelevant

When we asked journalists how many of the press releases they received in the past month were actually relevant to them, 79% said no more than a third. A meaningful share said fewer than 10% of releases are relevant.

That means journalists are ignoring you because, statistically, your email probably wasn't meant for them in the first place. You’re doing what is often called “spray and pray”. Just sending emails to everybody, expecting a result. At Neshys, we encourage a well-targeted approach.

When journalists were asked why releases miss the mark, the most common answer was simple: "I shouldn't have been the recipient." 60% flagged this. After that came too much self-promotion, unoriginal angles, and bad timing.

And if you send enough bad pitches to a journalist, even your good pitch later might simply get ignored. Because a journalist sees your name and defaults to “spam”.

Why do journalists open the emails?

We asked journalists what actually pulls them in. Three answers dominated:

• 62% want a clear, well-framed topic presentation in the email itself.
• 60% love exclusive or distinctive data.
• 40% open because of the subject line.