Journalist Pitching — Proactive PR Workflow

Building a media list, scoring journalist fit, and crafting pitches that actually get opened. This is a 4–8 week practice, not a one-shot.

Contents

• Building the media list
• Scoring journalist fit
• Pitch templates by angle
• Subject lines that get opened
• Voice and structure
• Embargoes, exclusives, and follow-up etiquette
• Pitch killers
• Tooling

Building the Media List

The goal: a list of 20–40 journalists who actually cover your beat. Not 500 names from a database.

Discovery checklist

For each candidate journalist:

• [ ] Read their last 5 articles — are they covering your beat right now?
• [ ] Note their publication — does it reach your ICP?
• [ ] Check their bio on the outlet site — what topics do they own?
• [ ] Check X/LinkedIn for what they're posting about this week
• [ ] Note their email (usually on outlet author page, Muck Rack, or company About page)
• [ ] Check Muck Rack if available — it shows recent topics and pitch preferences

Where to find candidates

Don't waste time on

• Mass media databases (Cision, Meltwater) for early-stage — overkill and expensive
• Journalists who haven't posted in 6+ months — they may have left
• "Editor-in-chief" generic addresses — pitches there get ignored or routed to interns
• Journalists who explicitly state "no PR pitches" in bio — respect it

Scoring Journalist Fit

Score each journalist 1–10 across four dimensions. Sum and rank. Focus on top 20.

Tiering:

• Tier 1 (8–10): Personal pitch with original angle. Custom each time.
• Tier 2 (5–7): Standard pitch, lightly customized.
• Tier 3 (below 5): Skip or pitch only when story is exceptional.

Pitch Templates by Angle

Six structures that work. Pick the one that matches your story.

1. Data story

B0

2. Exclusive launch / milestone

B1

3. Op-ed / contributed piece

B2

4. Customer story

B3

5. Trend piece / connector

B4

6. Newsjack response

B5

Subject Lines That Get Opened

Journalists open pitches based on the subject line alone. Rules:

• Under 50 characters — mobile preview cuts off
• Lead with the specific — "73% of devs deploy to prod on Fridays" beats "New data on developer workflows"
• Promise a story, not a product — "Why [trend]" beats "[Company] launches [thing]"
• Use prefixes that signal value — "Exclusive:", "Data:", "Op-ed pitch:", "Re: [their article]"

Test against this question: would you open this in a 200-email inbox?

Patterns that work:

• "[Specific stat] — [implication]" — "73% of agents fail this test"
• "Exclusive: [milestone]" — "Exclusive: Anthropic launches AgentOS"
• "Re: [their headline]" — direct response to recent coverage
• "[Provocative thesis]" — "Why VC funding is bad for AI safety"

Patterns that get deleted:

• "Press release: [boring]"
• "[Company] announces [thing]"
• "Story idea for you!"
• "Following up on my previous email"
• Any subject line with "innovative," "disruptive," "revolutionary"

Voice and Structure

Length

150 words max for the pitch. If you can't say it in 150 words, you don't know what your story is yet.

Structure

1. One-line context — why you're emailing them specifically (their recent article, their beat)
2. The story — what it is, in one sentence
3. Why it matters to their readers — not why it matters to you
4. Proof — data, customer, quote, link
5. The ask — interview, embargo, quote, link

Voice

• Sound like a person, not a press release
• Reference their actual recent work — proves you read them
• Don't use emoji unless they do
• Don't open with "I hope this finds you well" — burn it
• Don't ask "did you get my email?" follow-ups (see Follow-up)

Banned vocabulary

Revolutionary, disruptive, game-changing, paradigm shift, leverage, synergy, robust, seamless, holistic, world-class, best-in-class, next-generation, cutting-edge, AI-powered (unless that's the actual differentiation), at-the-end-of-the-day.

Embargoes, Exclusives, and Follow-Up Etiquette

Embargoes

An embargo is "you can write this story, but don't publish until [time]."

• Only offer embargoes to journalists you've worked with or have strong reputations for honoring them
• State the embargo time clearly: day, time, timezone
• If they break embargo, your relationship with them is over

Exclusives

"Only you get this story" — powerful tool, use sparingly.

• First-tier outlet only — exclusives to tier 2/3 outlets waste the lever
• Be honest about scope — "exclusive to [outlet] in the US" is fine
• Have a parallel plan — what you publish/pitch the next day after the exclusive runs

Follow-up cadence

• Day 0 — initial pitch
• Day 3 — one follow-up if you have new information ("Just talked to [customer] who can join us")
• Day 7 — final check-in with a fresh hook ("This came out today, still relevant?")
• After day 7 — let it go. Re-pitch when you have something genuinely new.

Never:

• "Bumping this up" / "Did you see my email?"
• Multi-day silent follow-ups with no new value
• Same pitch reformatted

Pitch Killers

Things that instantly disqualify your pitch:

• Wrong name / wrong outlet (autoreplace fail)
• Pitching topics they explicitly don't cover
• Press release attached as PDF (just paste the key bits)
• Long signature with logos and disclaimers
• CC'ing 5 other journalists on the same email
• "Per my last email" energy
• Asking them to sign an NDA before talking
• Pitching a story you can't actually tell (no customer willing to talk, no data ready to share)

Tooling

Finding journalist contact info

B6

Researching their recent work (browser-driven)

Use dev-browser (persistent session, no rate limits) to:

• Open the journalist's outlet author page → scrape last 5 article headlines + dates
• Open their X/Twitter profile → note recent topics
• Open their LinkedIn → confirm current role

Output what you find as:

B7

Maintaining the media list

Store in .agents/media-list.md (or .csv if you prefer). Update monthly — journalists move jobs constantly.

B8

Pitch tracking

Track in a simple spreadsheet:

• Date sent
• Subject line
• Journalist
• Outlet
• Response (open / reply / pass / coverage)
• What they said

After 30 pitches, you'll see which subject patterns and which angles work for you specifically.