Media pitching is harder than ever
If you’ve worked in the public relations industry over the past decade or more you’ve had a front row view of the disruption of the media industry. The future of media relations is not what it seems.
Many public relations practitioners start their career working with the media. It is often viewed, rightly or wrongly, as an organisation’s most important stakeholder. It remains an important means of building external reputation.
However, media relations is getting harder than ever if you work for an organisation that isn’t a part of the public conversation. Organisations in the public and political sphere and public companies will always cut through, but for any other type of organisation it is tough.
There are fewer media outlets as a result of advertising revenue shifting to digital media. Businesses accounted for less than one percent of editorial coverage on the internet in 2023 according to Trust Insights.
Editorial teams run hot and lean. Journalists are under huge pressure to deliver stories. The response rate to media pitches is less than three percent according to the latest Propel Media Barometer analysis of 500,000 pitches.
The pandemic hangover of working from home also means that it is challenging to reach journalists. Modern media relations is almost entirely a form of text communication via email or messaging. Roxhill suggests that you need to pitch early if you want reach a news desk or business desk.
Media relations practitioners need to consider pitching other forms of earned media. Newsletters, podcasts and video are all growing as channels alongside app, online and print publications according to a Reuters Institute Report. But ultimately this is a zero sum game.
Ten years ago I edited Share This and Share This Too on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). These books predicted almost everything that we now know about the impact of social media on organisational or corporate communications.
(A huge miss of the two books was the way in which social media has been weaponised and used to spread misinformation and create polarisation, but that’s another story for another day).
Media change has been gradual rather than revolution. A recommendation in both books was for organisations to use digital technologies to build their own form of owned and social media. It continues to be spot on.
The owned and social media strategy approach is used by publishers themselves. New forms of content and social media communities are used to amplify editorial and reach new audiences. It’s the reason that podcasts and newsletters are booming.
As media relations continues to become increasingly challenging the opportunity for public relations practitioners is to help organisations become publishers and create their own content, media and communities.
Modern agencies and communication teams have already made this shift with many operating a newsroom model with content integrated to work across earned, owned and social media. Increasingly practitioners are also using paid media to promote and amplify content. This is the future of media relations.
