After close to a decade on the agency side, pitching multiple clients, multiple ideas and stories — many worked, and more than many failed. Going back and figuring out why those pitches failed taught me a few important lessons. The world of Public Relations involves a lot of testing, learning, and adjusting. The more honest we are about that, the better we all get. Not every campaign needs to win. Some are there to show you what doesn’t land.
Here are some of my key takeaways –
Ego says “The correspondent was too busy to respond”
We’ve all been there. Doing media rounds, following up, and reporting back with “no response” — an easy explanation. Reality is usually simpler. It’s bad timing. Overloaded inboxes, AI-generated noise, constant deadlines — journalists don’t have time to figure things out. If it’s not clear in seconds, it’s gone.
The companies that consistently get quoted understand this. They don’t just pitch — they make themselves news worthy. They lead with something timely and relevant. They bring data, not just messaging. They package information for immediate use. They focus on the story, not the promotion. Reduce friction, and you increase your chances of being published, not ignored. If you already have the article, send it. Journalists don’t need ideas and synopsis. They need solid material.
Your Story Has to Stand Out (Newsrooms Are Overwhelmed)
I am a firm believer of great stories and great storytellers beat relationships. Always.
As simple as this: your subject line decides everything. Only a fraction of pitches are clear, on-target, and actually usable. Most aren’t. That’s where the opportunity lies.
By and large, your competition doesn’t know how to write a strong pitch. If you can get to the point quickly and aim it at the right person, you’re already ahead. 86% of journalists say some of their published stories started with a PR pitch. That’s from Muck Rack, and it’s the number I come back to when people ask if PR still works. It does. It just needs to be done well.
A good pitch doesn’t interrupt a journalist’s work. It fits into it – a story that’s relevant, timely, and shaped for their audience. Founders, startups, growing brands all need to be heard. PR is still one of the most effective ways to make that happen. The tool is the pitch. The skill is knowing when, where, and how to use it.
Help Them Take Their Last Story Forward
Personalise your pitch. Know what the journalist is working on right now, what angle serves their readers, and why your story fits their editorial direction.
Personalising a pitch used to mean using the journalist’s first name and mentioning their last article. Now it means reading their recent work closely enough to spot the gap your story can actually fill.
Pitches fail because they answer the question the PR team wants to answer, not the one the journalist is trying to explore. When you pitch from the journalist’s perspective, you start offering something useful. If it overlaps with something they’ve covered, make the case how your angle builds on it. Most journalists aren’t anti-PR, but they rightly do expect you to be familiar with their work before you press send.
AI and Everyone looks the same – Stupid and without Originality
Generic AI-written pitches, long emails, “experts” with questionable credentials — none of it cuts through anymore. If anything, AI has made something old-fashioned more valuable: trust. The brands that get coverage bring human insight, credible expertise, and information that’s ready to use. AI can scale your communication. Credibility is still what gets you quoted.
You can spot AI-heavy writing instantly now — the long dashes, the same recycled phrases, the same structure. “Seamless experience.” “Cut through the noise.” “Unwavering commitment.”
And then the worst of it — those paragraphs built on the “not this, not that” pattern.
Not this. Not that.
If it’s not about this and it’s about that — just say what it is about, as one senior editor at a UAE daily put it.Get to the point.
The “Responsive” Journalist Myth
There is no such thing as a “responsive” or “not responsive” journalist. That idea needs a reframe.
Journalists are responsive to the pitches they want to pick up. Full stop. If they don’t think your pitch is a fit, they won’t reply, but that doesn’t make them unresponsive.
They’re being pitched by hundreds of PR professionals, writing for their outlets, managing deadlines, and living their lives. When you’re that busy, you don’t have time to respond to everything. And when they do reply to say no, it often turns into an unsolicited coaching session.
Once you understand this, you stop taking the silence personally and start asking better questions. Which pitches work for this publication? What does this journalist actually want to explore?
Bottom line: Stop pitching. Start diagnosing.
Finally Remember That No One Spots a Bad Pitch Faster Than a Journalist
Journalists actively save and share the worst PR pitches they receive. The internet is full of them. Bad pitches get attention for all the wrong reasons.
If you send a pitch about what a brand is doing for International Women’s Day, someone will look up what that brand’s leadership team actually looks like.
The person you’re pitching is likely more of an expert on PR pitches than you are. They see hundreds every week. They know what’s bad and what works faster than most of us.
Keep that in mind before you press send.
