Best Time to Pitch a Reporter? Software firm says it has the answer.
When is the best time to pitch a reporter now? According to one public relations software service provider, it is that notorious window of time reserved for issuing or acknowledging negative news, especially for publicly traded companies - Friday evening.
According to Propel’s Media Barometer Q4 2024, the best time to contact is Friday night between 6 and Midnight. Now this lends itself to many questions beyond the practicality of it and cynicism that good reporters, assigned beat writers, feature writers, and those seeking relief from a week of the grind want to wait to Friday evening to sift through a massive queue of pitches. I know I did not ever want to intentionally pile up pitches that way regardless how tired or busy I was during the week. This is especially true if a source's material can contribute to a breaking news story, an emerging or ongoing story that is progressing or could provide data or insight for copy being drafted ahead of time for a story to be published.
Propel's report reinforces several evergreen truths to media relations in my opinion supported by the successes I have had over the years representing clients of all sizes and markets via agencies or working in-house:
- always be relevant to the writers' beat, needs, and audience
- consistently prove yourself of being respectful of those points
- be clear in your subject line and opening of the reason for contact
-save everything else for off-hours
- if a reporter insists that Propel's advice is the way of preferred communication, respect it and execute effectively advanced planning, pitch writing, and complimentary materials to support it
- seek an alternative reporter, editor or media outlet that is receptive to broader communication hours. The media landscape is only getting wider with smaller but more targeted outlets that ultimately offer most organizations the same exposure as the large, mainstream outlets. A hungry media outlet or reporter always wants content and it is an opportunity to create and expand your media relationships
- keep the fluff or sales stuff relegated to clearly defined times and communicate honestly why you are sending it.
The Q4 '24 report added that PR pitches to reporters had an open rate of 39.8% and a response rate of 3.84% - its highest yet. When less than 4% gets a response, I suspect relevance and value is overall lacking in pitches.
Media Relations is a skill that can provide deep value to an organization on and is a wise investment if structured properly and supported.
I shared my experiences and discussed managing media relations in a recent podcast episode I recorded which you can access for free here: https://lnkd.in/g7DqGEGm
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