Four Keys to a Successful Media Release

August 27, 2024

Most journalists and editors receive upwards of 200 media releases and PR pitches a day, at a conservative estimate. Standing out from that throng of correspondence is not easy – akin to getting someone to open an email in their junk folder.

The good news is that most of those pitches and media releases don’t factor in what genuinely matters to the media. By doing so, we can continually improve our odds of getting the traction and spreading our message, while also providing the media with engaging stories. Everybody wins!

1. Don't make it about you

The amount of media releases written that essentially boil down to ‘X Company is awesome, says X Company’ is staggering. Simply put, if media outlets are going to run an ad for you, you can pay them to do so.

Think of yourself as the author, not the main character. How does your media release help tell a story that is relevant to the audience of the outlet you’re pitching to. Minimise the self-promotion, foreground the narrative.

A crude example: if you’ve just made a new appointment to your board, a media release trumpeting their skills and experience is unlikely to get much traction. But if you can harness their expertise to provide insight on a current issue affecting your sector, your industry or the wider population, more media are likely to pick up the story – and mention the appointment while doing so.

2. Craft your pitch to suit individual journalists

One of the great continuing annoyances of the media is getting pitches that aren’t relevant to them. Whether it’s the announcement of a new skincare line to a hard-nosed crime reporter or pitching a big event in Brisbane to reporters based in Adelaide, everyone in the media has a story about a press release that dramatically misjudged its audience.

Usually, it’s because the media release sendout approach has been to ‘spray and pray’ – send to everyone in the hope a wide net will catch more fish.

This doesn’t just damage your chances of getting this story picked up, it damages the chances of getting the next story picked up as well.

The downside is that individualizing your pitches is a lot of work. But it generates far superior results and creates better relationships with the media in general.

3. Put the most work into the headline

I don’t know many time-rich journalists. You need to be able to sell your story quickly and they need to be able to visualize it instantly.

That means developing a great headline is crucial. Essentially, the headline should explain the entire story in a sentence, so that the recipient can understand the thrust of it without even needing to read the release.

That’s why they differ to headlines you see in the newspaper and online news sites – those are encouraging the audience to read more, whereas your media release headline should cover the whole story.

4. The Media Release Should Just be the Start

A media release by itself will rarely do the job. You need to make life for the journalist as easy as possible by providing them with everything they need.

TV journalists need filming locations and secondary interviewees, as well as case studies.

Print editors need hi-res photos, or at the very least photo opportunities.

Radio news editors love pre-prepared audio grabs so they can put the story together without needing to do an interview, if they should so choose.

By thinking about the medium and the needs of the journalist, we again boost our odds of getting the pickup we need.

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