The Nitty Gritty of Media Pitching

Tonight at our PRSSA meeting, our speaker was Pete Grasso. He is the editor of HVACR Business Magazine and an alumni of Ohio Northern University. He came back to the small town of Ada to share his knowledge on media pitching.

Media pitching is probably the most terrifying part of public relations. There are so many do's and don'ts, I can't even keep them straight. I had to pitch some events to media at one of my internships and I failed every time.

Pete gave us some great advice on how to successfully pitch to the media:

• Build relationships - Every PR practitioner should be an expert at this anyways, but especially with the media. You don't need to be pitching to them all the time. Get to know them and their publications and figure out what they need before you even call. 
• Think about their target audience - Even though you are writing for your client, you have to make sure the story is tailored to the publications audience. Will their readers care about what you're pitching?
• Make their job easy - The easier you make their job, the more likely your story is going to be ran. Do your research. Make sure your story fits their magazine, write in their style and format your document how they need it. 
• Editors are open to new ideas. Call them and talk about their industries. Bounce some ideas off each other and get some good ideas for stories to help them. It might help you too!
• BE AWARE OF DEADLINES - Editor's jobs are becoming multifaceted. They are have strict deadlines to meet so be conscious of their time. When you call them, ask them if they have a minute to talk before you start pitching. 
• AP Style - Most publications have their own stylebook to work with, but they all usually default to AP style. Be grammatically correct and make sure you have well written material. 

So how do you pitch to an editor? 

1. Email - but follow up with a phone call
2. Phone call - but also send an email 

Basically, you need to get their attention and make sure they received everything they need from you. Give the editor some time to read through what you sent, but don't let too much time go by that your emails get lost. Maybe like 2-3 days?

Thank you Pete for coming out to talk with PRSSA. It was great topic and we all appreciated his advice!

- Amy