Sometimes I think we demean the Public Relations profession – and ourselves – when we use the word “pitching.” And I think that’s particularly true these days, when there are more corporate voices than ever “pitching” overworked journalists.
Maybe it’s because I started out as a reporter…and I still vividly recall those 4 a.m. calls from the City Desk to run out to the scene of a murder or a fire or a robbery. Or maybe It’s because I still recall the awesome responsibility I felt about providing accurate and insightful coverage for my readers.
Although I, too, am occasionally guilty of “pitching,” I’m not comfortable with it. That’s because I still tend to view journalists as partners. Having been one myself, I respect the work they do. I respect their needs. I respect the responsibility most of them still feel. I see myself as being in symbiotic relationships with them, in which the back-scratching doesn’t only go one way. And it’s worked.
I’ve been telling clients for years: When “pitching” the media, it’s not about how great you or your company are. It’s about how we can address our own needs by being cognizant of the journalist’s! How we can serve as a resource for them, by providing their readers with actionable or interesting information that touches them in some way.
I’ve been lucky to have a lot of clients who understand. Unfortunately, though, sometimes clients seem to think the media is dying to write about their organization...and that it will happen if we keep throwing enough “pitches” at them. And no matter how you try to educate them, they still believe that if you keep throwing mud against the (media) wall, some of it will stick.
Well, there are fewer journalists than before – and often many of the survivors are doing the work of two people. So it makes sense that we need to help make their jobs easier if we want them to cover our clients.
We need to think strategically. We need to educate our clients as to what’s now going on in the real world, and as to reasonable expectations. We need to think of ourselves as a huge resource for the media as well as for our clients.
How? We need to start focusing more on clients who “get it.” Because if we do business with toxic clients who insist on pitching even if there’s no real story…our own business can be ruined.