Find solution
How to reach journalists at newspapers to write about my website?

What can I do to make it easy for journalists to write about my startup?

  • If I'm preparing press for a launch, what are some tips to make it easy for journalists to write about it? For example, is a formal press release helpful? If not, are there particular written materials I should prepare? What are the key elements journalists need in order to write a really compelling story?

  • Answer:

    First of all, I encourage three important habits when beginning your media outreach: Be organized. Make sure your messages in all of your media align. Know your "why?" - why are you / your product / your company relevant? - and be able to summarize off the top of your head in 2-3 sentences what you do and why it is important. Practice your media literacy. Be well-informed about the media you intend to target well before you get involved and research, research, research. From there, your goal is to make your information easily accessible, digestible, and attractive to the media you wish to cover your startup. I follow these steps in every media outreach campaign I do: Do specific research about target audiences before you write anything. This is a key element in being able to pitch a journalist in a way that will make it easiest for them to tell your story. For startups, I like to choose 1-2 topic areas relevant to the product/service and additionally choose a region you would like to appeal to. From there, create a 'profile' of sorts for each of these target audiences (what kinds of stories to these journalists typically cover and what angles matter to them and their publication?), which publications cover these target audiences (blogs, magazines, newspapers?) and decide which types of assets are most relevant to each audience (photos, videos, blog posts, etc.). Chances are you will want all of these things available (in your press kit), but profiling these target audiences will help you determine how you pitch your audiences and what you will present to them in your first interaction. Write a press release for each of your target audience groups. If you have chosen a regional audience for one of your groups, make sure that the focus of the press release is regional; I find that region-specific news organizations are often seeking new pieces about the local economy, so the impact you create for your local economy may be an ideal point. The most important "don't" is: don't use a bunch of jargon. The most important "do" is: do make sure you answer "why?" - that is, make it crystal-clear for your target audience to understand why your company/product/release is relevant and why it is relevant right now.? Example: if my startup is an app that helps restaurants find produce in the Denver area, I could appeal to 1) the restaurant industry (cooking publications) and 2) app developers (tech writers), and 3) media in the Denver area. In group 1, the journalists covering this topic may be most interested in how you will help restaurants who need produce or produce providers who want to sell to restaurants. In group 2, the journalists covering this topic may be most interested in the technology you use and any competitors you may have. In group 3, the journalists covering this topic will be interested in a little bit of what group 1 is interested in but may also want to know if there is an economic impact from your app (have you hired a lot of people or will this bring business to the area?). Create an easily-accessible and well-organized press kit and put it on your website. Include a link to your press release, any photos, videos, other press coverage, contact information, and general information (like an FAQ and links to your social media or other online properties). Start a spreadsheet of all journalists you contact, which audience group they belong to, their contact information, and when and how you contacted them. This helps if you have multiple people contributing to the outreach efforts, but it's also really helpful for avoiding overlap and keeping track of your relationship with journalists. Ideally, you want only one person to handle media relations; the only good reason to have more than one person involved in this is if people on your team have closer relationships to members of the media than you do, and in that case they may be the best avenue for a connection. This is a great resource to keep and maintain. Formulate your pitches. Start with the media you know and refine your pitch as you work your way to the journalists you don't know. I find that pitching each journalist personally (if possible) is really important; use a no-nonsense, to-the-point pitch explaining the basics (what, when, why, how, where) and linking the journalist to your press release and/or press kit is the best way to go about it. I emphasize using links instead of attachments and making your landing pages mobile-friendly as well; a lot of journalists will be on-the-go or will be glad to have your information handy on their mobile device. If you're particularly data-driven, you may want to consider finding a method for tracking your clicks. I like this because I can see who clicks on my links; that way, when I follow up with them later (see below), I know if they've seen the press release or any other information I have sent. Consider your timing when sending a pitch. While it's true that email removes some barriers to communication, sending information in the early morning during the week is more often a good bet than not. If you have a specific event or time-sensitive element to your release, it can't hurt to send your pitch 1-2 weeks in advance; any sooner may be difficult for a reporter to cover. Be available to the press. Answer your phone, answer your email, and communicate to media the times when you are available to give them an interview or access to your company. Television reporters need the face time and B-roll (See: ), so being available to talk to them or for them to visit your location or event is imperative. Consider using a press release distribution service. This is most certainly an entirely different topic, but I recommend looking at this question: . Don't by any means rely on this if you're serious about getting coverage, but doing this has a few advantages: 1) someone really on the hunt for a story may find you in this manner, and 2) it helps future visibility. I recommend having a significant degree of preparation to handle media by yourself if you plan on doing this - but it can go either way. Follow up - but don't be excessive. If you give yourself enough time with the first pitch, you have given yourself enough time to follow up within reasonable time to see if that journalist has had time to look at your pitch and your media. If your custom link to Journalist A has not been clicked in the week that you've sent it, a single follow-up email will do (and chances are if you don't hear from them after that second click, they aren't interested). Crowding inboxes and inundating a journalist with calls constitute bad practices and you definitely want to avoid doing this. Good luck with your outreach!

Jennifer Newell at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

Answer these questions: WHY us, WHY now, WHO cares. WHY would the magazine want to cover your particular startup? The more you can personalize it, the better. Knowing the magazine inside and out--which section to target, which editor covers similar things, etc. is invaluable. A generic press release with a personal email or note is even better. Make high resolution photos easily available and downloadable. Make yourself available to discuss topics in the industry if necessary, rather than simply plugging your business. Provide information to back up points you want to make in your piece. For example, if there's a whitepaper or report addressing a specific shift in the industry that your startup is solving, include the link to that. If there's a time hook, even better. Do not email attachments without getting permission in advance--some magazines open them and some don't. An all-text email with links to attachments is usually best.

Yael Grauer

Here are a few points that came to my mind since I am writing about tech topics all the time and I have written about start-ups already as well: Don't bullshit around. Don't use sentences like "We are the Apple of XY applications" or too much of start-up-language. Point out the good things, but be honest and try to keep things transparent. If there is a problem or a downside of something, you can add it. Keep it short and simple. Describe what you are doing in some very easy words, so that one can understand immediately what you guys are doing. You can prepare a longer version of this press release as well, but you should describe in the very first few sentences why your start-up is worth talking about. Write emails to journalists, but don't be a nagger. Don't call them in their newsrooms or at their offices and ask them if they have received your mail. Since it is their job to find new stories to write about, 95% of them will read your mail. So try to focus on that. If you are going to hold a press conference, stick to the facts and don't talk about stuff that is not related to the topic. Keep it short, so that you can switch to the Q&A part of the press conference very soon. You could also follow journalists on twitter to see what is important for them and what kind of stuff is interesting for them. This is just an idea, since I have recognized that I remember people from social media pretty well and some of them even contacted me via social media. You can do this, too, but don't be spammy ;)

Iwona Laub

Timing From what I've seen working in a newspaper, journalists love stories that can be linked to news events. So the art of timing is extremely important. Is there a new law that makes your product more appealing? Is there a recent event that is related to the audience of your product? If so grab the opportunity :-) Personalize Also: target your audience. Look into the media that have the audience of people you are trying to reach.  Search for journalists that write articles that interest you and that are related to your business. Know their work and try to adress them personally linking your work to some other story they have written. Telephone! I discovered the power of the telephone while working for the press. Journalists are overwhelmed by e-mail and are running from one story to the next often loosing track of time and stories... If you have done all of the above, e-mailed a journalist personally with a good story at the right time, wait a few days and phone! Just to catch up and see if she would be interested to meet you. Press Kit I agree with Jennifer Newell a good press kit is invaluable! Have-it easily accessible from the front page of your website :-) Include : contact info!! e-mails and skypes and whatknot but more essentially phone numbers! again the telephone is your friend. Be sure that the phone numbers are up to date, that you provide more than one person as contact. A good option would be to have the contact of the PR person and on of the direction team. Cell phones! a product description that even my great aunt would understand good resolution photos. (.jpg, at least 1Mb) a short history of the startup numbers!! The most important numbers and dates about your product investors : if you have investors that have successfully funded other well established startups, name dropping is appropriate! short bios and pictures of the main actors press review: include only what makes you shine. references to the title, number and page are also good to have, so that the journalist can find the other articles easily Good luck!

Francesca Palazzi

I thought this was a great account by on how his team got written about by a wide range of publications. Of course, your mileage may vary; but it's a great overall guide. http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/80121/How-To-Get-Media-Coverage-For-Your-Startup-A-Complete-Guide.aspx Have your own startup blog, learn to tell stories How to get to know writers via Twitter and Facebook The art and timing of sending that pitch off and getting in touch with reporters A story about your startup is written and published now what? Four completely different types of stories you can pitch How to make getting covered a habit, not an accident

Sudarshan Somanathan

Here's a quick tip. Assuming you've taken other advice on this page, and have a story worth sharing (the key word there is 'story), keep an eye on the Tech Meme chart. When the top stories are boring, that's the time to strike. Otherwise, they'll be too busy digging around for a fresh angle on the big news of the day.

Tom Davenport

All PR can be broken down into three key steps: Identify your influencers Listen to your influencers Converse WITH those influencers. Applying this to media relations, you want to identify which publications/ sites are relevant to your audience. Then you want to identify the specific journalists who you believe would be relevant. Next, read their articles, get to know what they've written about both on your company and in other areas. Follow them on Twitter, read their personal websites, look at their LinkedIn profiles, get to know them as people. Once you've done all that, engage them in conversation about your company. If you're truly relevant, this last step won't be difficult. In fact, as you get deeper into this process you'll find that the PR can become core to how you grow your whole business. It's all part of the same conversation. Doing this properly takes time, don't treat it as a side project to do "once everything else is done." It needs to be a priority or you won't get the coverage you want.

Chuck Tanowitz

Research journalists before you pitch! I was a guest on Jim Beach's School for Startups podcast last week and the entire segment was devoted to publicity for startups. You can listen to it at http://schoolforstartupsradio.com/2013/10/october-10-2013/ Why research? Because that's the only way you can send a customized pitch to each journalist and make each one think it's just for them. Yes, this is a pain in the butt. Yes, it's a lot of work. But the payoff is huge. The lead item in my ezine from several weeks ago discusses a fabulous email pitch template that a startup used to get publicity in Techcrunch and many other techie blogs. He tweaked it for each journalist. You can tweak the template for your own use. See Item #1 in http://publicityhound.com/tips/publicity-tips-an-email-pitch-template

Joan Stewart

Journalists will NOT write about your startup, you will be wasting your time and effort if you think that journalists would bother to care about a startup, the only reason Blogger/ Journalists write about a subject is either if it's interesting for their readers (thus get more visitors) or they have direct/indirect interest in it. I will let you discover by yourself, but i will give you a tip, i know a site that will let you post yourself a description of your startup (it is an organization / news site but with a misson to help starups) just message me i'll send you name of site. Edit: I'm replying as Anon you'll not be able to message me, so here's the site: http://techfact.org/

Anonymous

I am a journalist and let me try and tell you what I feel. When a startup asks for media coverage it looks like a desperate attempt to get some eyeballs. It doesn't work. Media follows success stories. So as a startup bloody work your ass to make a product so successful that media runs after you and writes realms after realms. The more you try to sell your story to them the more they will turn away.

Shubhashish Nichani

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.