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Press office

Journalists do not
owe you coverage.
They owe readers
a story

Media relations is the discipline of having one — and of knowing which reporter it belongs to, what they have already written, and why this week is the week they will care. The relationship is the asset. The pitch is just the moment it gets used.

Build a press office → What makes a pitch work
Reporter · Business desk48 UNREADTue 09:40

Press Release: Company Announces Strategic Initiative

comms@brand-one.com

REVOLUTIONARY new platform disrupting the industry

pr@agency-two.in

Following up on my email from Tuesday

outreach@brand-three.com

Data: 62% of Hyderabad SMEs still run payroll on paperREPLIED

5M Collective

Quick question — are you covering the policy change?OPENED

5M Collective

Invitation: Grand Launch Event with Chief Guest

events@brand-four.com

Re: Your piece on regional logistics — a founder who lived itOPENED

5M Collective

Press Release: Q3 Results Announcement

ir@brand-five.com

A working morning inbox. Three of these got a reply — and none of them opened with the word "revolutionary".

What happens to two hundred pitches

This is not pessimism, it is arithmetic — and it is why volume is the wrong strategy. The way to move these numbers is not sending more, it is being relevant to fewer.

Stage 1 of 5 · Sent 200 remaining

200 pitches leave the building. Every one of them felt important to the person who sent it.

200Sent — pitches from a mid-sized brand in a quarter 100% of what was sent
48Opened — the subject line and sender name did all of it 24% · 152 deleted unread
17Read past the first line 8.5% · lost in the opening sentence
6Replied to, usually with a question rather than a yes 3% · a conversation started
3Published — and only one of them properly 1.5% · the actual hit rate

Our version of this chart is narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. Fewer pitches, sent to people whose beat actually covers you, with something in them a reporter can use.

The subject line does most of the work

A reporter decides in under two seconds. These are real patterns — the announcement framing on the left, the story framing on the right, with the open rates we typically see.

AnnouncementPress Release: Company Announces Strategic Partnership
7%
StoryTwo rivals just started sharing warehouse space. Here is why.
36%
AnnouncementREVOLUTIONARY platform set to disrupt the industry
4%
Data62% of Hyderabad SMEs still run payroll on paper — our numbers
43%
Follow-upFollowing up on my email from Tuesday
5%
ReactionRe: your piece on regional logistics — a founder who lived it
39%

Indicative rates from campaigns we have run. The pattern holds far more reliably than the exact figures.

Interview / press briefing photo

What a reporter actually needs

Not enthusiasm. These six things, ideally in the first paragraph, and a phone number that gets answered before their deadline.

Need 01A reason for todayWhy now rather than last month. A story without a hook is a brochure with a date on it.
Need 02Something they cannot get elsewhereProprietary data, a first interview, access to a customer, a number nobody else has published.
Need 03A human who will talkNamed, available, and allowed to say something other than the approved boilerplate.
Need 04EvidenceFigures they can verify, a filing, a customer who will confirm it. Claims without proof get cut in the edit.
Need 05Assets ready to useImages at print resolution, correct titles, a two-line boilerplate. Friction loses stories at the layout stage.
Need 06SpeedAn answer within the hour, including "we cannot comment yet, here is when we can".

What a month on retainer looks like

Press offices work because they are boring and continuous, not because of one clever campaign.

Story miningSitting with your team to find what is genuinely newsworthy before inventing something that is not.
Targeted pitchingNamed journalists, tailored angles, tracked responses — not a list blast with mail-merged names.
Inbound handlingRequests triaged, spokespeople briefed, deadlines met. Reporters remember who was easy to work with.
ReportingCoverage, reach, quality of placement and share of voice — plus what was pitched and declined, and why.

What is the most interesting true thing about your business?

That is the whole brief. If it takes a while to answer, that first conversation is the valuable part.

Build a press office →