Journalist inboxes are overflowing, newsrooms are shrinking and PR teams are under more pressure to deliver results.
So, how do you break through?
In our recent webinar with Karen Swim, APR, founder of Words for Hire and president of Solo PR Pro, we explored practical ways to build smarter media lists, write pitches that get real responses and build stronger relationships with reporters in today’s fast-changing landscape.
From workflow hacks to personalization tips, we shared how you can:
While you can watch the full webinar on demand, here’s a quick look at the top takeaways to help you strengthen your media outreach.
Your media list is the foundation of your public relations strategy and it can make or break your results.
A static “master list” of reporters often becomes outdated quickly. Journalists change beats, move to new publications, or start freelancing. To keep your outreach relevant, build a fresh, campaign-specific media list for every project.
Here’s how you can do it:
By keeping your media list accurate and up to date, you’ll increase the chances that your pitches land with the right journalists.
Once your list is solid, the next challenge is crafting a pitch that gets attention.
A strong PR pitch should instantly show why your story matters and why it’s worth covering now.
Use this checklist to guide your outreach:
✅ Relevant: Make sure your story fits the reporter’s beat and audience
✅ Timely: Tie it to a current trend, data point, or news moment
✅ Impactful: Show why it matters to their readers or viewers
✅ Professional: Keep it clear, concise and respectful
✅ Human: Use your own voice; AI can help polish, but it can’t replace authenticity
If you want journalists to respond, lead with relevance and clarity. Make it easy for them to visualize how your story fits their coverage.
Even great pitches don’t guarantee results. That’s why it’s critical to test, measure and refine your approach.
Instead of blasting your full list all at once, start small and track what works.
Try this “rehearsal stage” approach:
Also, pay attention to engagement signals. If a reporter opens your pitch multiple times but doesn’t reply, that’s a warm lead worth a thoughtful follow-up.
These three steps are just the start. In the full webinar, we dig deeper into:
Watch the full webinar on demand to explore all the insights and real-world examples!
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Webinar Host: Hello, welcome everyone. Happy Thursday! We’re almost there, almost made it through the week. Thank you all for taking time today and joining us for How to Master Media Relations: Targeting, Tailoring, Timing, presented by Public Relations Today and sponsored by Notified.
I'm Tara, the Webinar Manager at Public Relations Today, and I'm really excited to bring you this brand-new session where we'll explore proven strategies for precision targeting and crafting personalized pitches that resonate with journalists and build stronger relationships over time.
I’m really looking forward to hearing from Karen Swim today and what I know will be a valuable and fun conversation.
Just so you know, we will be recording this webinar in case you have to leave early, and we’ll be sending it to you by email within 48 hours. You can also visit the webinar registration page where you signed up to view the recording there as well. I'm going to go ahead and send that link in the chat now so you can bookmark it for later.
Before we go any further, I just want to pause and thank Notified for sponsoring this webinar and helping us make this happen. Notified empowers communicators to inform a better world.
As the only technology partner dedicated to investor relations and public relations, they help you control and amplify your corporate narrative. Their PR and IR platforms and teams streamline every step, whether it's reaching the right media, GlobeNewswire press release distribution and measurement, designing new IR websites, managing investor days, earnings releases, or regulatory filings.
Across PR and IR, GlobeNewswire is one of the largest and most trusted news distribution networks, serving leading organizations for over 30 years. You can learn more at notified.com. So, thank you again to Notified!
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Today, I am very excited again to hear from Karen Swim.
Karen Swim, APR, has over two decades of experience in strategic public relations, marketing, business growth strategies, internal and external communications, social media, and sales management. She is the founder of Words for Hire, a B2B technology and healthcare PR and marketing agency, and the president of Solo PR Pro, a membership organization for independents and micro-agencies.
And in 2024, she also co-launched Data Plus PR, a collaboration with Blue Run PR that focuses on storytelling through data.
So, without further ado, Karen, I’m going to pass things on to you so we can get started.
Karen Swim: Awesome. Great. Thank you so much.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm so delighted to be here with you. Thank you so much, Tara, Public Relations Today, and Notified for bringing us all together today.
I love this topic, and I just can’t wait to open up my own playbook and share some of the tips that have worked for me and my team. Whether you’ve been doing this job for 20 years or you’re brand new to public relations, my goal today is to not only share tips, but also to inspire you in your media relations outreach to remind you how great you are and what a great profession we have the privilege of being in.
And, just maybe, to share some information that will help you be a little bit better at your next media relations campaign.
So, let’s set the stage for where we’re going to focus today. There are six key focus areas, and we’ll spend more or less time on some of them as needed.
We’re going to talk about strategy because strategy really ties back to the timing we mentioned in the title of this webinar.
We’re going to talk about targeting and list building.
We’re going to talk about crafting the pitch, something we’re always interested in.
We’re going to talk about analytics. Don’t be afraid if you don’t like math, I promise it’ll be super easy and it will make sense.
We’ll talk about prepping for success.
And finally, we’ll talk about building relationships.
So now that I’ve set the stage, it’s time for us to meet the cast: Media Relations.
Media relations thinks it’s the star of the show. It definitely has main character syndrome, so much that it often overshadows the robust profession of public relations. People outside of our profession, as you know, often get it wrong. They think PR is media relations and that’s all we do.
When they have that mistaken view, it means they’re chasing clips without clout and that can lead to unrealistic expectations around your media relations campaigns.
It’s up to us as practitioners to be strategic, thoughtful, to educate, and to walk through the steps I’m going to share with you to expand our cast and to properly set expectations within our own organizations or with client companies.
The true star of the show is your strategic plan.
Yeah, I know, it probably sounds a little bit boring. But we’re going to talk in detail about why this really matters. The strategic plan allows you to script for success.
Media relations should never, ever be an afterthought.
I can’t count the number of times a company has come to our agency with a great event, launch, or piece of news, and they want to engage us to do media relations for them. The problem is they already have a fully baked plan, they have an announcement date, or a launch date, or an event date set, and they’ve given us two weeks.
So, they did the whole plan without engaging public relations. They have this goal, and we’re just supposed to meet it because they think media relations comes at the end of everything.
Media relations should always be part of the strategic plan, because planned and purposeful pitching beats frazzled and frenzied any day of the week.
You always want to start your media relations by looking at the end first.
Here is a quote that I think really sets this up. And while this is not a webinar about measurement, measurement and thinking about it at the beginning actually helps you develop your media relations plan and decide where media relations fits and how you're going to achieve your objectives.
I love the AMEC framework, and I'm sharing this here. You can go to amec.org. I encourage you to use their resources. It's really great, and it ties back into the Barcelona Principles because this helps me to really think about my campaign and what's really needed. It goes from your preparation and planning through what's going to be needed all the way to the end, to the impact of your campaign.
It's really important as you're thinking about objectives. You're going to have two sets of objectives in your media relations campaign. One objective is going to be organizational objectives. What does the company want to achieve? The second set of objectives is communication objectives. What are your efforts going to be in order to tie back to those organizational objectives? And it all comes together in the end when you look at impact.
You want to start here because it's like having a destination. You know where you want to go, and now as you write your plan, you're thinking through and writing the roadmap to get you there. It will help you decide what type of media relations campaign you run, and what other elements from the PESO model you're bringing in.
It will help you decide whether or not you're doing exclusive or embargoed pitching, or if you're going to add in podcasts. Are you searching for live interviews or bylines? It really helps you to be detailed, and that's going to help drive your success.
Now let's step into the writer's room. This is where we really begin to start to build out that campaign. We all know that the media market is really fluid today. In the old days, we built these big campaign lists or big master lists, and that might have been 200 names with outlets that covered us. We might have broken it down into categories of business reporters and trade books.
That master list is what we used. So, when we had a campaign, we looked at our master list and picked out and built a list from it. We can't do that anymore today. It's really not a strategic way to go about list building. Today, we build lists for each campaign. We're thoughtful, we research, we make sure that reporters are still covering a beat and that reporters are currently writing. Because there are reporters still listed as staff members with a publication who haven't written in six months, and that makes them probably not a good target to pitch.
We have also seen a shrinking media landscape. We've seen local journalism go away in many parts of the country. There are very few local outlets. We've seen a lot of layoffs. We've seen reporters changing beats or changing publications or going independent. So, when you build a list every time you begin a campaign, you know that your list is fresh, you're being thoughtful, and you're searching for new reporters you may not know. We've found reporters that were fellows. They weren't even on staff. Freelancers can be a goldmine of opportunity.
When you build that list, it really gives you a blank slate. Of course, you're always going to have outlets and reporters you already know, and you can add them to your list. But when you're thinking about that list brand new each time, you're making sure that you're doing your due diligence and you're not missing opportunities. All of this is going to lead to digging deeper with research, and we'll talk more about that as we go along.
The Casting Call
The Five W's and an H framework, which we're all familiar with, works for media relations outreach as well. You can answer these questions in a way that fits you, but the way I like to think about this:
As part of your strategic planning, you've decided that your primary objective is to secure one local outlet. Maybe it's the most influential outlet in your area and it's one reporter. That means that's going to drive your timing, the timing for you to allow yourself to do pitching, to secure that, to make sure that that reporter can cover that story.
They may need to meet your client and build a relationship. If you don't have one, you're going to want to build that. Or maybe you're doing embargo pitching as part of your media outreach. You need to allow enough runway to allow that to happen. So, the when really goes to the timing.
The why is why the journalist and why the audience should care about your story. This is really going to help you think beyond what you're pitching to what will make it meaningful to your audience. Is there a fresh angle? Is it timely? Do you have a different point of view? Is there something that hasn't been covered on this particular topic before?
The where is where you find these reporters that are actually going to report on what you want. There are a few different ways to do that.
If you have a media database, that's a great starting place. I use Notified, but I also use other AI tools to make sure I'm not missing anything. One of the things in your media database that's really helpful is if it ties to your monitoring system and uses AI to surface other reporters that cover the topics you've already appeared in. That can be really helpful in your research phase.
Another thing that I like to do is use tools like OnePitch, where you can put in your pitch. It actually helps you perfect your pitch, but then it also matches you to reporters. I use this as a check and balance system to make sure I haven’t missed anyone who could potentially be on my list.
If you don’t have a media database tool or you don’t use OnePitch, that’s okay. You can get some of this done using ChatGPT or Perplexity or one of the other AI tools. You can simply put in your pitch points and then ask it to return reporters. For example, if you’re doing a business story, you want to put in your pitch points, leave out proprietary information, and you don’t want to violate the privacy of your organization or client. But you put in those pitch points and say, “Give me five business reporters who would be interested in covering this topic.”
That can be the starting point to building a list and give you something you can then research a little deeper to really find a match.
How will you engage them? This goes to how you are going to get them interested in the topic. What are the things that you’re going to provide? What information will you provide? You’re thinking through all of these things before you ever start to write your pitch.
Perfect for the part. Media profiles are one way that we start to look for how we can get these perfect people. As PR people, we love media profiles. We love media breakfasts. We love when things are published. We’ll search the databases, and we’ll read those profiles and click through all the links. Sometimes publications will publish a featured profile, and we gobble it up.
We write notes and we make sure to review that. As you’re reviewing these media profiles, make sure that you discern between ideal versus reality. I like to think of this in the same way as a job description. When human resource departments put out job descriptions, they include a long list of characteristics and requirements. Some of those things are critical to the job.
But more often than not, it’s filled with a lot of things that do not really determine that you’ll be successful at doing the work. If you’ve ever interviewed for a job and you haven’t checked every single box, but you get the job anyway, it’s because the interviewer connected with you. They saw something in you that wasn’t in any of that big list of requirements, but they believed in your ability to get the job done and they believed that you would be a good fit for the company.
I keep this in mind when I’m reading profiles because it’s so easy for us to get really nervous and start to overthink. Like, “My God, I have six sentences instead of five and I forgot to do this. All of the experts said to write the pitch exactly like this.” You don’t want to get in your head like that. You want to make sure that top of mind is that you’re communicating as succinctly as possible, regardless of what you’re pitching.
I say succinct because that does not necessarily mean it has to be three sentences and that’s all you can send. It might take five sentences because you want to give the journalist the pitch. You want to give them enough context. You want to give them something that tells them the story, so they have enough to make a decision.
You always want to go behind the masthead. It’s not just about the outlet. It’s not just about the beat. You want to look a little bit deeper to make sure that this reporter and this outlet are actually a fit for what you’re pitching.
A few of the things that I look for: for example, maybe you are pitching a data story. If you’re pitching a data story, you want to make sure that the reporter not only covers your space but that they actually do write data stories. Not every reporter does.
Maybe it’s a product review or product news. If they don’t cover product news, then it doesn’t matter that they’re in your space. It doesn’t matter that they’ve covered your client before. You’re looking for something very specific, which is why you need to go a little bit deeper. I also like to look for personal interests that could potentially make a richer story.
We once had a client that was announcing news, and they work in the neurodivergent space. We started to research reporters and found one who reported on that space and also had a personal interest in neurodivergence. They were an advocate for neurodivergent people and had a child who was neurodivergent. So, when we reached out, we were able to really tailor our pitch and the reporter right away said yes.
That story was one of the best I’ve ever secured and one of my favorites because this person had a personal stake in it. Not only was the reporting top notch, but it had that heart that came from someone who understood what this meant and why this news was so important.
You may not always be able to find that angle, but you can definitely find the types of stories that make reporters happy.
I call this “what sparks joy.” Here’s the way that I look for it. It may take a little bit of practice. When I read what reporters write, I look not only at what they write for their publication but also what they might be writing about in other places. Maybe they have a Substack or a Medium, or maybe it’s just LinkedIn and the things they like to talk about.
I look for the stories they write where you can tell there’s a little bit of an extra bounce. You can tell that the reporter really enjoyed reporting on that particular topic or angle. It kind of comes out. I can sort of hear a different beat when I’m reading it. Now, maybe I’m a little bit different and maybe you don’t hear music when you’re reading words, but I do.
You’ll start to be able to spot it when it’s just their great reporting versus something that they really loved. When you can find that and learn to spot it, that gives you more information about that reporter and what kind of angle might actually entice them to write that story.
Writing the pitch
Your pitches should always be relevant. Don't try to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. Reporters will hate you for it and you don't need to do that. There are enough outlets that you can find the right place to pitch without trying to force-feed your story into something that really is not a fit. It needs to be timely. Don't send a pitch about something that's been done to death, that's already happened, if you don't have anything new, interesting, or different to say that makes this a whole different, more timely pitch. You want to make sure that your pitch has an impact. Does it impact the audience? And that's the audience who will be reading or watching this interview or responding to it, because you need to engage them. It needs to matter to them. Your pitch should be professional.
I say this because I get a lot of pitches and I cannot tell you how many come in and you can tell that they went to some workshop that said, say these things, and they do it. And so, it will say something like, "Hey," when you don't really know me. Saying "Hey Karen" if you don't know me is really unprofessional. I can take a pass at that, but a lot of people are offended by it. So, I always opt for just being professional. You can say good morning, good afternoon, or hello, but don't start out with "hey." Don't assume that you have a relationship when one doesn't exist.
If you know the reporter, you still want to be professional, but you can maybe be a little more casual in your tone. I think one of the most important things about pitching is to be human. This does not mean that you cannot use AI tools in helping you to develop your pitch points, perfect your language, or help you think through it. But I think it's important to keep in mind that the goal of your pitch is to be a human being who is connecting to another human being.
I get pitches that are written by AI and they're relevant, they're timely, they hit all the right pitch points, but there's no soul, there's no heart to it. Those are kind of a turnoff for me. And I know that we've all seen journalists ranting about the AI pitches or who just flat out say, I won't read them, I don't accept them. I don't think that they're reacting to how good or bad they are all the time. I think they're reacting to what I've identified, which is that it doesn't have heart, it doesn't have soul. It's not you really talking to me as another human being, and that can be a real turnoff. So don't make that mistake.
Here again, this is how you get over the overthinking too. When you focus on being a human and you're writing in your own voice and you're not trying to be perfect based on what the expert said or how many sentences you have or making sure that it has all of this, then you're more likely to really pitch like a real human being and really connect with that reporter.
Selling the story
It is more than just writing the pitch. It is really selling that story. For this, I like to turn to Hollywood. If you can't tell, I love Hollywood screenwriters. I took a screenwriting course from a friend that really changed the way that I looked at my own writing too. It helped me to see some of the things and steal some of their techniques.
When Hollywood writers are selling a series to a network or to a production company, they're going to give you information about the plot, the characters, and then they're going to give you a hook that you can really relate to. Those three things are things that we can adopt in our writing to journalists. What's the plot? Who are the characters? Give them something that is a hook.
So if you're a writer and you're pitching a show, it might sound something like, "Hey, it's Seinfeld meets The Walking Dead," which is really weird, but at least it's relatable. It's something that they may know, and they immediately get the reference. The point is that you're not just telling the story, you're selling the story. That means you have to say something so that the journalists can actually see themselves writing that story. Give them something that gives them that visual image or gives them the feel of the story and makes them excited to want to write it.
All of this takes time, and I want to admit that right up front. We spend a lot of time before we ever send out a single email. I know that we all care about the job that we do, and some people will undervalue us, but this is exactly why we're more than just a clip book. A lot of work and a lot of thought and preparation goes into what we do in order to secure the outcomes. If you are somebody who is in business for yourself or runs your own agency, make sure that you build all this into the way that you present yourself to potential clients and the way that you price your services too, because this is a lot of work.
Rehearsing the pitch
Before I actually send out emails to my list that I've carefully built, we go through a rehearsal stage. This rehearsal stage has been one of the most essential ingredients in order for us to be able to achieve our objectives.
What do I mean by rehearsal? We start our pitching with a very small audience. We might pitch one to two reporters initially, and that's it. We're not pitching the whole list because what we're doing with those first couple of reporters is seeing how they react to the pitch.
We use analytics to perfect our pitch, to see open rates with a CRM system like Streak CRM, and there are many others out there like that. I use Streak and I really have liked it over the years. Open rates are controversial because they may not be entirely accurate and sometimes an email system will automatically return an open. With open rates what I'm looking for is a trend, and I'm monitoring this in those first couple of pitches.
If there is just one or two, that's likely a system open and you're really not getting any traction. Monitor that.
The subject lines, the way that I test those is I'll use tools like Monster Insights, one of my favorites, Headline Analyzer, or even Co-Schedule. There are a number of ways to do this. These are just a few tools. You can go in and put in your subject line, or your headline as they call it, and see how it ranks. I like Monster Insights because it returns information on how you can improve your ranking and it gives you the optimal ranking.
I'll keep tweaking my subject line until I get to something that's high ranking and then I'll retest that. Now I'm adding another reporter and going back out to see if that subject line gets a better open rate. Again, with open rates, we're looking for trends and we take it with a grain of salt, but it does present a piece of information for you to ensure that your efforts are landing.
If I'm getting five opens but nobody is getting back to me, I look at the body of the pitch again. I start to look for whether there is something I could say differently. Is there another way I could tweak this? Have I pulled out the right point? Have I pulled out the right data point? I will tweak that a little bit and send it again.
We're dripping out to our list initially until we get to a point where we're getting a lot of opens. We monitor this over a few days. When we're getting lots of interest, we know that we're in the game now and can really start to pitch. You're fine-tuning as you go along.
Metrics again can also help you in your follow-up. And I do want to encourage you. I've met a lot of people in PR that don't follow up, but you can't just invite reporters one time and let it go. Number one, they may be so busy that they just haven't had a chance to respond. They may have missed the email.
And you want to give them another opportunity. It's a second opportunity or a third opportunity to offer up a little bit of additional information and to ask if they're interested. We use the metrics to guide our follow-up. We'll use a grid system. We'll have a grid of our list, and if, for example, somebody has opened up the email over a four-day period 15 times, then we'll color code that as kind of like a warm lead because it's clear that they are interested in what we're pitching. We'll prioritize following up with the most interested reporters and then work our way back through the list to the least interested reporters. Those reporters may get a different pitch. We'll change something to see if we can get a better response.
In your follow-up, you always want to be genuine rather than clever. And again, offer any additional information. Maybe you thought of something that can add some color to the story. Maybe you have a different person in addition to your spokesperson. Maybe you're pitching a piece of news on healthcare, and you've decided you can offer up a physician or even a patient who has that condition and can add color to the story. Think about the things that you can bring and offer up that would make this more enticing to them.
Part of your media relations outreach is preparing for the reporters who are going to say yes to you. That starts with providing contact information in the email. Not just your email address but give a phone number. Most reporters will not call you, but there are those who will. I got calls from a reporter in the evening. I've gotten a call on a Sunday afternoon because I provided a phone number.
Reporters are just like us. Sometimes you're just too tired and you don't feel like sending an email and it seems faster to just have a conversation with someone. You don't want to shut yourself off from those reporters who do want to pick up the phone and give you a call by not providing that information. You also want to have your usable assets ready to go. That means you've got your bios for your spokespeople, you have high-resolution photos, headshots, product shots, they're all ready and you can send them as soon as the reporter asks. You want to deliver on follow-up questions immediately. The worst thing that can happen is a reporter says yes, and I've seen reporters complain about this in private groups. They say yes, they're interested, they ask you a question, and you take five days to get back to them. That's unacceptable.
You also want to prepare your spokespeople in advance so they can respond as soon as someone says yes. I've worked with executives who really got it wrong and thought that responding to a reporter was like scheduling any other business meeting. They reached out today, and the executive would ask if they could do it in two weeks. No, they cannot. You need to be faster. You need to tell your spokespeople in advance and make sure that you have a spokesperson and a backup in the event that something goes wrong so they can actually be available for an interview or questions. This all adds up to making the job easy for reporters. You want to be a trusted resource, and you can do that by putting yourself in their shoes and making it super easy for them not only to say yes but to follow it through and write the story.
I do want to go back to something and share that even with all of this, you may never get the yes, but you'll get the story. I've had a reporter open an email from me 50 times. I followed up four or five times, not a single return email, nothing, completely ghosted. And then a beautiful story appeared. So, you do want to follow up.
And you want to follow up multiple times. Sometimes it's going to take five follow-ups before they say anything. And sometimes they may never say anything, but they will write the story. So don't be discouraged, but you should still do your due diligence and take all the steps necessary to ensure that you're going to hit those goals.
After you've pitched and done all the things, you're not done. You want to get reporters interested in the next act. Some reporters are really great about saying, hey, would you mind keeping me in the loop for news? That's great. I love those people who are proactive, but I don't wait for that. I have that list, that top 10 list, or maybe for you it's a top 20 list of reporters that you want to keep in touch with. This means building genuine relationships.
You want to read their work, of course, and interact. You don't have to interact on every story, but you want to make sure that you are showing interest. And here's a big one. Networking is give and take. You want to offer help. There have been reporters who have been laid off but are still writing. Reach out. Ask if there are any connections you can help them make. Maybe there are clients who need freelance writers and you could introduce that reporter.
Sometimes it's not about them being laid off or losing a job, but just an opportunity. I've referred reporters as moderators or speakers because I knew the things that they covered and I knew that was something they liked to do. I did it not because I was trying to curry favor but because I look at those human relationships and if there's a way I can help, I'm going to do it. This is somebody in my network, and if I can connect them with an opportunity, I'm absolutely going to do that.
Again, it all goes back to being human. AI can't do everything, and this is one way that you can really shine.
Okay, so I think I've gone through everything, but maybe we should go back. We talked about list building, strategy, being able to sell your story and tell your story, crafting the pitch, and building relationships. Now it's your turn to ask me any questions and I will try to answer them.
Webinar Host: Karen, thank you so much. Really, what a valuable session here. We did get a lot of questions and I love that. I see them all coming in. Before we dive in, just reminding everyone to use the Q&A panel if you want to submit your questions. I don't want to lose them in the chat since it moves quickly. And don't worry, we also understand if you need to run. Just know that today's session is being recorded and will be emailed to you within the next 48 hours.
If we don't get to your question or comment today, you can always connect with Karen via the channels on screen. I'll pop them in the chat shortly for you.
Okay, let's dive in. I'll take this first question from Nicole. With the ever-changing media climate, it's not always easy to form relationships as media members change.
How do you convince your executive team that every press release or pitch does not guarantee media coverage? And even then, some media coverage may not garner results for your goal.
Karen Swim: This is where the strategic plan becomes vital. So, in your planning, you know when there's a story that maybe is not going to be the best one to pitch. I just had this a couple weeks ago with a client where we said, we're not going to pitch this. We can do a press release because a press release is going to give you some widespread coverage. It's going to help you to be found with AI search, but this is not something that we'll pitch. But here's what we can do.
So, when you're planning from the beginning, this is where it's really important to be that strategic counselor to your client or to your organization and let them know what's really pitchable. What are reporters really interested in and then offer up alternatives.
You can turn to the PESO formula. Sometimes your news is not something that a reporter is going to be interested in, but it would make for a great owned video, or maybe it's a webinar, or maybe you can take that topic and you can pitch a byline. So, think about the ways that you can achieve what the organizational goal is beyond media relations, and don't be afraid to stand up and show our value by letting people know when something is not likely to get reporter interest. Be realistic and honest. I know that can be difficult, but this is how we maintain our seat at the table, by showing our value and not just agreeing. We are not pitch monkeys. We actually are smart. We know what the media is looking for, and we have to be able to communicate that information to our stakeholders.
Webinar Host: Thank you, Karen. And if anyone has any follow-ups to anything that we're chatting about, feel free to share as well.
The next question is coming in from an anonymous attendee. And they're asking, do you ever attach your press releases to a pitch?
Karen Swim: No, but I will put them in the body of the pitch. I don't do attachments because those can get caught in spam filters and a lot of people don't like them. What I will say is, I've attached this for your convenience in the body of the email. I've never gotten pushback for that. I will also often, if it's the day of pitching and the release is live, then I will link to it. However, here's one tip. I never make those links in an email to a reporter trackable because that can really irritate them and it can get caught in their email systems and you could get your entire domain blocked. So don't track them. But you can give them the link if it's live, and I just put it right in the body of the email.
Webinar Host: That's a great point. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you, Karen.
Okay, moving right along here. Another anonymous question. What are some of the biggest ways you've incorporated AI into your day-to-day?
Karen Swim: Wow, so many ways. Number one is building the list, using AI to really help me think through my research. I mentioned some of the tools, Perplexity AI and OnePitch, really helping me to make sure that I'm doing my due diligence. When I'm doing something where it's an exclusive or maybe I'm doing investor research for clients and setting up meetings, I'll go steps deeper and I'll use a tool called Crystal Knows. Crystal Knows gives you back a personality profile. It shows you how the person likes to run meetings, a little bit more about their personality and their style. That information helps me to be a lot more targeted and smarter about those particular reporters that I'm reaching out to. I only use Crystal Knows in certain instances though, because it's not realistic to do that for your entire list. But again, if I'm pitching an exclusive or I'm doing investor research, that's definitely a tool that I bring in and it's really made a big difference because it gives you so much insight into that person.
Webinar Host: Thank you, Karen. And just a reminder, I don't want to miss anyone's questions, so please share them in the Q&A panel, just because sometimes the chat moves quickly, and I can't catch it.
Next question, again anonymous. The reporter interactions you describe sound like a double standard if we need to respond to the yes immediately while they can ghost our follow ups even with a planned story. Do you see this imbalance? Is that something that you've seen consistently?
Karen Swim: I see it all the time. It's something that we can discuss with one another and lean on one another because it stinks, and it is a double standard. But the reality is I want something from them. This comes with the territory. I don't love it, but I've just come to work around it. I always know that I'm doing my job and I'm reaching out as a human and I'm doing the work and I'm sharing as much information as I can. I'm pitching a real story that I think their audience is going to enjoy. And if they don't answer me, then that becomes their problem, not mine. I'm just trying to hit my goals and do my job in the best way possible.
So yeah, the ghosting thing is real. When a reporter was opening my emails 50 times and wouldn't even bother to say, hey, I've read this, it was frustrating. But then I got a story. Maybe journalists are overwhelmed. There are more of us than there are of them. I take it with a grain of salt. I don't let it get to me, and it doesn't take away from the jobs that we're doing. I hear you, it's not fair, but it is the world that we live in.
Webinar Host: Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you, Karen.
Okay, we have a lot of great questions. I want to make sure we get to as many as we can. An anonymous attendee is asking, how far in advance do you recommend creating your strategic plan? Is it 90 days, three months, six months, especially since breaking news and strategies are changing so quickly with AI and layoffs and other things?
Karen Swim: I never like to go more than a quarter out for the exact reasons that you noted, things can change very quickly. So, one quarter out with a strategic plan is ideal, and of course, you want to review it. Doing that allows you to at least have something mapped out. It allows you to gain agreement from your client or organization about what activities will be part of that strategic plan. It gives you time to adjust as needed because sometimes something happens that you need to respond to. With that plan guiding you, you’re able to do that.
If you’re operating without a plan, it really makes your job frenetic and could have you running around and chasing things.
At the end of the day, I think that whether you are working for yourself or your organization, we still have to be able to demonstrate and articulate our value. The best way to do that is to operate off a document, a plan that everyone has agreed to, but no more than three months. You can do six months with the last half of it because sometimes organizations want a six-month window, but you need to present it as:
"Hey, we need to be able to look at this again and adjust as needed because it’s just too far out."
Webinar Host: Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you, Karen. I appreciate such thoughtful responses. Next question coming in from Emma: When do you think it makes sense to provide someone with an exclusive story versus sending it to a larger list?
Karen Swim: If you’re doing an exclusive, there are a couple of things to consider. Number one is the type of outlet. If it’s broadcast, I would pitch it a couple of months in advance to give yourself runway. I would never allow less than four weeks. I know that sounds like a long time, but reporters are busy, and you want to make sure you allow enough time so that if you’re pitching the exclusive to one person, you have time to move through your list and give each person an opportunity to respond.
If you are pitching an exclusive with only a two-week runway, you will have to move through your list quickly if the first person declines the story or doesn’t respond.
Webinar Host: Perfect, thank you. Moving right along. Next question: I’ve seen this come up a couple of times. I’ll use Stephanie’s wording: Any strategies to build relationships with reporters at national publications if you’re not in their cities?
Karen Swim: I live in Michigan, and I do not pitch local reporters because all of my clients are national. The same techniques apply. Many reporters are active on social media, so look for where they are talking and engaging, and connect with them there. LinkedIn is one place; some are on BlueSky. You don’t need to be everywhere but be intentional about seeing where they are sharing information. Reading their newsletters is another way to build relationships. Social media is definitely your friend, whether local or not, in really getting to know reporters.
Webinar Host: Thank you, Karen. Next question coming in from Stacey: What would you say is the biggest difference between healthcare pitches and other industries?
Karen Swim: Regulations. What you can say and what you cannot say depends on the sector. I do a lot of healthcare tech, but if you are in biopharma or a heavily regulated industry, you must follow regulations closely. You cannot share patient information in a pitch because that would violate privacy laws. You need to be mindful of that.
Webinar Host: Perfect. A couple of questions surrounding digital and print media: Is digital media a threat to print, and should we continue to monitor print in the digital age?
Karen Swim: I have seen print go to almost zero, but I still love those rare print stories that come out. Sometimes we do things that other people get, and it’s fun to have an executive say, for example, that his mom got the magazine where he was featured. It makes you feel good to see that tactile recognition. We should still monitor print, but most things are digital. Unfortunately, print will likely continue to decline because it’s not how most people consume news today. Younger generations often do not use traditional media outlets; they use social media channels.
Webinar Host: That’s exactly right. We have time for one or two more questions. Anonymous asks for advice. They are in a very old-school company, and the PR team is just them, a team of one. How can they get upper management to see the importance of media today?
Karen Swim: That’s a great question. I’ve worked with those types of industries. This goes back to measurement. Look at AMEC and the Barcelona Principles and really be able to speak the CEO’s language. Remember, an executive does not care about a media hit. They do not care about being in the Wall Street Journal or a trade publication. What they really care about is getting people interested in what they’re selling. Often, everything leads back to revenue.
As a PR person, we have to understand how our work helps achieve organizational goals. One thing I always remind people is that while PR is not selling a product, it can help drive top-of-funnel leads. Once those leads enter the funnel, marketing can nurture them to the next level.
It’s really about understanding measurement so you can talk to your executive team about how your work impacts what matters to them. Simply saying, "Here’s a bunch of clips," won’t matter. But if you can show how your work impacts hiring, recruiting, customer perception, marketplace reputation, and trust, and how it drives audience actions, you will have their attention.
Webinar Host: Wonderful. Thank you, Karen. I’ll squeeze in one more question here. This one’s coming in from Bren: Do you have a process or strategies you recommend for reading and interacting with journalists when you don’t have a story? I really struggle to keep up with it and with reviewing relevant stories.
Karen Swim: Yes. Have a newsfeed or a newsreader so that you can quickly breeze through things and focus on the most important stories. You don’t have to spend a ton of time on it. I might spend about half an hour just skimming, and if something is from one of my target reporters, I’ll read it. I don’t respond to everything, but I do read it.
Sometimes I’ll share stories on social media just to show the reporters I’m paying attention, because that matters to them. For some outlets, they actually measure reporters based on sharing and analytics. Sharing a story is like giving a reporter a huge tip. Don’t make it a burden, just be thoughtful and intentional.
That’s why I like to keep my reporter list tight. I can’t keep up with 50 reporters, but I can manage 10.
Webinar Host: Thanks, Karen. That’s just about all the time we have for today. I encourage you all, there were a lot of questions we didn’t get to, so please use the opportunity to follow up with Karen after the webinar. Her LinkedIn and website are in the chat and on screen.
Before we go, we also want to encourage you to participate in the survey that will pop up in your browser once this webinar closes. We take all your feedback into consideration when producing webinars, so thank you in advance.
Thank you again to our sponsor, Notified. We couldn’t have done this without you. And a big special thank you to our incredible speaker, Karen Swim, for taking the time to answer questions and provide such a valuable presentation today, really insightful, creative, and strategic. Thank you so much, Karen.
I also want to encourage you: if you need personal advice or just want to talk more about this, please reach out to me. If you want a confidential conversation, I’m happy to do that. I really love PR people and love helping you have the best career of your life.
If I can help you with that, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Webinar Host: I love that. Thank you, Karen. And a huge thank you to all of you for joining us today and for sticking with us through the tech issues. We really appreciate it. I hope you all have a great rest of your Thursday, an easy Friday, and take care.