Jun
Contacting the Media: Press Release or Pitch Letter?
What is a pitch letter?
The Publicity Team at my PR Firm, Three Girls Media & Marketing Inc., spends a lot of time at Three Girls pitching our clients to the press. While the PR industry tends to write a lot of Press/News Releases, Three Girls tends to write a lot of pitch letters instead. I came across an interesting analogy on The Bad Pitch Blog earlier today:
Pitch Letter is to News Release as Cover Letter is to Resume
A press release is not a pitch. Would you send a resume with no cover letter to a prospective employer?
In both instances, the letter provides context. You should pull out the value your release or resume offers that specific media outlet/editor and company/HR contact, respectively.
No one has the time to digest an entire news release or an entire resume to see why/how it applies to them. And the more I see just press releases being sent to me, without even so much as a salutation, the more I realize this is probably the reason so many hold such (deep) hatred for the news release format.
While the analogy isn’t perfect, it makes it easier to figure out how to go about writing a pitch. Like a cover letter, there are a few key points to hit:
- What/who the product/person is
- Why the person receiving this should care
- Where to get more information
The analogy falls apart a bit because, unlike a Cover Letter and Resume, sending a pitch letter without a News Release is perfectly fine. You don’t need to bombard the press with information all at once. Send a quick note to let them know what you’re pitching, why they should care, and where to get more information. If they want a formal release or have specific questions, they’ll let you know.
