How to pitch journalists: what reporters told us about PR outreach that actually works

Most press releases never get read. The reason is the pitch, and even the headline around it often ignores how journalists actually work.

To find out what separates a published story from a deleted email, we surveyed over 50 journalists and editors and 50 PR specialists. The results should be uncomfortable for anyone doing PR outreach by “spraying and praying”, and useful for anyone willing to improve the outreach.

Most of the pitches are simply irrelevant

When we asked journalists how many of the press releases they received in the past month were actually relevant to them, 79% said no more than a third. A meaningful share said fewer than 10% of releases are relevant.

That means journalists are ignoring you because, statistically, your email probably wasn't meant for them in the first place. You’re doing what is often called “spray and pray”. Just sending emails to everybody, expecting a result. At Neshys, we encourage a well-targeted approach.

When journalists were asked why releases miss the mark, the most common answer was simple: "I shouldn't have been the recipient." 60% flagged this. After that came too much self-promotion, unoriginal angles, and bad timing.

And if you send enough bad pitches to a journalist, even your good pitch later might simply get ignored. Because a journalist sees your name and defaults to “spam”.

Why do journalists open the emails?

We asked journalists what actually pulls them in. Three answers dominated:

62% want a clear, well-framed topic presentation in the email itself.
60% love exclusive or distinctive data.
40% open because of the subject line.

Journalists open emails based on the pitch around the release. There has to be some value.

When asked where the actual press release content should sit, most journalists said the attachment, but they want the email body to tell them why the story matters and why it matters to them specifically. Most prefer a short paragraph, two sentences, 50 words.

So, the practical rule for how to pitch journalists is this: write the email like a human introducing a story to one specific person. Lead with the angle. Quantify what's new. Put the press release in the attachment for those who want to dig deeper.

The trap of length, format, and self-promotion

Asked about ideal pitch length, journalists overwhelmingly preferred short. "No longer than one Word page" was the common ceiling (although even that sounds way too much), with many preferring a single tight paragraph.

The biggest complaints about incoming pitches and press releases were predictable but worth naming:

78% said press releases contain too much self-promotion.
36% said the content itself is weak.
24% complained about grammar and stylistic errors.

If the pitch reads like marketing material, most editors will treat it like one. That means cutting marketing language, leading with news value, and proofreading like a journalist would. A pitch full of "leading," "innovative," and "best-in-class" tells an editor there's no real value.

Best time to send: Tuesday morning

Timing came up repeatedly in the survey, and the answers were strikingly consistent.

Journalists do not want pitches on weekends or public holidays. They do not want them late in the evening (after 8 PM) or in the early morning hours before 8 AM. Most reported that they react to a relevant pitch within one to four hours during working time — meaning a Tuesday morning send has a dramatically higher chance of being read than a Sunday night blast.

PR teams often default to send the press release whenever it’s approved. The data suggests that holding a pitch until Tuesday or Wednesday morning is one of the easiest improvements you can make to your PR outreach.

46% ask you to not follow-up

This is where journalists and PR practitioners disagree most sharply.

46% of journalists said they prefer not to receive follow-ups at all. Many said that if a pitch is genuinely relevant, they'll already be working on it; if it isn't, a second email won't fix that.

Meanwhile, 42% of PR practitioners told us follow-ups are one of the most stressful parts of the job. They don't want to bother journalists, but they feel obligated to.

Follow up sparingly, only with new information, and only to journalists you have a real relationship with.

Also, "Did you see my email?" is the worst possible follow-up. "I noticed you covered X last week, so here's a related angle with fresh data" is a different message entirely. If you can't add something, don't send it.

What PR teams struggle with?

The PR-side data is just as telling. When asked what frustrates them most about press release distribution:

42% - knowing exactly who to send a pitch to.
42% - follow-ups.
28% - personalising emails without spending hours doing it.

In other words, the same problems journalists complain about on the receiving end are the ones PR teams know they have on the sending end. The bottleneck is: contact selection, individual context, and timing. And that is exactly what we are trying to solve with Neshys.

A checklist for your next pitch

Pulling the survey data together, here's what a journalist-friendly pitch looks like in practice:

Right person first. Verify the journalist has covered your beat in the last 30 days. If they don't, take them off the list.
Subject line that names the story. 40% of journalists open emails because of it.
Two-to-five-sentence pitch in the email body explaining the angle and why it matters to that outlet.
No marketing language. If a sentence could appear on your homepage, cut it.
Send Tuesday-Thursday, between 9 AM and 2 PM. Avoid weekends, holidays, and late evenings.
Follow up only with new information, and only once.
Track what works. If a journalist hasn't opened your last three emails, that tells you something. That’s why Neshys has a history of interaction for each of your contacts.

The journalists in our survey were unanimous on this: they would rather receive five well-targeted, well-written pitches a week than fifty generic ones. That’s what we are going for with Neshys: respect the recipient, lead with the story, and remember that every send is a small deposit or withdrawal in a relationship that takes years to build.