The Death of the Pitch
Having a comms hack pitch media on your behalf is like sending your mom to ask someone on a date for you. Sure, she might get the message across, but you're not exactly setting yourself up for a meaningful relationship.
Journalists, editors, and media creators don't want to hear from your PR agency. They want to hear from you. Yes, you - the founder who stayed up until 4 AM coding your MVP. The CEO who mortgaged their house to make payroll. The researcher who's spent a decade obsessing over this particular problem, whose passion shapes every word and every thought.
They want to hear from you.
Why? Because you're real. You're authentic. You're the one with skin in the game. When you reach out directly, you're saying, "This matters enough for me to take the time to contact you personally." When your PR agency does it, you're saying, "This matters only and barely enough for me to pay someone else to care about it."
The Fatal Flaw in Traditional PR
The traditional PR model is built on a fundamental misconception: that media relationships are transferable. That somehow, because a PR agency has a nebulous and difficult to quantify "bond" with a journalist, they can bestow the benefit of that connection onto you.
This is, frankly, nonsense.
It makes no logical sense. A genuine connection with a human being cannot be shared or divided at will like an infinite, renewable resource.
Relationships don't work that way. Never have, never will. So when a PR agency blasts a pitch about your company, they're not letting you share in their sacred relationships - they're spamming their contact list. And guess what? Everyone knows it.
What PR Agencies Should Do
Does this mean PR agencies are useless? No. But it means their role needs to change dramatically. Good PR professionals should be:
- Teaching you how to write down and tell your story
- Helping you identify the right media targets
- Coaching you on how to make your outreach compelling
- Providing feedback on your pitch
- Preparing you for interviews
- Managing the follow-up process
Notice what's not on that list? Doing the pitching for you.
Think of it this way: A PR agency should be your media coach, not your mouthpiece, not your gatekeeper. They're the second, in your corner of the boxing ring, giving you advice between rounds - not the ring-in fighting the match for you.
The Personal Touch: Why It Works
When you reach out personally:
- Your email gets read (because it's from a founder/CEO/leader, not agency@genericpr.com)
- Your passion comes through naturally
- You can speak to technical details that agencies often get wrong
- You're starting a real relationship, not just trying to get press coverage
- You can pivot the conversation in real time based on the journalist's interests
Most importantly, you respect the journalist's time by engaging with them directly rather than delegating the relationship to a third party.
"But I'm Too Busy for This"
I hear you. You're running a company. You've got investors to update, employees to manage, and products to ship. You don't have time to manage media outreach.
Except here's the thing: if getting your story out there matters to your business (and it probably does), that is what you should spend time on. It's not something you can effectively delegate.
Think about it: Would you send your PR agency to pitch investors? To close major customers? To recruit key executives? Of course not. Because those relationships matter too much to outsource.
Media relationships are no different.
And they deserve no less respect.
How to Do It Right
Here's what works in modern media outreach:
- Do the homework yourself. Read what journalists write. Understand their beats. Follow them on social media. Know why your story would matter to their audience.
- Make the connection personal and specific. "I've been following your coverage of the AI ethics space, and your piece last week about algorithmic bias resonated with what we're building..." - but don't fake it. If you're not reading their work, you shouldn't be talking to them in the first place. If you don't care enough about a writer to engage with what they do and the words they put to a page, don't have the misplaced arrogance to assume - or worse, insist - that they should care about you.
- Be human. Write as you talk. Drop the corporate speak. If ChatGPT could have written your email, start over.
- Respect their time. Be brief. Be clear. Be specific about why your story matters to their audience.
- Follow up thoughtfully, not robotically. If you don't hear back, one follow-up is fine. Make it say something; make it mean something. "Just bumping this to the top of your inbox" does more harm than dead silence.
Where PR Agencies Add Real Value
A good PR agency can be invaluable - just not in the way most people use them. They should:
- Help you identify your most compelling stories
- Refine your messaging
- Coach you on media interactions
- Organise and run AMAs
- Help author whitepapers
- Stress test your ideas for a mass audience
- Handle follow-up and coverage tracking
- Provide strategic guidance on timing and approach
- Be there when the shit hits the proverbial fan (because it will)
Think of them as your media strategist, not your media proxy.
The New Media Landscape
The rules have changed. We're in an era where:
- Authenticity trumps polish
- Direct relationships beat intermediaries
- Real expertise cuts through the noise
- Personal outreach beats mass distribution
The journalists and media creators who matter in your space would rather hear directly from the people doing interesting work than wade through agency pitches.
Stop hiding behind your PR agency. Stop expecting them to build relationships for you. Stop pretending that having them blast out pitches is an effective strategy.
Instead:
- Take ownership of your media relationships
- Let your PR agency coach you, not replace you
- Do the outreach yourself
- Be real, be human, be direct
Because here's the reality: No one wants to date someone who only communicates through their mom. And no one wants to cover a company that only communicates through their PR agency.
To the PR agencies about to email me explaining why I'm wrong: save your energy. Have your clients reach out instead.