Media Pitching: The “Blood Feud” Between Journalists and Practitioners

One of the most exciting aspects of working in the public relations industry, at least for me, is media relations. I LOVE media relations, and I don't know why.

I guess it has to do with the fact that much of my early professional upbringing centered on journalism and the media. I've always been a fan of the news, of sports and the media in general, and my involvement in journalism during the last few years of high school shaped my desire to come to college and dive right in to journalism. So that's what I did.

My initial shift to PR came at the end of freshman year, after taking the Introduction to Mass Media course and learning more about it. But one of the reasons I was confident about making the switch was that I would still maintain close proximity to and interaction with the journalism industry and the media, and that the door was still open to switch back later on if I wanted to.

Indeed, the former has so far been the case. I've been able to facilitate interviews and questions for news and broadcast stories, do a few interviews myself and written many, many press releases. But to me the most fascinating part of media relations is media pitching.

Pitching is basically an extension of the press release. It involves following up on the release by calling the recipient and verifying that they received it, then answering any questions or providing further information on the topic. Depending on the situation, you might also set up an interview for the media outlet with your clients.

It's all basically about generating media coverage, and sometimes the main goal behind this is publicizing your clients. But other times, your clients may not be seeking attention for themselves but a cause or issue they are supporting or opposing. And most of the time, these issues, causes or events have great news value. Otherwise they wouldn't be pitched at all.

What concerns me sometimes is the animosity with which the media sometimes responds to story pitching. The ongoing blood feud between the two industries is no secret, and while the intensity of this relationship varies depending on the people (or outlets), it is quite prevalent (I might discuss the general relationship between journalists and practitioners in further detail later on, but this is just touching on media pitching).

Having been a journalist, I know the feeling of chasing a good story and how rewarding it is to find one on your own, to dig for the real news. So I can understand sometimes the irritation that occurs when someone outside the newsroom thinks they have a good story idea. It may be that you distrust the source, that they're just trying to sell something, or it may be that you are disappointed you didn't know about the story yourself.

In response to the first item: yes, it is inherently understood that the PR agent and his/her client has some interest in having the story published. That's the nature of the job; otherwise we wouldn't be pitching. But does that detract from the potential news value of the story? It really shouldn't. What difference is there between a story you've discovered on your own and a story that has been pitched to you? There will always be interested parties who will either benefit or suffer as a result of the story you're publishing.

And there's a choice for the journalist when a story is pitched. The client on whose behalf the story is being pitched may very well be an integral part to a very good story idea, so the reporter can use their own caution in painting that picture in the article. She and her editor have the final say on the story anyway. If the client's involvement is deemed expendable, write the story without them!

I won't soon forget what former Miami Herald journalist Tyler Bridges told my international PR class this past semester when he visited from Peru. He was quite combative toward us and our profession, not budging on his 100% antagonistic policy toward PR agents. He said, "Public relations people stand in the way of us doing our jobs," or something to that effect.

Quite the opposite, Tyler! It's a symbiotic relationship between the journalist and the practitioner. We need you, and you can benefit from us. "Why can't we be friends?"