This is part of our series Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases, based on interviews with journalists — including veteran reporters and editors — about how they evaluate press releases. Over the next several weeks, EIN Presswire will publish takeaways from those conversations.
One misstep that communicators sometimes make is they don’t do research before pitching a story to a particular newsroom.
Joshua Wilson, executive editor of The Macon Melody who serves in a leadership role for the Georgia Trust for Local News, stressed the importance of this.
Wilson, who has spent two decades in community journalism, advises PR professionals to take a moment to understand what his newsroom covers and the geographic area it serves.
He had a clear message for PR folks: learn the newsroom before you pitch.
“Local matters,” Wilson emphasized. “I’d venture to guess that about 75 percent of press releases or pitches I get have absolutely no relevance to what we’re doing.”
Taking time to learn the newsroom shows editors that you care about the topic and aren’t just “shopping it around for the widest distribution net possible,” said Wilson, who helped launch the Roy Howard Community Journalism Center at the University of Southern Mississippi and has taught journalism and media literacy courses.
Wilson noted his newsroom looks for pitches that align with their mission to provide original community or “solutions-oriented journalism.”
“If your pitch can’t translate into something that’s useful for our readers, and you can’t quickly make me understand how it could, I won’t spend a lot of time on it,” he said.
When asked whether press releases have been a good source for developing stories, Wilson said they definitely can be.
“A lot of our PR friends write beautiful copy and send a lot of assets that we can easily pick up and share online or in print,” he said. “That’s very helpful, but we strive for original reporting, which is why I value thoughtful pitches — those that are clearly oriented to our mission and coverage area — more than press releases.”
He added that personal touches in pitches “go a long way.”
Wilson said: “If it’s obvious that I’m just one peg in your press distribution machine…give us some exclusivity and pitches tailored to us, and I’m all in. You’ll have a friend for life, and that friendship will be mutually beneficial.”