You’ve probably tried the obvious approach at some point: find a journalist’s email, send a few lines about your business, hope for the best. Most of the time nothing comes back – not because your business isn’t worth covering, but because the pitch itself didn’t give anyone a reason to say yes.
Here’s what actually separates the pitches that land from the ones that get ignored, from finding the real story through to getting it in front of the right person.
Start With a Story, Not a Sales Pitch
Journalists aren’t looking for businesses to promote – they’re looking for stories worth telling their readers. “We sell great products” isn’t a story. “We’re a Shropshire business that just created 12 local jobs” is. Before you approach anyone, get clear on what the actual story is, separate from the fact that it happens to be about your business.
Know Your Audience
A press release sent everywhere gets read nowhere. Local papers, trade publications, and industry blogs all want different things – a local paper cares about community impact, a trade title cares about what’s new or notable in the industry. Research who actually covers your sector or area before you send anything, and tailor the story to what that specific outlet’s readers care about.
How to Pitch a Journalist
Keep It Short and Relevant
Journalists are busy and get pitched constantly. Lead with the story in the first line or two – if it isn’t clear immediately why this matters to their readers, most pitches won’t get read past the opening. Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026 report, based on responses from nearly 1,100 journalists, found relevance is the single biggest factor in whether a pitch gets read at all – and that journalists consistently prefer short, direct pitches over long ones.
Personalise Every Pitch
A pitch that’s obviously been copy-pasted to fifty journalists is easy to spot and easy to ignore. Reference their previous work, explain why this specific story fits what they cover, and send it to them directly rather than a generic inbox where possible.
Timing Matters
A story tied to a live news moment, seasonal peak, or industry event has a far better chance of landing than the same story sent at a random point in the year. Think about what’s happening around you that your story could connect to.
Building Relationships Over Time
The businesses that get covered repeatedly rarely got there from a single pitch. They built a relationship with a handful of relevant journalists over time – staying useful, responding quickly when asked for comment, and not just showing up when they want something. Treat press contacts as an ongoing relationship, not a one-off ask.
What Actually Counts as “Newsworthy”?
You don’t need to be launching a groundbreaking product to get coverage. Newsworthy angles can include: a genuine business milestone, an award win or shortlisting, original data or research from your industry, a notable local project, or a human interest angle behind the business itself. The common thread is that it tells readers something, rather than simply asking them to buy something.
When to Bring in a PR Team
Doing this yourself is entirely possible for a single story or occasional coverage. Where it gets harder to sustain is doing it consistently – building the media relationships, spotting the right angles, and pitching at the right time, month after month. That’s usually the point where working with a PR team starts to pay for itself.
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If you’re still weighing up whether PR is worth the investment at all, we cover that in Why Small Businesses Need PR, Not Just Ads.
Getting press coverage isn’t about luck – it’s about having a real story and getting it to the right person at the right time.
Want support building your story and pitching it properly? Get in touch with Dash to talk about what PR could look like for your business.