Lessons learned after helping 150+ startups with PR

Ricky Yean
ricky@prx.co
http://www.prx.co/

Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

How the media works

How do journalists pick stories?
How do journalists find stories?
What makes for a good story?
How can you do your own PR effectively?
Embargo
Exclusive
What happens if a journalist is interested in your story?
Timing
Hardware
The truth about press releases
How to think about PR for your startup?
Final thoughts

How the media works

-

The media is in the business to make content people want. Journalism in

the traditional sense is only a part of it. For example, Fox News and MSNBC
are not objective. BuzzFeed does investigative pieces, but also makes
listicles.
Journalists are working under extreme pressures due to a failing business
model. At Business Insider, a writer has to produce 5 posts a day and one
million unique visitors a month. The industry in general is churning out
massive amounts of content (500 pieces a day at WaPo, 230 at NYTimes,
222 at BuzzFeed).

How the media works

-

There are only 32,900 full-time staff journalists according to the latest census.
Newsrooms are significantly down-sizing due to business model pressures.
That means the articles you read will increasingly be written by freelance
writers and contributors, etc.
The media is not just newspapers, TV, radio, or big online media sites. Its
also blogs, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. Influence is always shifting.
Traditional brands dont always matter. Remember Gigaom? Do you know
MKBHD?

How do journalists pick stories?

-

You may have a great story, but a journalist (or the editor) still has to decide
to cover your story based on some of the following factors:
-

News cycle/whats going on in the world that need to be prioritized

Editors assignment/newsroom priorities
Timeliness of your story
Personal interest or expertise
Assigned beat/coverage domain
Viral potential of your story
Holidays/seasons/memes
If youre an early-stage company worth knowing for access to even better stories in the future
How fast/easy is it to write a good article about you
Does it help the journalists career trajectory?

How do journalist find stories?

-

Depends on the industry, but here are some sources:

-

Twitter
Niche community sites (e.g. reddit/Hacker News/Product Hunt)
RSS reader of niche blogs/sites
Relationships with industry sources, PR agents, etc.
Other journalists (they frequently forward story tips to each other)
Personal ideas
Editors assignment
Email inbox

What makes for a good story?

-

Timeliness: Why now?

Prominence: Does it involve anyone that matters to me?
Impact/Consequence: Why does it matter to me?
Surprising: Tell me something I dont know
Proximity: Is it near me?
Conflict: Does it take a stand on an issue?
Human Interest: Will people want to read it?

How can you do your own PR effectively?

1)
2)
3)

Make sure you have a good story. Ask an impartial friend if shed click on your
potential headline.
Set reasonable expectations based on the quality of your story
Research and identify the right journalists to pitch your story to
a)
b)
c)
d)

4)

Read what they write

Follow them on Twitter
Look at their job title and bios
Know their work and education history

See if you know anyone journalists trust. For example, partners at Y

Combinator serve as a reliable filter for tech reporters that if they email, the
tech reporters tend to pay attention.

How can you do your own PR effectively?

5)

Send a short pitch email

a)

Write a catchy, descriptive subject line, but dont embellish too much. Stay credible.

b)

3-5 sentences outlining the story you have in mind in simple language. Include well-known
stakeholders, metrics, and unique data to show credibility.
Personalize the email and connect to why its relevant
Let them know the nature of the pitch if its an embargo or an exclusive.

c)
d)

6)

Follow up
a)

7)

Journalists get hundreds of emails a day. Youre more likely to get a response if you follow up.

Make lives easier for journalists

a)

Make a media brief / kit so they have all the information they need should they choose to work
on your story.

b)

Answer questions promptly, make yourself available to do phone interviews, visit journalists
with your product. Journalists pursue multiple story leads simultaneously, so keep working..

c)

Help journalists stand out from their peers. For example, giving a writer you like an infographic

Embargo
-

Embargoes are appropriate if you have a high-value story or if you have a real
deadline.
Embargo
-

This means you are asking journalists to enter a gentlemans agreement to not publish your
story until an agreed upon time.

Journalists dont have to play ball. Michael Arrington doesnt honor embargoes. Some will
break embargoes in order to get a jump on others to get more traffic.

Embargoes are great if your story is very good and you dont want to offer it to just one
person. A way to make everyone first is to ask them all to agree to an embargo. Your story
has to be good enough that theyre probably going to have to cover it anyway for them to
agree to this arrangement.

Embargoes are also great if you have a real deadline. For example, if your app is not going
live in the App Store until Tuesday, then you can ask journalists to wait until Tuesday for the

Exclusive
-

Exclusives are appropriate if you want to increase the value of your story or if
you want a particular journalist to spend more time and do a good job.
Exclusive
-

This means you are only offering your story to one journalist.

To execute this, you can pick 5 writers and go down the list, giving each person 24 hours to
agree to work on your exclusive.

Journalists love exclusives because it helps them stand out and it could be a chance for them
to break out.

What happens if a journalist is interested in your story?

-

Interest does not necessarily mean coverage. Sometimes journalists are just
looking to learn, and its good to educate them for future media opportunities.
To increase your chance at closing a journalist, you can offer her something
to help her stand out from her competition. You can do this by offering them
exclusive angles.
Journalist

Josh Constine

Anyone at
Business Insider

Anyone at SF
Chronicle

Anyone at
BuzzFeed

Exclusive angle
/ offer to help
close

Offer a quote or
an interview with
your VC investor

Personal story
about how we
lived in a van to
save money
during YC

Offer data about

SF bike traffic
collected by our
product

Offer an
explainer video
and an animated
GIF

Timing
-

Unless you are asking for an embargo or giving an exclusive and the
journalists have agreed to the arrangement, its difficult to guarantee media
interest at the time you want it. In our experience, the time between initial
pitch to a published article could be as long as 6 months! Most of the time, it
takes 13 weeks after pitching for you to see coverage.
Dont engage a journalist too early. Start pitching 12 weeks before your ideal
coverage date. Journalists dont work with long time horizons unless theyre
working on a long investigative or analytical piece.

Hardware
-

If your product is physical in nature, journalists would want time to try and play
with it. Add 23 weeks of shipping and trial time to your plans.
If you dont have units available for shipping, consider scheduling a trip with
your prototype or hosting an event for local reporters.
If you are doing a Kickstarter, policies are in place at various media outlets to
NOT cover Kickstarter campaigns because theyve been burned in the past
when campaigns flame out or when products dont ship. There are always
exceptions. For example, if youve blown through your funding goal or if your
video has meme or viral potential, you might get a look.

The truth about press releases

-

Truths
-

Makes your announcement look official

- but mostly because of the official-sounding language
It satisfies regulations of the SEC
-

For public companies, Regulation FD requires a certain level of public disclosure. A

press release technically makes you compliant.

Myths
-

It has SEO value

-

Google Panda 4.0 significantly reduced the SEO value in 2014. Today, SE

agree there's value only when it generates media coverage..

You will get media coverage
-

Most journalists dont read press releases unless youre a big company they follow. The
only gating factor for distributing a press release is $$, which is not a strong signal for
quality. Some media outlets have an arrangement to syndicate press releases just to

How to think about PR for your startup?

-

Dont spend too much time on media outreach yourself. Getting to know
journalists feels gratifying, especially when you get some coverage from it, but
its more transactional than youd like think. If you dont have a great story, the
best relationships wont get you anywhere. Focus on making your company
consistently story-worthy.
Dont pay excessive amount of $$ for outside PR help. PR agencies charge
$535k/month and ask for 412-month commitments. If you are paying <$20k
a month, you are still likely the smallest client on their roster, and they will
have to spend as little time with you as possible.

How to think about PR for your startup?

-

Dont fall for the relationships trap. Most agencies claim to have
relationships with the media after just one email exchange with a writer.
Seasoned PR partners are more likely to have strong relationships, but you
have to make sure they are comfortable selling your story because the
relationships they have are built on their ability to act as reliable quality filters.
Agencies tend to oversell their ability to get you media coverage by citing past
successes. Every story is different, so past success does not predict future
performance. Instead, look for honest effort, transparency, and accountability
instead and be as helpful as you can in making your story more appealing.

How to think about PR for your startup?

-

Dont rely on PR to save your company. It is largely outside your control. With
a process in place, you can make it more predictable, but dont expect magic.
Even if you successfully get coverage, depending on how the article is written,
whether or not a link is prominently displayed, and how well the audience
resonates with the article, the impact in terms of traffic will vary. You should
also evaluate PRs ROI in terms of giving you credibility, SEO, sales lift, and
how it could dovetail with your content marketing, sales, hiring and fundraising
strategy.
Be clear about your goals. If you want credibility, dont be disappointed when
TechCrunch or the NYTimes fails to drive traffic.

Final thoughts
-

Feel free to contact me with any question. Im at ricky@prx.co

If you dont want to do any of this yourself and you dont want to hire an
agency, consider using PRX.co as an affordable and accountable alternative
to DIY or agency PR.