Pitch

The pitch is the first move in earned media and the discipline where most campaigns succeed or fail. Pitches succeed on relevance, timing and the strength of the underlying story. Inbox volume has multiplied and response rates have collapsed across most beats. What still works: short beats long, named beats blasted, and exclusivity beats broad. The relationship investment that fuels pitching is the deskside. Matching the pitch to a journalist's beat and to real newsworthiness matters more than any subject-line trick.