Why Do Some Businesses Get Covered and Others Never Do?
It's rarely about who they know or has the better story. It's about who understood what a journalist actually needed.
The Difference That Changes Everything
Paid media is space you buy. Earned media is trust you build. One journalist, one story, one relationship at a time.
That difference is the entire reason media relations works when advertising doesn't: nobody has to be told a news story is credible. They just believe it is.
Most Pitches Fail for the Same Boring Reason
They're not bad ideas. They're just not news yet.
Aleah Hordges spent over a decade as a TV journalist and was formerly a morning news anchor at Good Morning Cincinnati — which means she's been in the room where editors decide what's 'newsworthy' and what's just underdeveloped.
Most PR firms send the same generic pitch to 50 outlets and hope one sticks. It rarely does — and worse, it burns the relationship for the next pitch too.
Here’s what really works:
Finding the story angle that’s specific to the outlet, not a mass blast
Pitching the right journalist, not just the right publication
Building the relationship before you need it, not scrambling for one mid-pitch
Staying ready, so you’re not starting from scratch every time news breaks
Journalists aren't hard to reach. They're hard to interest. That's a very different problem, and it's the one we can solve.
Thinking Like a Journalist
Picture pitching a story about a new VP of Marketing hire to a journalist. They'd pass in about three seconds — and they'd be right to. Nobody outside your office cares.
The story is never really the announcement. It's what the announcement means to someone who isn't you…
Finding that newsworthy angle requires outside-the-box thinking. Each TV station, digital, print publication, journal, podcast, and radio station has its own audience, priorities, and editorial values. Therefore, we need to target them strategically.
What does it mean to pitch strategically?
A lifestyle program might feature a chef from a local restaurant during International Food Month
An evening newscast may want to hear how your mission is helping solve a hunger crisis
A digital journalist could interview you about how a new labor law affects your business
A podcast might want you to break down the importance of recycling in connection to your product for everyday listeners
A radio show may want a travel agency to discuss a new scholarship geared toward first-generational travelers
Media relations is about understanding the news cycle, current events, and trends locally and nationally. Also finding the right times to pitch relevant and impactful stories to specific outlets and journalists. This is how you position yourself as an industry thought leader, someone the press considers a go-to expert — dominating the media space over your competitors.
Reading the Room
Never pitch the same journalist relentlessly and hold off when breaking news (like a natural disaster) dominates local headlines. These are a few tricks of our trade.
the coverage gap nobody officially admits to
Most newsroom bias isn't intentional. It's structural. A beat reporter defaults to the story they already know how to tell, and marginalized communities end up featured twice a year: once for a heritage month, once when something goes wrong.
Latino, Black, Asian, and Indigenous entrepreneurs make up 38% of the country's non-employer firms. Women now own 39% of U.S. businesses. The coverage hasn't caught up to those numbers — not because the stories don't exist, but because most newsrooms haven't been pitched to the right way.
It’s time to shift the narrative. It’s time to empower our communities by telling the stories that often go unnoticed and accurately reflect the work being done, along with the contributions being made.
Let’s Elevate Your Voice