By Ro Thompson, Account Supervisor at Peppercomm
The fastest way to lose a reporter is to make your goal their goal.
Client wants coverage. Announcement needs attention. Your spokespeople are available. None of that, on its own, gives a journalist a reason to care. Yet too many pitches begin and end with what the client or company wants, leaving the reporter to find the “story” buried inside.
Reporters have been telling us for years what happens next: delete.
Why are we losing reporters?
Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report puts a hard number on the disconnect. 72% of journalists said no more than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant. When asked why they reject a pitch, 82% cited a mismatch with their audience or coverage area, 53% said it was too promotional, 34% said it lacked a clear news angle or point of view, and 27% said it felt generic or mass distributed.
Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026 tells the same story from another angle. 88% of journalists said they immediately disregard a pitch that is irrelevant to their coverage. 47% said relevant pitches arrive seldom or never. Meanwhile, 14% receive more than 20 PR pitches on a normal workday. We are asking overloaded people to sort through a lot of bad ideas.
The reporters I recently asked were even more direct. A journalist at a top-tier markets outlet said generic emails that misspell their name or leave an “XX” in the message field are easy to scroll past. But when a PR professional (PR pro) references a recent article they wrote, the reporter noted they usually take time to read it because the outreach approach shows genuine thought behind the pitch – and that the PR pro crafted something personal.
A freelance journalist who previously worked at a top-tier outlet said the vast majority of pitches they receive have “literally nothing to do” with anything they have covered. The reporter also identified a deeper problem: many PR people pitch a person or a company instead of pitching a story.
Satta Sarmah Hightower, freelance B2B tech writer, also told me that a big reason PR professionals lose reporters is because their pitches lack context and relevance. “Crafting a great pitch takes time and research, and it’s often obvious when a PR person sends a mass email that they’ve only tweaked slightly,” she said.
That distinction matters. “Our CEO is available” is not a story. A company description is not a story. Even an impressive expert is not automatically a story. A useful pitch offers a timely tension, a clear narrative and a reason the outlet’s audience should pay attention now. Cision found that 79% of journalists are more likely to consider a pitch when it is relevant to their beat, audience or coverage area. Muck Rack found that 78% define true relevance even more precisely: the idea directly affects the community their audience belongs to.
So why do irrelevant pitches remain PR’s most persistent bad habit? Often, we confuse activity with value. A larger list feels productive. A lightly edited template feels personalized. But before we hit send, we need to ask: What’s in this for the reporter? What’s in it for the outlet? And, most importantly, what’s in it for their specific audience? If the answer is not immediately clear, the pitch is not ready. As Sarmah Hightower put it, “Make the pitch less about your brand or product and more about what’s currently happening in the market or how your story fits into a larger cultural moment.”
How do we win them back?
The good news is that reporters have not written PR off. According to Muck Rack, 53% say relationships with PR professionals are important or very important to their success, and 86% say at least some of their published stories begin with a PR pitch. Only 3% say all their stories are assigned by an editor or manager. There is still room for a strong outside idea. We just have to earn it.
Start by pitching stories, not clients. The freelance reporter I spoke with said effective outreach provides a clear story and potential narrative up front. The angle may not become the final piece, but it gives the writer a framework for why the subject is worth pursuing. The company and spokesperson should support that idea, not substitute for it.
Then build the relationship when you do not need something. Read reporters’ work and tell them when a story genuinely landed with you. Wish them happy holidays. Invite them for coffee to learn what they are watching, without turning it into a disguised client pitch. Attend industry events and introduce yourself like a person. Be curious about their work, not just their inbox.
The same humanity should carry into the pitch. Use their name. Know what they cover now, not what an old media database says they covered two jobs ago. Keep the note tight: 69% of journalists in Muck Rack’s report prefer pitches under 200 words. And respect the silence. Cision found that 64% want only one follow-up, while Muck Rack found that 54% seldom or never respond to pitches. No response is not an invitation to start a five-email sequence. “Before emailing a reporter, make sure you understand their beat, what they’ve previously covered, their publication’s core audience, and what makes this specific story timely,” said Sarmah Hightower.
Journalists are embracing AI in their own work, but they are increasingly wary of how it shows up in PR. Cision found that the share of journalists who do not use generative AI fell from 33% in 2025 to 21% in 2026. Yet 53% oppose receiving AI-generated pitches, citing concerns about spam, low-quality writing and a lack of personalization. The lesson for PR professionals is not to avoid AI altogether, but to use it responsibly. Let it help with research, organization or an early draft, but do not let it dictate your thinking, your work or your voice. You may be the one who hits send, but a reporter can usually tell whether you actually wrote the pitch or simply passed along something a machine produced. “AI has amplified this, but it’s also created an opportunity for PR professionals who carefully tailor their pitches to stand out,” said Sarmah Hightower.
Finally, be useful after the reporter says yes. Cision found that 52% expect a response from PR within 24 hours when they initiate contact. Deliver the interview, data or assets you promised. Do not swap the offered executive at the last minute. Do not hover over the interview and try to shape every answer. Trust is built in the handoff and interaction as much as the pitch.
You know you have done it right when the relationship stops being one-way: when reporters come directly and consistently to you with questions, requests and ideas of their own. That is not the product of one clever subject line. It happens when you repeatedly prove that you understand their audience, respect their time and can help them tell a better story.
Reporters are not asking PR pros to stop pitching. They are asking us to make the pitch worth opening.
