Five questions to ask before pitching your tech story to the media

Tech editors and reporters receive countless press releases and briefing requests everyday. Making yours stand out from the rest — especially if you’re a one-man/woman-marketing/press relations-show — can be a challenge.

Hundreds of thousands of requests hit my inbox during my eight years as a Web site editor. Most of them hit my virtual trashcan because the sender didn’t understand what information I needed to do my job. In this first post of a series on how to work with the media, I offer five questions to ask journalists before you pitch your tech stories in an effort to increase your chances of getting media coverage.

Before you pitch your product release, new partnership, customer win, etc., you need to understand how the media outlets you’re targeting use such information. This requires a little preliminary effort on your part. Preface a call or e-mail to the journalists you’re targeting by saying that you would like ten minutes of their time so that you can learn how to better meet their needs. Begin by asking if they publish stories on the general topics you’re looking to promote. Some media outlets don’t publish customer wins. With this knowledge, you can avoid sending extra e-mail that would just get deleted anyway.

Oftentimes media outlets assign different types of content to different mediums. For example, a new product release might not be of interest to the news reporter, but it might be of interest to the staff blogger. So ask who would be most interested in specific types of announcements and the best way to reach them. You can then follow-up with each of these staff members to introduce yourself and go through this same set of questions.

You should also ask journalists about their deadlines. Some journalists have daily deadlines. Timing your outreach appropriately — especially if you’re cold calling — will help ensure you get an attentive ear.

If you’ll be trying to get facetime with journalists via briefings,  find out upfront what — if any — media coverage may come from the briefing. Briefings take a lot of effort and planning on everybody’s part, so you’re smart to also ask how the briefing can be tailored to the interests of those on the call.

A preliminary call or e-mail with members of the media will help set the tone for future communications. You’ll have a better idea of how to get journalists’ attention, and they will appreciate the effort you put into delivering information they can actually use.

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Crystal Bedell
Freelance technical copywriter & content strategist
cbedell@bedellcommunications.com