Many press outreach attempts fail not because the underlying news is unimportant, but because it's pitched without a genuinely compelling angle that makes it clear why a journalist's specific audience should care.
Why "We Have News" Isn't a Genuine Angle
A company announcement, on its own, often isn't inherently newsworthy from a journalist's perspective — the genuine angle is what makes that announcement relevant, interesting, or significant to their specific audience, which requires deliberate framing beyond the raw fact itself.
Connecting Your News to Broader, Genuine Trends
Framing your specific news within a larger, genuinely relevant trend or conversation already happening in your industry or the broader culture makes it more immediately relevant to a journalist covering that space.
Finding the Genuine Human Interest Angle
Beyond pure business facts, a genuine human story — a founder's journey, a customer's experience, a genuine challenge overcome — often resonates more with journalists and their audiences than purely factual, business-focused framing alone.
Providing Genuinely Unique Data or Insight
If your news includes genuinely unique data, statistics, or insight unavailable elsewhere, this data itself can become the primary story angle, giving journalists something concrete and citable beyond a standard announcement.
Tailoring the Angle to Specific Publications and Journalists
Different publications and journalists cover genuinely different angles even on similar underlying topics — researching a specific journalist's typical coverage and tailoring your pitch's angle to their genuine, demonstrated interests improves relevance significantly.
Testing Your Angle Before Pitching
Honestly assessing whether your identified angle would genuinely interest you if you encountered it as a reader, independent of your own involvement in the story, provides a useful gut check before investing outreach effort.
Being Willing to Lead With the Angle, Not Your Company
The most effective pitches often lead with the genuine story angle itself, with your company's specific role emerging naturally within that framing, rather than leading with company-centric framing that a journalist needs to work through to find the actual story.
Learning From Successful Media Coverage in Your Industry
Reviewing what angles have successfully earned media coverage for similar companies or announcements in your industry provides concrete, validated examples of what genuinely resonates with journalists covering your specific space.
Research what's currently resonating in your industry's coverage. SeoWolf's Longtail Keywords Tool helps you understand what topics and angles are generating genuine search and discussion interest.