OFF-MUTE 🔈
🤔 Whether you find generative AI exciting or frightening, it’ll be a big media focus this year.
💥 It’s changing how we live and work and even how some news publications and companies are publishing content.
📰 Our Senior Vice President Rachel Marsden recently invited our longtime friend Sam Whitmore of SWMS to Inkhouse to hear his perspective on pitching AI-related stories and his general advice for media outreach in 2023.
📝 Here are some of the key takeaways from that conversation:
🤖 Generative AI is here to stay. Sam reminded us that reporters love to write about horse races – and the companies with a big lead, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. If you’re pitching an AI story to a reporter, he advises that you communicate how it enhances something that already exists or enables the world to do something new that hasn’t been done before. Of course, reporters prefer the latter.
💬 Relationships with reporters still matter. You need to establish a real relationship with a reporter just like you'd make a connection IRL. Follow their work and offer unique perspectives or astute observations. This shows them that you deeply understand their audience and beat. Sam recommends that you wait to “pitch” them after you’ve built a good rapport.
📊 Raw data > polished marketing materials. Think of data like wallpaper. Sam put it like this: “[Data] is almost never the story itself, but it’s back up for why the story is being written in the first place.” One way to stand out is to offer a raw data set to the reporter or influencer instead of the final, polished company report. That way, they can analyze and dig into the findings depending on what’s important to their readers. And if access to the raw data isn’t possible, make sure the report is timely to increase your chances of earning media coverage.
👀 Page views continue to play a role in the editorial decision process. Reporters are making decisions based on what’s more likely to perform. They often turn down pitches — even ones they like — because they know the stories aren’t going to get high page views. Today reporters are aiming for headlines with trending topics like generative AI or with big tech brands like Google or Microsoft, or even outspoken personalities like Elon.
💥 Startups can break through the noise. “Can you get your startup execs to talk about what they know regarding business management and profit?” Sam says that’s the ticket to getting attention from VentureBeat and TechCrunch because they want to educate readers and show the pathways to success.