Can I pitch to journalists I don't know?
Building relationships in an era where no one picks up the phone
Two contradictory things are true when it comes to pitching:
It doesn’t matter if you’re best friends with the journalist or editor, if the story isn’t good enough, it won’t get used.
Having any kind of pre-existing relationship will help your pitch get a foot in the door.
In short: you don’t need a strong prior relationship to pitch - but having some kind of relationship is going to help. And this is why:
I have said yes to plenty of pitches over the years from people I had never heard from before in my life - because the story was strong, the pitch was clear and it was well-targeted to me and the publications I write for. So you absolutely do not need to be on super chummy terms with a journalist in order to pitch to them.
But…
We’re all working at a time when competition for a journalist or editor’s attention is incredibly high. Earlier this month I shared how one editor’s inbox contained 600,000 unread emails she hadn’t had time to read (and since we did that interview a few months ago, that total has now gone up by another 81,000!).
In a climate like this, anything you can do to make your email stand out from the crowd will help.
Think about it: all a journalist sees when they scroll through their inbox is sender names and subject lines. So, yes, you should nail your subject line - but it will also really help if your name stands out as one they recognise.
So how do you make that happen?
Here are a few tips, based on how PRs have got in touch with me - and how I’ve built and maintained relationships with the editors I pitch to - in recent years:
Engage with their social media
Not every journalist that you’re trying to pitch to will be active on social media but a lot of us are.
Since the demise of Twitter/X (RIP), we’re all a bit more spread out than we used to be, so do a bit of light stalking of your target journalist and see where they hang out most: Bluesky, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc…
Looking at what they’re sharing will give you lots of pointers to the kind of topics they’re most interested in and the stories that are most likely to land with them. And if you engage regularly by commenting on and sharing posts, they may well start to recognise you - and, voila, you have created a relationship.
Be genuine
I’d argue this strategy only works if you are genuinely interested in the kind of things the journalist has to say and naturally want to engage with what they’re sharing. It’s very obvious (and really cringe) when someone starts commenting: “Wow, great story!” on a journalist’s posts in the run-up to sending a pitch without having anything else meaningful to say.
The joy of social media is that it enables us to quite quickly build a rapport in just a few exchanges with someone we’ve never met - but it’s still best viewed as a long-term strategy.
Some of my best contacts are people I’ve “met” on Instagram and with whom I now have a reciprocal relationship, built over many months or years - they are doing great work in a field I cover, so we share each other’s work regularly. It works for both of us.
Avoid sliding into DMs
If a journalist specifically says: “DMs open for pitches” in their bio, then go ahead.
But otherwise, assume this is a no.
(For all the reasons that you shouldn’t send a DM to anyone else in a professional context - unsolicited DMs are invasive, annoying and, sometimes, bordering on a bit creepy.)
Jump on IRL opportunities
Journalists today rarely have time to meet and chat just for the sake of it. But if you get the chance to introduce yourself on a video call or in real life, then seize it.
If you know your target journalist will be covering a conference or event you are attending, hunt them down and say hi. Being able to put a face to a name - even very briefly - makes that name much more memorable.
You don’t need to fire off a fully-formed pitch idea when you meet but it’s worth setting up the expectation that you’ll be in touch with relevant ideas. If someone I met at an event says to me: “Oh I’ve got a great women’s health story you might want exclusively - I’ll email you about it later” - then I would definitely be opening that email when it dropped.
Hire them
How do you get hold of a journalist who is too busy working to meet you? Well, one way is to offer them work.
Lots of journalists do media consultancy and/or training outside their journalism work - including me - which is a great way to meet them, start a relationship and find out exactly what they’re looking for and how they like to be pitched.
Get me (or any of my colleagues who offer this service) in for a lunchtime Q&A and you’ll not only establish a relationship but you’ll be able to pump us for all the information we’ve got for an hour.
It’s a great way to find out not just what that journalist is looking for in a pitch, but to get some juicy info about which editors are commissioning what, who is moving jobs and what topics are being obsessed over.
You’ll get great value from it, as journalists are terrible gossips and we tend to overshare - or maybe that’s just me...
Feeling inspired to start building relationships with journalists? Check out these Get Featured guides to help you pitch with confidence:
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