What to do when stories don't run

How to deal with a pitch getting accepted, but not published...

We’ve all been there: the excitement of getting a “yes” after you’ve pitched to a great publication and then… nothing happens.

If you’re in PR, that might mean you’ve handed over an exclusive to a journalist who was initially really interested and then they start ghosting you - and the story doesn’t appear. As a freelance journalist, it usually means getting commissioned to write a story, filing it - and then it not being run by the publication.

Both are very frustrating.

Tumbleweed… Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash

I was in this exact position with a couple of my pitches recently when Get Featured subscriber Hannah messaged me to ask if I could cover how to deal with this situation in a newsletter (thanks Hannah! 👋).

With editors under increasing pressure to do more with fewer staff, ghosting is a growing issue in the media industry. And even for experienced pitchers, it can be really difficult to know what to do when it feels like your emails are going into the void.

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but as someone who has been on the receiving end of ghosting by editors - and has definitely been guilty of taking far too long to act on PR pitches - here are my suggestions for tackling this scenario: