Bad pitches? Yes, it’s true. Sometimes – and some of the students here might find this shocking – but sometimes PR people pitch stories to the wrong people, or the wrong publication, or in such a sloppy, disastrous manner that it ruins the credibility of the PR person and his/her company. When I worked for a company in Cleveland, I was guilty of this. I don’t consider it my fault – entirely – I was short on time and expected to make turn proverbial water into wine. Well, I’m not a magician and at the time I was a relatively inexperienced PR flack, so I made mistakes. Deep down, though, I knew something was wrong. Alas, I was unable to fix it.
That’s behind me know, I feel a little more experienced, and a lot more knowledgeable. But how do we continue to learn about pitching? Especially in this era of new media, how do we stay on top. Well, fortunately there are real time case studies going on as we speak. Phil Gomes pointed to a new blog started by Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer from which we can all learn, The Bad Pitch Blog.
So I think it’s mostly meant for Blog pitching, but from what I read, each post has a lesson we can learn about pitching news, stories, or whatever to a wide variety of media. Newspaper, magazine, blog…no matter what you’re trying to pitch the cases are here. A great resource, use it wisely. It’s also pretty funny, too.
Filed under: PR Lessons Learned, Future of PR, One to watch, Public Relations |
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Luke Armour - Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity 
The Bad Pitch Blog is funny and resourceful. I haven’t had much experience with pitching either. Simple, without fluff and pretty little pink plastic flowers thrown in equals good pitching!
Luke – Thanks for the link.
Beth – Thanks for the compliment.
The Bad Pitch blog is a lot of things, started by two guys that have also made their own mistakes pitching. We also got tired of remaining silent while the media took our entire industry to task for the work of its minority.
So we created this resource which is designed to be educational and entertaining. Some folks wonder why we call people out but wouldn’t you rather learn a lesson from one of your own and not be taken to task by the media?
We cover good pitches and bad pitches and are not limited per se to email pitches or just pitching to blogs. We have a TON of territory to cover and appreciate you stopping by and participating.
We encourage questions. No question is bad. Pitches, but not questions!
Thanks again.