The average reporter at a national outlet gets 200–400 cold pitches a week. Roughly 60% never get opened. Of the ones that do, the median time-on-page is under 15 seconds. The reporter isn't reading your pitch — they're deciding whether to throw it away.
That's the entire game. Everything that follows is about respecting those 15 seconds.
The three signals that survive the skim
When we read through thousands of journalist replies on ShowSources — the ones that converted into coverage and the ones that didn't — three signals show up over and over in the messages reporters chose to engage with.
1. The pitch is obviously for them, not blasted to a list
Not "Hi Jane" pasted from a mail merge. The pitch references something they actually wrote, the angle they tend to take, the publication's editorial tone. Reporters can smell a list email in two seconds — partly because they've already seen the same wording from twelve other PR people that morning.
This doesn't mean writing a love letter to every reporter. It means one or two specific lines that prove you read their work. "Your piece on X argued Y — here's a source for the follow-up" is a complete pitch.
2. The story is told in the first three lines
If a reporter has to scroll to find out what the pitch is about, they've already moved on. The pattern that works:
- Line 1: The news, in one sentence.
- Line 2: Why it matters now.
- Line 3: Who they can talk to.
Everything else — bio, credentials, scheduling, company background — goes below the fold. Most pitches invert this and lead with three paragraphs of company history, then bury the actual story in paragraph four. Don't.
3. The ask is small
The pitches that get replies don't ask for a feature, a press tour, or an exclusive. They ask for one thing — usually a 15-minute call, sometimes just permission to send a longer email. Big asks die early because the reporter can't say yes to them on the spot. Small asks are easy to accept on instinct.
A template that works
Here is the shape we see succeed most often. Use it as a starting point — don't paste it verbatim, you'll get caught.
Subject: [Reporter's beat] — [the specific news, 6–9 words]
Hi [first name],
[One sentence about something specific they wrote, recent enough they'll remember it.]
[The news. One sentence. No setup.]
[Why it matters now — a number, a date, a comparison.]
I can connect you with [name, title, one-line credential] for a 15-min call this week if useful. Happy to send more detail first if you'd rather skim it.
— [Your name]
[Phone]
Four short paragraphs. Under 120 words. That's the ceiling.
What never works
A few patterns kill pitches without exception:
- Subject lines with "Quick question" or "Story idea" — reporters delete these on sight.
- Leading with an attached press release. Press releases are reference material, not a pitch.
- Following up more than twice. The third follow-up is what gets you blocked.
- Pitching the wrong beat. A tech reporter doesn't cover consumer travel, even if your company is "tech-adjacent."
Where ShowSources fits
ShowSources exists because the matching step — finding the right reporter for the story — is where most pitches go wrong before they're even written. The directory shows you which reporters cover your beat, what they've written lately, and how they prefer to be contacted. You can pitch faster and with the specificity reporters actually respond to.
If you're new to this, start with two or three reporters you've genuinely read. Write a 100-word pitch using the template above. Send it. See what comes back. You'll learn more from three real replies than from any guide.