Here’s a number worth taping above your desk (do you still have post-its?): 72% of journalists say fewer than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant to them. That comes from Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report, which surveyed nearly 1,900 journalists around the world. And according to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026, 88% of journalists delete pitches that miss their beat.
Before that sounds grim, flip it around. The same research shows journalists also lean on PR more than ever. Two-thirds rely on PR-provided content for story ideas, and 86% say at least some of their work started with a pitch. The door is wide open; it just opens for the pitch that clearly belongs in that reporter’s inbox.
So the game isn’t volume. It’s fit.
Why relevance is the whole ballgame in media relations
More than ever, newsrooms are stretched. Cision found that 49% of journalists name shrinking budgets, staff cuts and heavier workloads as their biggest obstacle. When someone is covering more ground with less help, a pitch that makes them do the matching work tends to land in the archive.
Muck Rack’s data adds a helpful nuance: 78% of journalists consider a pitch relevant when it affects their audience or community, not just when it sits inside their coverage area. Relevance isn’t “you cover tech, and we’re a tech company.” It’s “your readers will care about this, here’s why, and here’s why today.”
Four ways to write a media pitch that feels made for one reporter
Read before you write. Spend ten minutes with a reporter’s last handful of stories. Which angles do they return to? Who do they like to quote? One line connecting your news to something they’ve covered shows you’re a reader, not a list. It also pays to show up where they work: Cision found 62% of journalists use LinkedIn professionally, which makes thoughtful, relevant comments a quiet way to be familiar before you ever pitch.
Lead with their audience’s stake. Open with what changes for their audience. Picture a regional bike-share company pitching a city transit reporter: instead of leading with its funding round, it opens with its own rider survey showing that a large share of trips replace a car commute, and offers the full data set. Same company, same week, very different reception.
Bring what they can’t easily get elsewhere. Right behind clear relevance, journalists value interview access to relevant sources (58%), original data or research (40%) and high-resolution images (37%), per Muck Rack’s findings as summarized by the University of Minnesota. Bring the sources, then have a spokesperson ready to talk (our five media training tricks help there), and lead with the number, not the adjectives. Sourced, specific facts also serve the AI engines now reading your press releases.
Respect the inbox. 69% of journalists prefer pitches under 200 words, 78% prefer them before noon and 62% prefer a one-to-one email over a mass send. One timely follow-up is welcome. A drip campaign is not.
A word on AI-written pitches
AI tools are great for research, like scanning a reporter’s recent coverage. Writing the pitch itself is another story: Cision found 53% of journalists oppose AI-generated pitches, citing accuracy and personalization. Let the tools do the digging, then write the pitch with a human ear for what this one reporter needs.
Before you hit send
Ask one question: if this reporter’s editor asked “why us, and why now?”, does the pitch already answer it? If it does, you’ve written something a busy newsroom is glad to see. Relevance is a form of respect, and journalists feel it within the first sentence. Fewer, sharper pitches travel further than a hundred generic ones.
