May 24 2009

HOW TO pitch: Mashable (series premiere)

This is the first post in a new “HOW TO pitch” series. I’m reaching out to media outlets (including popular bloggers) on the best way for public relations professionals to pitch them and increase chances of story(ies) being picked up. Each participant is asked the same set of questions and their answers will not be modified. If you would like to participate* in an upcoming “HOW TO pitch” post, email me at prsarahevans at gmail dot com.

*UPDATE #1: I have already received several emails from PR folks requesting to be featured in the series. I am currently only working with vetted media outlets and bloggers.
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Adam Ostrow, Editor in Chief, Mashable

Adam Ostrow is a new media entrepreneur, consultant, and commentator. As Editor in Chief at Mashable, Adam is responsible for the editorial management and direction of one of the most widely read blogs in the world, with more than 200,000 RSS subscribers and several million monthly viewers. Mashable is at the forefront of covering the latest technologies, trends, and individuals that are driving the current evolution of the Web. 
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1. When is/are the best time(s) to send a release or pitch your outlet?

We’re pretty much 24×7 these days, but we are most fully staffed between around 8am-8pm ET.  Also – everyone seems to submit their news on Monday and Tuesday.  Volume tends to be a bit lighter the rest of the week, so the competition to get coverage is less intense.

2. When are the worst times?

In the middle of the day on Monday or Tuesday.  We tend to be incredibly busy around those times and sometimes don’t even have the bandwidth to cover all the stories we’d like to.

3. Does your outlet have a general submission process for breaking news?

It’s best to send news – breaking, embargoed, or otherwise – to our news@mashable.com inbox.  Often people try to reach myself or our writers individually, but everyone works on different schedules so they might not necessarily get your message in a timely fashion.  But if you submit it to our main news box, someone will see it almost immediately. 
             

  

4. Should pitches go through you or are there others who should be notified?

If you mail the news box during the day, chances are it will go to me.  If you want to get a bit more aggressive, you can always tweet @mashable or @adamostrow and remind us you sent it.   

5. What is your preference email or phone?

Email! 

6. How do you feel about being pitched via social media?

I don’t mind it, but it’s really not part of my workflow, so it can be less efficient.  My Facebook and Twitter accounts are a mix of both my business and personal life, whereas our news box is all business.  So, I don’t mind it, but you’re just not doing us or yourself any favors by trying to pitch us this way. 

7. How many pitches and releases would you say you receive on a daily basis?

Probably somewhere between 150-300 depending on how busy a day it is.

8. Are there any days of the week one should or shouldn’t pitch you on?

Any day is fine, but like I said, Mon/Tues tend to be busiest, so trying other days are good for you and good for us! 

 

9. What is your biggest pet peeve about being pitched?

Getting stories that clearly aren’t relevant to our audience.  Unsolicited phone calls (I don’t answer them anyways).

10. What is a best practice you would recommend regarding pitches?

     

In a concise way, tell us why the story is relevant to our audience, link us to all relevant materials (preferable over attachments), and ideally give us advance notice with a specific time that we can publish something about your news.  And let us know who to contact if we have questions or want to dive in further with an interview or demo.  

11. Does your outlet have an editorial calendar?

Yep! 

12. What are the topics you cover?

News about the key social media platforms – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, iPhone, etc – and the ecosystem around them – third-party apps, how brands can leverage them, and how users can make the most of them.  Plus new and interesting web startups.  Our focus is mainly on getting the most out of social media.

13. How does one get you to notice their pitch?

By reading the rest of this interview and following those directions :-)  

14. What are three things you wish every PR considered before contacting you?

If the story is really a good fit for Mashable, if the story is actually newsworthy, and making sure they are contacting us through the appropriate channel (news@mashable.com).

 

NOTE: Have other questions you would like to see asked in the “HOW TO pitch” series? Tweet suggestions to me @PRsarahevans and I will consider.

 

 

 

 

35 Comments on this post

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  1. Want to Pitch Mashable - The Social Media Guide? Read This! wrote:

    [...] of the Web. Thanks to Sarah Evans, now you can read how to pitch this site and earn attention.   Click here for all the [...]

    May 26th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
  2. Fashion PR Blog PR Couture » Top Fashion PR Links wrote:

    [...] Evans launches new “How to Pitch” Feature with Mashable (via Sarah Evans [...]

    May 29th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
  3. The Electric Waffle » Blog Archive » Are you relying too much on social media wrote:

    [...] HTML and SEO are two things that I personally need to learn more about. What about pitching? It’s a skill that is often taken for granted, yet is something that successful PR folks master. [...]

    June 11th, 2009 at 2:58 am
  4. The Electric Waffle » Blog Archive » Do you rely too much on social media wrote:

    [...] HTML and SEO are two things that I personally need to learn more about. What about pitching? It’s a skill that is often taken for granted, yet is something that successful PR folks master. [...]

    June 14th, 2009 at 5:03 am
  5. 10 Highly Effective Free Ways of Generating Traffic | StylizedWeb.com wrote:

    [...] How to pitch [...]

    September 24th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
  6. How-To: Influence Influencers- Bloggers, Tweeters & Others wrote:

    [...] HOW TO Pitch: Mashable From PR Sarah Evans: First in a series of interviews with top bloggers on the best way for public relations professionals to pitch them and increase chances of story(ies) being picked up. First interview is with Adam Ostrow, Editor in Chief, Mashable. [...]

    October 27th, 2009 at 9:03 am
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  8. 10 Highly Effective Free Ways of Generating Traffic | Web Developer wrote:

    [...] How to write a press release How to pitch to bloggers Blogger Relations 101 How to pitch [...]

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  9. 10 Highly Effective Free Ways of Generating Traffic « TGOden | The Great One's Blog wrote:

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  10. 99 Most useful Social Media and PR Blog posts of 2009 « Arumugam Pitchai wrote:

    [...] 15 ways PR can help social media* 42. How to pitch to Mashable 43. A media relations tool for Twitter 44. The best social media tools for PR professionals* 45 PR: [...]

    December 21st, 2009 at 1:00 am
  11. My picks for the 99 most useful Social Media (and PR) Blog posts of 2009 « The Marketing Model wrote:

    [...] 15 ways PR can help social media*42. How to pitch to Mashable43. A media relations tool for Twitter44. The best social media tools for PR professionals*45 PR: [...]

    December 21st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
  12. How Can I Reach You? | Biotechnology and Life Science Marketing Consulting: Comprendia wrote:

    [...] during the early parts of the week, so to reach them you should avoid these times as evidenced by this post describing how to reach Mashable, one of the hottest blogs for social [...]

    December 23rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
  13. 99 most useful Social Media Blog posts of 2009 | Content to Commerce | Social Media Marketing and Branded Content wrote:

    [...] 15 ways PR can help social media* 42. How to pitch to Mashable 43. A media relations tool for Twitter 44. The best social media tools for PR professionals* 45 PR: [...]

    December 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am
  14. Top Social Media Blog Posts of 2009 | Digitl Capitl wrote:

    [...] 15 ways PR can help social media* 42. How to pitch to Mashable 43. A media relations tool for Twitter 44. The best social media tools for PR professionals* 45 PR: [...]

    December 30th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
  15. Top Social Media Blog Posts of 2009 | Digitl Capitl wrote:

    [...] 15 ways PR can help social media* 42. How to pitch to Mashable 43. A media relations tool for Twitter 44. The best social media tools for PR professionals* 45 PR: [...]

    December 30th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
  16. uberVU - social comments wrote:

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by leenelson: RT @PRsarahevans: Ever wanted to know how to pitch @Mashable? Here you go: http://bit.ly/15tCCN (Interesting: don’t pitch on a Mon/Tues)…

    April 7th, 2010 at 1:54 am
  1. Paul Roetzer said:

    Great job, Sarah.

    Love the concept for the interview series, and Adam was an excellent resource for starters.

    Paul

    May 24th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
  2. Allen Resha said:

    Great read…look forward to more good articles like this

    May 24th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
  3. Anita said:

    Nice idea. If you edit out the repeated Q14 it will be even better.

    May 24th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
  4. Cassandra Peterson said:

    Hi there, just an FYI- entry 12 and 14 are exactly the same on the above article. Also, entry 13 mentions directions on the :” how to pitch to” but, I didn’t see them anywhere.

    May 25th, 2009 at 5:21 am
  5. PRsarahevans said:

    Thanks Anita and Cassandra. I fixed the #12 and #14 issue. I was having some formatting issues and accidentally pasted the question twice.

    May 25th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
  6. Mark Aaron Murnahan said:

    I anticipate a great series coming from this. Mashable is a great place to start the series. I will anxiously await the next “HOW TO pitch:” article.

    I should print this and put it under my pillow. Considering that I just authored a book called “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends” (coming soon), I would be crazy to not place Mashable on the top of my list.

    May 25th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
  7. Coretta Jackson, MBA said:

    Sarah,

    This is a fab idea! Looking forward to more PR goodies from you!!

    Best,

    Coretta Jackson, MBA
    @businessethos
    @corettajackson

    May 25th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
  8. Angela Connor said:

    A great resource with helpful information. Thank you. I will now increase my chances substantially having the inside info on how to pitch. As a former Assignment manager in TV news, I certainly understand the importance of the proper pitch. I’ve thrown tons of press releases into the recycling bin and often told people if they wanted coverage to hold their event on a Sunday when local stories were scarce. At any rate, thanks again.
    Angela Connor | @communitygirl

    May 25th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
  9. Deb said:

    Looking forward to the rest of series. It may be voyeuristic but I love reading pitches (like on bad pitch blog) so it would be good to see some examples of both the bad and the good!

    May 26th, 2009 at 4:38 am
  10. Buy Freehold Property said:

    I am using mashable and I like to say that I have learn some new tips to get expert in mashable.

    May 27th, 2009 at 6:14 am
  11. Keyword Service said:

    It’s definitely great to see the editor’s perspective in getting pitches & press releases turned into stories. This should give us some good insight about things we may not have considered. I look forward to future editions of this series. Thanks Sarah.

    May 27th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
  12. CashBack said:

    I really should pay more attention to posts like this. Press release distribution is one area of my marketing that is lacking. Done the right way, they can create a lot of traffic for your website.

    June 9th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
  13. Business energy conservation said:

    This should give us some good insight about things we may not have considered. Mashable is such a great resource for latest tech trends.

    June 10th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
  14. gas card said:

    First of all that was a great interview, I really enjoyed the interview, me personally I would love to be able to work a website that is on such a large scale like that, I think I would feel alot of personal pride doing that!

    June 10th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
  15. Koncerty 2009 said:

    cool idea. and very nice article

    August 1st, 2009 at 6:46 am
  16. youtube gir said:

    thanx for post

    December 1st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
  17. Rent College Books said:

    great Idea, hmm so did this post show up on mashable?

    December 18th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
  18. nakliyat said:

    I have also learned via trial and error on my part. I guess I am a huge believe in using math for just about everything I work on, and I always test everything to see what works best. Still though creating a squeeze page can be hard! It’s never easy to perfect it.

    January 5th, 2010 at 8:44 am
  19. yemek tarifleri said:

    hmm very interesting nice post

    January 7th, 2010 at 5:52 am