Thick Skin and Dead Ends: A Digital PR Reality Check

Some people still think Digital PR is all “cute emails and a few quick calls.” Absolutely not. Digital PR today is more like an overcrowded arena where hundreds of PRs are pitching the same handful of journalists at the same time, all hoping their email somehow floats to the top. Everyone is chasing the same coverage, the same quote, the same backlink.

Meanwhile, journalists are completely swamped. Their inboxes look like an explosion of press releases, half of which have nothing to do with what they actually cover. And as for seeing a journalist in the wild? Good luck. You’d have better luck spotting Bigfoot grabbing a meal deal.

And then there’s the thrill of PR databases, which we pay for like treasured artefacts, only to discover half the contacts left their jobs two years ago. So the real work becomes manual list building, which conveniently transforms into the longest, most tedious part of your week.

Because they can. And because sometimes, we make it incredibly easy for them to hit delete. After grilling my journo contacts for the truth, they told me exactly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of PR outreach.

One former sports journalist shared that around 90% of the emails he received every day had nothing to do with his job. Not just slightly off topic, but entirely irrelevant. He admitted that he rarely followed up and sometimes replied politely purely to keep the peace, with no intention of taking anything forward. Brutal but fair.

Another digital journalist explained that PRs can be far too pushy. The classic sequence goes like this: call to ask if you can send an email, send the email, call to check if they got the email, call again to ask if they read it. His advice was simple. If you’ve got his email address, just send what you’ve got. If it’s interesting, he’ll use it. If not, he won’t.

He also said long, enthusiastic pitches when he’s on deadline are the surest way to get mentally filed under “absolutely not.” If the story is good, he’ll get to it when he can. Maybe not immediately, but eventually – once he’s finished juggling the other twenty stories competing for space.

Let’s clear this up because it comes up far too often. Journalists know what’s been written by AI. They can spot it instantly. The overly polished tone, the weirdly dramatic structure, the “here are three steps to success” rhythm – it’s glaring.

So if your plan is to let ChatGPT write your pitch and hope the journalist magically can’t tell, don’t bother. They absolutely can, and it goes straight in the bin. Use AI as a starting point, a brainstorm, whatever works for you, but the final pitch needs to sound like a human who actually understands the story, not a robot who’s proud of its own formatting.

1. Be Strategic with Insight

Relevance is everything now. Journalists don’t hate PRs; they hate irrelevant PRs. Learn what they actually write about, read their recent pieces and reference their work naturally when you pitch. One editor told me he values PRs who keep communication genuine and understand his beat, rather than treating him like a coverage dispenser.

2. Stop Leading With ‘We Want a Link’ Energy
Yes, links matter. But it should never be the first thing a journalist hears from you. Lead with the angle, the insight, the data – whatever makes the story worth covering. Ask for a link later, politely, only when the request actually makes sense. And if the publication has a no-link policy, accept it and move on. Trying to negotiate it will not end well.

3. Get to the Point

Journalists don’t have time to scroll through essays. You need a sharp subject line, a short intro and one clear hook. Not a brand biography. Not a 12-page report summary. Most journalists will add their own take anyway, so give them the essentials and let them run with it.

Hayley’s top tips for cutting through the noise: Keep the story relevant or don’t send it