3 Ways To Refresh a PR Pitch

In the relentless 24/7 news cycle, your press release or pitch can quickly get stale. Stories that seem to have a strong sense of urgency today can feel like old news tomorrow.

Still, before you archive that pitch, check to see if there is still a pulse. And if so, here are three ways to potentially resuscitate it.

Wait for a hook off the news cycle: What seemed like old news can become new again if you keep close tabs on the hot stories and emerging trends dominating headlines. These days, maybe you can rework a pitch with an inflation angle or find a tie-in to any number of trends from the remote work revolution to take-your-pick crises of the moment.

Shift your focus: You can’t turn back the calendar, so if the clock runs out on a timely pitch, it’s time to shift gears. If your pitch was related to an event that occurred on a specific day, then maybe something newsworthy happened at that event worth pitching. For other time-dependent stories, you might be able to reset the shot clock with another angle that taps into a different sense of urgency.

Pivot from news to feature story or op-ed: News sells, but so do inspiring stories and provocative opinions. Revisit your news-oriented pitch to see if there is a compelling human angle worth pursuing. Or see if there are some nuggets in there that can be explore in greater depth and context via an op-ed.

Some pitches simply cannot be revived (although they can live on in a newsletter story or blog post). But before you leave them for dead, see if a fresh perspective can allow them to live another day.