• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 10, 2023

Pundits looking for insights on current events might gain some wisdom from the response by journalists to public relations pitches.  

It turns out that reporters are interested in tech subjects, less so in spectacles and events. 

To put it in context, the average email response rate is 2.95%, according to Journalistic Engagement H1 2023, a study by Propel PRM. But some PR pitches have way exceeded the average.  

For instance, emails on quantum computing pulled a response rate of 18.58%. And those mentioning Russia and Ukraine generated 17.28%. 

Stories on Series A funding rounds snared 11.92%, and those on AI 11.57%.

In addition, pitches to influencers achieved a 27.41% response rate, and those to podcasters 17.29%. 

Twitter messages drew 1.19%, TikTok 1.5% and Meta 1.19%. 

In contrast, emails on King Charles III’s coronation saw a mere 0.37%.

And, sadly, pitches on Joe Biden were responded to only 0.22% of the time and those on Donald Trump 0.54%.

At the same time, solicitations on the Oscars, the Super Bowl and Juneteenth garnered response rates of less than 1%. 

The PR strategy of tying a campaign to popular events “isn’t working like it used to,” says Zach Cutler, co-founder and CEO of Propel PRM.  “In fact, it seemed as if the more popular the topic, the less likely it was to receive any engagement.”

Propel analyzed over one million anonymized PR pitches sent to journalists over its platform between January and June.