• by Ray Schultz , October 23, 2023

Journalists and publications are increasingly being pitched by PR people to get mentioned in their…podcasts. 

In Q3 2023, there was a 53.19% increase in the number of pitches to podcasts over Q2, according to the Q4 2023 Propel Media Barometer. 

Podcasts have become “a more favored avenue for getting messaging across to niche, interested audiences,” the study states. 

But the annoyance factor may be catching up: There also was an 8.5% decrease in the number of responses, for a total response rate of 15.18%. 

In contrast, journalists responded to 3.33% of received pitches in general, although they opened 48.28%.  The response rate, which can included anything from written acknowledge to interest in the story topic, marked an 11.47% increase YoY. 

Pitches sent on Tuesday received the highest response rate: 26.06%. 

Body copy lengths of 51-150 words did best, with an average 7.9% response rate. 

Subject line lengths of 1-5 words received the highest response rate (3.8%), but those with 6-9 words pulled the highest open rate: 50.31%. 

Gen AI drove a 9.4% response rate, versus 1.74% that mentioned only AI.  

The study wryly notes that there were no responses to pitches using Taylor Swift as a hook.  

The analysis is based o a sample of 415,233 pitches sent by PR professionals via the Propel platform.