It’s Not You — Startup PR *is* Getting Harder. Here’s Why.
If you’re reading this, you probably at least somewhat agree that PR is an effective tool for early-stage startups in terms of building outsized share of mind and establishing credibility. (Or, hey, maybe you just have an open mind.)
And more than a few of you are probably also in agreement that generating PR for your startup feels like it’s getting harder each year. I certainly have felt that with our portfolio of seed and Series A companies at Upfront, and I wanted to know — is it all in our heads? Is this just an excuse for poor results? Or do these anecdotes have any basis in reality?
Turns out, three big trends are contributing to a current environment that makes it harder for early stage companies to break through. Knowing why can give you more tools to succeed (not to mention hopefully a little more empathy and insight for reporters!)
#1: Fewer reporters, more pitches
We’ve all heard about the struggles to make publishing and news profitable and sustainable. For more than a decade, consolidation and layoffs in the news industry have slowly leached out reporters and jobs, with 26% fewer news jobs in 2019 than there were in 2008 (and an eye-popping 51% fewer newspaper jobs.)
And then … 2020. While just about no industry went unspared in the face of a global pandemic, news and reporters got hit hard, with an estimated 37,000 news workers laid off, furloughed or pay cut across virtually every major new group — The New York Times, Tribune Publishing, Conde Nast, NBC Universal, and on and on. That’s basically the same number affected in one year as the prior eleven years combined!
And on the flip side, there are more PR professionals than ever (counting, I guess, even yours truly.) Today there are a staggering 6.4 PR professionals for every ONE reporter. For comparison, in 1998, that ration was 1.8 PR pros to 1 reporter.
Put that together and what do you have? Way, way more pitches than there are reporters to write the stories. In 2021, 1 in 4 reporters polled by Cision reported getting more than 100 pitches a week, and if you follow any reporters on Twitter, even that number feels low:
So the first reason it’s so hard to get PR is that your pitch is just one of many, many pitches that any reporter is receiving. Even if it’s a great story and a great pitch (more on that later), you’re throwing metaphorical elbows with everyone else.
#2: Reporters are under pressure to file multiple stories a day that their readers will find engaging.
So let’s say your pitch actually makes it through to the right reporter. It’s important to remember that most reporters are being asked to file multiple stories per week, often across multiple beats. Again, per Cision, more than a third of reporters file 10+ stories per week, and over half of reporters cover more than four beats.
And while most reporters are probably not being assigned stories or being evaluated solely based on the clicks, engagement and traffic that each individual story is driving, they are certainly looking to cover the stories that their readers will care about, which will drive engagement. (This isn’t even taking into account the increasing share of people, especially Gen Z, who turn primarily to social media for news, which means that traditional sources and creators alike are favoring highly visual, highly shareable, engaging stories.)
So what does that mean for your pitch? Well, first, it means that reporters are making quick decisions about how compelling your story is, and how well their audience will respond. If your pitch is hard to understand, or the narrative is buried, a reporter is unlikely to work hard to figure it out for you. They’ll just pass.
It also means that even when you’re pitching a reporter who is versed in your space, they may still not be an expert if they’re covering multiple beats. Say you‘re a data science SaaS company; even if you’re pitching a smart enterprise reporter, they may not be deeply knowledgeable about data science, for example, or about the particular pain point you’re solving. Which is why, again, the pitch needs to make it immediately clear, to non-experts, what your story is and why it matters.
And lastly, it means that in addition to sorting through pitches, reporters need time to actually report and write these stories. So don’t give 24-hour notice before an embargo lifts, because chances are very slim that someone will have time to write a good story (which is what we all want!)
#3: Big dollar rounds overshadow small-dollar fundings.
It wasn’t that long ago that fundings of any size were reliable news-getters; while press coverage has never been turnkey, you could usually find someone to cover smaller fundings without much struggle. Those days, at least for early stage companies, are basically over; you can’t open Term Sheet or Pro Rata without seeing dozens of $50M+ Series A and B rounds listed.
An analysis of Q1 ’21 early stage rounds revealed that while the number of deals weren’t substantially up YoY, the average round size was up a mindboggling 44%. In one year!
There’s a deluge of money going into startups now, with no signs of slowdown at this point. Which, while potentially beneficial for your fundraising efforts, also means that the $4M seed or Series A round simply isn’t news itself and won’t be enough for a reporter, if it ever was. It doesn’t mean you can’t get coverage — you can — but it does require you to have more to your story.
In summary, fewer reporters + more, high-dollar pitches = early stage companies have to work harder and smarter to generate successful press. In many ways, it’s a reporter’s market and we’re all living in it.
But that doesn’t mean you can or should give up on PR efforts. The good news is that the strategy for press hasn’t really changed: offer a compelling story that’s interesting and relevant to a reporter and their audience. It’s just that the tactics, and your approach, might need to be more focused.
How? Stay tuned for part two: PR Success Starts Before the Pitch and part three: Successfully Pitching Startups in a Mega-Capital World (or see the full deck here.)
