PRs: 17 reasons a journalist may reject your story

Do you get a big fat no from a journalist when you pitch them a story? If so, don’t take it personally.

There are loads of reasons why a journalist might not be interested – and many of them aren’t a “hard no”, because it’s just a bad story, as one of the trainees on the pitching course I recently ran at the Henshall Centre, said.

They are a “soft no”, which means it may be worth trying again at a different time.

Here are some “soft no” reasons:

1. They have covered the same topic very recently
2. There is a major story which is dominating the news
3. It has no peg/hook or the timing is wrong
4. They are too busy to talk to you
5. You’ve missed their deadline
6. The story as you described it is too complicated
7. This edition of publication is full
8. It is not their area of expertise
9. You haven’t given them a good “top-line”
10. The angle doesn’t work for them
11. The press release isn’t well written

And here are some “hard no” reasons:

1. It’s boring
2. It’s the wrong story for their publication
3. It’s very obviously a puff piece
4. The journalist is a cynical hack
5. The journalist knows they’ll never be able to sell the story to their news editor who is a cynical hack
6. If you’re pitching for TV, there’s nothing to see – no pictures

Obviously if the rejections are down to “hard nos”, then you need to rethink your strategy, try a different publication and advise your clients that it’s not going run.

To find out more about pitching, give us a call, and we can let you know when our next course at the Henshall Centre is taking place.

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