In today’s hyper-digital world of information overload, journalists and editors simply don’t have time to cover every piece of content they receive. If you’re not able to craft a cunningly effective press release, the likelihood of locking down earned brand exposure is little to none.

Here are 9 stats to keep in mind in 2019 when pitching to the press & creating press releases.

Shout out to 10 Yetis PR for providing most of these stats!

Source: Meltwater

Summary of the stats & key takeaways:

25% of UK journalists have to write 7 stories a day!

Source: 10 Yetis Digital

Takeaway: Don’t forget that journalists are under pressure too! Make their lives as easy as possible by keeping pitches and press releases very simple and easy to read with all the facts necessary for them to cover your story.

100% of journalists said press releases were their number one way of finding stories

Source: 10 Yetis Digital

Takeaway: The press release isn’t dead!

61% of reporters prefer pitches in the morning to other times of the day

Source: MediaPost

Takeaway: Send your pitches in the morning for the best chance of pick-up.

68% of journalists use Twitter to find stories

Source: 10 Yetis Digital

Takeaway: 1) Keep this in mind from a crisis-comms perspective. If your brand is caught up in a crisis, consider how it is being discussed on social media and the fact that a journalist may shape their story based on this. 2) Consider announcing news and updates on social media.

74% of journalists use Twitter to research a story they are working on

Source: 10 Yetis Digital

The hashtag #PRrequest has been used more than 200,000 times in the last 12 months

Source: Meltwater

Takeaway: Keep an eye out for PR requests that are relevant to your company on Twitter. If you have access to media monitoring software, you can set up a boolean query with the hashtag #journorequest alongside keywords around your industry to find only the most relevant PR ops!

Typos & missing contact details is the most common source of frustration for journalists

Source: 10 Yetis Digital

Journalists often have more than 300 emails waiting for them each morning

Source: HoustonPR

76% of journalists say that they feel pressure to think about their story’s potential for sharing on social media platforms

Source: BentoBox Media

This was originally posted on Meltwater UK‘s blog on 22nd November 2018.

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