The best PR isn't transactional — it's relational. Here are five tactics to become a journalist's go-to source.
Most PR pitching is transactional: you have a story, you find a journalist who covers that beat, you send an email. If you're lucky, they cover it. Then you move on.
The problem is that this model treats journalists as a distribution mechanism rather than as professionals with their own interests, pressures, and preferences. The inevitable result is low response rates, generic coverage, and no loyalty when you need a journalist to pick up a story during a slow news week — or to hold off when timing is wrong.
Here are five tactics that the best PR teams use to build relationships that last.
Before you pitch a journalist, read their last ten articles. Not to find an angle — to understand how they think. What angles do they take? What do they love covering? What seems to bore them? Where do they show genuine curiosity versus going through the motions?
This knowledge is worth more than any personalisation tool. When you reference a specific article in a pitch — not generically ("I enjoy your work"), but specifically ("Your piece on the gap between VC valuations and SaaS revenue multiples made me think of a founder I know who's navigating exactly that") — it signals that you're paying attention. Most PR professionals aren't.
The most powerful thing you can offer a journalist is information they couldn't easily find themselves. Exclusive data, access to a source, a tip about a competitor's news — these are currency.
Start by giving. If you have data that would help a journalist write a better story — even if it's not your story — share it. If you know a founder who'd be a great source for a piece they're working on, make the introduction without asking for anything in return. This builds a balance that pays dividends later.
Journalists work to tight deadlines. When one reaches out for a comment or a source, they need a response within hours — not days. A fast, useful response to a journalist's request is worth more to the relationship than ten well-crafted pitches.
Set up alerts for journalists on your priority list. When they post on social media that they're looking for sources, be the first to respond with something genuinely useful. Do this consistently and you become a go-to contact.
Most PR-journalist contact happens only when the PR professional wants something. The relationships that last are maintained even when there's no immediate ask.
A practical approach: every quarter, send a short note to your top ten journalist contacts — not a pitch, not a press release. A note about something you read that reminded you of a conversation you had, or an introduction to someone they might find interesting. This takes ten minutes per journalist per quarter and transforms the relationship over time.
Not every pitch will land. Journalists who pass on your story are still an asset — if you handle the rejection well. Thank them for their time, ask (briefly and without pressure) if there's a timing issue or an angle that would work better, and move on without making it awkward.
The PR professionals who push back, follow up aggressively, or make journalists feel guilty for not covering a story are never forgotten — for all the wrong reasons.
PRAI's built-in CRM lets you log every interaction, set follow-up reminders, and track relationship strength over time — so you always know where you stand with every journalist in your contact list. The strongest relationships are built consistently, and that requires a system.
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