Build a tiered media pitch list for a specific story
intermediateClaude SonnetPR & CommunicationsMedia Relationsmedia-listpressmedia-relationslaunchplanning
Use case
Use before any major announcement to build a target media list. Outputs a tiered list (Tier 1 anchor, Tier 2 trade, Tier 3 long-tail) with named journalists, recent coverage that signals fit, the specific angle to pitch each, and outreach order.
The prompt
You are a senior media strategist who has run launches at companies like Stripe, Notion, and Anthropic. Build a tiered media pitch list for{{company_name}}'s announcement about{{news_summary}}. Inputs: - News type:{{news_type}}- Industry/category:{{category}}- Target audience for the story:{{target_audience}}(e.g., engineering leaders, public-market investors, IT buyers) - Geographic focus:{{geo}}- What's strategically valuable:{{strategic_value}}(logos, executive credibility, recruiting, fundraising) - Embargo strategy:{{embargo_strategy}}(single exclusive, tiered embargo, or open release) - Past coverage relationships:{{past_relationships}}Build a list with three tiers: Tier 1 — Anchor outlets (1 to 3): The journalists most likely to drive the narrative. These get the exclusive or first call. Reserve for outlets with clear category authority. Tier 2 — Trade and category outlets (5 to 8): Verticals and trades whose readers are the buying audience. They follow the anchor coverage and add depth. Tier 3 — Long-tail and newsletter (5 to 10): Substacks, podcasts, niche newsletters, and analysts. Often higher engagement per reader than legacy media. For each journalist, output: - Name and outlet - Beat - One specific recent piece that signals fit (with a 1-sentence why-it-matches) - The angle to pitch them (different from the angle for other tiers) - Outreach order (day 1 / day 2 / launch day) - Risk note (e.g., "covered competitor 2 weeks ago, may decline" or "off this beat since January") Closing summary: - Recommended outreach sequence with rationale - Three reporters to deliberately NOT pitch and why - One contrarian outlet pick — someone unexpected who could break this story Avoid generic lists. If you don't have a real reason a journalist fits, leave them off.
Variables
{{{{company_name}}}}Replace with your {{company name}}{{{{news_summary}}}}Replace with your {{news summary}}{{{{news_type}}}}Replace with your {{news type}}{{{{category}}}}Replace with your {{category}}{{{{target_audience}}}}Replace with your {{target audience}}{{{{geo}}}}Replace with your {{geo}}{{{{strategic_value}}}}Replace with your {{strategic value}}{{{{embargo_strategy}}}}Replace with your {{embargo strategy}}{{{{past_relationships}}}}Replace with your {{past relationships}}
Example
Input
company_name: Linden AI news_summary: $42M Series B for autonomous customer support, with three named customer wins from competitor churn news_type: Funding round + customer milestone category: Enterprise AI / customer support software target_audience: VPs of Customer Experience and CFOs at $50M-$500M ARR SaaS companies geo: US, with secondary UK/EU interest strategic_value: Recruiting senior engineers and accelerating enterprise pipeline embargo_strategy: Single exclusive to Tier 1, then 24-hour tiered embargo to Tier 2 past_relationships: Founder did a podcast with Lenny Rachitsky in 2024; comms lead has placed two prior pieces with Ron Miller at TechCrunch.
Output
TIER 1 — ANCHOR (single exclusive) Kate Clark, The Information — Beat: enterprise SaaS, AI applications. Recent piece: "AI support startups quietly losing logos." Match: she has a live thesis on consolidation; we are the named winning side. Pitch angle: data on competitor churn + Bessemer's investment thesis. Outreach: Day 1, exclusive offer. Risk: high traffic of competing pitches; needs decision in 24 hours. TIER 2 — TRADE AND CATEGORY (24-hour embargo, Day 2 outreach) Ron Miller, TechCrunch — Enterprise SaaS funding. Recent: covered Decagon's Series C. Match: existing relationship. Angle: funding + ARR milestone. Risk: low; covers most enterprise rounds. Aisha Counts, Bloomberg — AI enterprise adoption. Recent: piece on enterprise CIOs cutting AI vendor count. Angle: consolidation tailwind for category leaders. Risk: needs CFO-level source; offer Maya plus a customer CFO. Jordan Novet, CNBC — Cloud and enterprise software. Angle: market sizing of autonomous support. Risk: prefers public-company angles; lower priority unless Bessemer offers public-market context. CX Today (Charlie Mitchell) — CX/contact center trade. Angle: deflection benchmark data. Risk: low. Saastr (Jason Lemkin newsletter) — Recent: "AI support: the consolidation is here." Angle: founder POV piece, possibly co-bylined. Risk: he writes when he wants, hard to commit. Enterprise Software Times (analyst, Liz Miller, Constellation Research) — Angle: analyst note. Risk: long lead, may publish a week late. TIER 3 — LONG-TAIL AND NEWSLETTER (Launch day) Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny's Newsletter) — Existing relationship. Angle: a follow-up to the 2024 podcast: how the company scaled from there. Format: podcast or guest post. Packy McCormick (Not Boring) — Angle: contrarian take on the agentic-AI thesis from a customer-validation angle. Luke Metro (The CX Lead newsletter) — Practitioner audience. Angle: the customer churn story, told from the buyer's POV. Sarah Wang (a16z Future) — Angle: enterprise AI category analysis; would not lead the story but cite it. AIM Group analyst note — picks up trade citations downstream. Latent Space podcast (Swyx) — engineering audience for recruiting. Angle: founding engineer interview. RECOMMENDED SEQUENCE Day -3: Brief Kate Clark, offer The Information exclusive with 48-hour embargo. Day -1: If exclusive lands, send embargoed pitch to Tier 2 with 24-hour clock. Day 0: Tier 3 outreach goes live with the published piece as proof. DO NOT PITCH - Reuters / AP — funding rounds at this size rarely break through and the wire dilutes the exclusive value. - Casey Newton at Platformer — covers consumer-facing AI ethics, not enterprise SaaS rounds. Wrong beat. - Eric Newcomer — recently covered our lead investor's other portfolio company; conflict optics. CONTRARIAN PICK Stratechery (Ben Thompson). He rarely covers single-company news, but his recent essays argue support is the canonical agentic-AI use case. A briefing (not a pitch) on the customer data could yield a referenced mention in a future piece, which is worth more than coverage in most trades.
Tips for best results
- 1Tier 1 should be one outlet for an exclusive, not three. 'Tier 1' is not a synonym for 'big.' It means the outlet that sets the narrative.
- 2Cut any reporter you can't tie to a specific recent piece. A list of names without coverage links is a list of strangers.
- 3Trade press moves enterprise buyers more than TechCrunch does. Don't undervalue Tier 2.
- 4The 'do not pitch' list is as important as the pitch list. Pitching the wrong reporter burns the relationship for the next launch.
- 5Newsletters and podcasts often outperform legacy outlets on conversion to pipeline. Track downstream signal, not just impressions.
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