The Six-Hour Quote: Auditing a Journalist Pitch Response
Objective: Given a real-style journalist request from a source platform and the executive's drafted pitch response, find the defects that would get the pitch ignored, using the lesson's speed, relationship, and quotability principles.
You're the PR coordinator at Duolingo. A journalist request came in through a source platform about a feature story on habit-building apps, and your comms lead has already drafted a response for the VP of Learning Science to send. You have ten minutes before it goes out.
Compare the drafted response against the lesson's core pitching principles: speed, a real quotable line instead of a press release voice, and a specific angle.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, and a simple timestamp column makes response speed against reporter deadlines visible before it becomes a habit
The process
Specimens to review
Read the journalist's request and the drafted response below. List everything wrong with the response before it goes out.
JOURNALIST REQUEST (posted on a source platform, 6 hours ago): 'Writing a feature on habit-building apps for a national outlet. Looking for an expert quote on why some apps succeed at building daily habits and others don't. Need a response within 2-3 hours, deadline is tight.' DRAFTED RESPONSE (about to be sent, 6 hours after the request was posted): 'Duolingo is a global leader in language learning, trusted by millions of users worldwide. Our research shows that habit-building works when apps are designed thoughtfully. We would be happy to discuss further on a call at your convenience.'
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A marked-up defect list on the pitch response, with the two must-fix items flagged before send.
See a reference example
Chewy pitch response teardown (reference) Defects found: 3 1. CRITICAL — Sent 5 hours after request posted (platform showed a 2-hour average reporter close time) 2. CRITICAL — Opens with 'Chewy is America's #1 pet retailer' instead of a quotable line 3. MODERATE — Cites 'strong customer loyalty' with no number attached Rewrite before send: 'We've seen Autoship subscribers reorder 40% faster after their first vet-recommended refill reminder.' One sentence, one number, ready to quote.
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Flags the response-time delay against the reporter's stated deadline window
- Flags the missing quotable line at the top of the response
- Does not flag either distractor as a defect