The Pitch Autopsy: Why Journalists Delete Most PR Emails
Objective: Given three media pitch emails, one competent and two flawed, correctly identify why a journalist would ignore each flawed pitch and confirm what actually works in the competent one, distinguishing genuine defects from plausible-looking non-issues.
You're a junior comms associate on Nykaa's PR team. Your manager hands you three draft pitch emails other team members wrote before they go out, and asks you to red-flag anything that would get them deleted by a journalist before you approve sending them.
Read each pitch as the receiving journalist would, then decide which pass and which get flagged, and why.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, easy to comment inline on each pitch
Free searches show a journalist's recent coverage history to verify beat fit
The process
Specimens to review
You're the beauty & lifestyle editor at a mid-size publication. This pitch just landed in your inbox. Do you open it further, skim it, or delete it? Identify what's wrong, and confirm what (if anything) about it is actually fine.
Subject: Exciting News! Hi [First Name], I hope this finds you well. I'm reaching out to share some exciting news about our latest product launch. We think your readers would love to hear about it! Our new AI-powered gadget case is now available and we'd love to send you one to try. Let me know if you're interested in covering this! Best, PR Team
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Same editor, a different pitch. Read it as the journalist would and identify what makes this one unusable as written, separate from anything that's a reasonable pitch practice.
Subject: The Biggest Beauty Launch of the Decade Hi Priya, We're thrilled to announce a revolutionary, game-changing product that will completely transform the skincare industry forever. This is, without exaggeration, the most important launch our category has ever seen. We'd love to get you a sample and quotes from our team whenever you're ready to write this up. Thanks, The Team
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
A third pitch, referencing the editor's actual recent article. Confirm whether it's genuinely well-built, and flag anything, even minor, that could be tightened.
Subject: Data point for your piece on Gen Z skincare routines Hi Priya, Loved your piece last week on Gen Z's shrinking skincare routines. We just closed a survey of 2,000 Indian shoppers under 25 and found 61% now use 3 or fewer products daily, down from 6 in 2022. Happy to share the full dataset early, and our head of research, Ananya Rao, can speak to the causes if useful for a follow-up. Best, Media Team
Specimen: synthetic, realistic
Final deliverable
A one-page pitch approval memo marking each of the three draft pitches Approve, Revise, or Kill, with the specific line-level reasons for any Revise or Kill verdict.
See a reference example
Warby Parker PR desk, pitch approval memo (excerpt) PITCH 1, 'New Frame Collection Drop' — KILL - Sent to a finance reporter with no fashion/retail beat history - No spokesperson named, no data point, just a product announcement PITCH 2, 'Home Try-On Waitlist Hits Record High' — APPROVE - Targeted correctly at a retail-beat reporter who covered DTC waitlists last month - Leads with the number (20,000-person waitlist) in sentence one - Names Neil B. as spokesperson, available for interview PITCH 3, 'Sustainability Update' — REVISE - Real data point buried in paragraph three, move it to the opener - Otherwise beat-appropriate and quotable
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Correctly identifies both critical defects in the mass-blast pitch
- Correctly identifies the oversell pitch's lack of substantiation and missing spokesperson
- Does not flag any of the well-targeted pitch's genuine strengths as defects