So where did you go wrong? Why isn’t your startup getting media attention? Other companies are managing so what’s the problem?

In this article, I’m going to share with you the harsh truth about why your news isn’t getting picked up by your target media, and what you can do about it.

1. No one knows who you are

Journalists need to attract and engage their readers. They are who pay the bills after all. So, when a journalist is planning which stories to cover, they have to think about what is relevant to their readers and would fascinate them. When someone tells you a story about a celebrity or someone else you know, it’s interesting. If they were to tell you the same story but it was about a stranger, you probably wouldn’t care so much. This is the same for news stories.

I realise this is a chicken and egg situation as you need press coverage to help people know who you are but there are ways to get around this.

Don’t start off by trying to be the topic of the news with a press release. Instead, look at providing comment on a bigger story or providing a viewpoint. Both of these will showcase your expertise and insight, and start to build awareness of your brand with readers. Then it will be easier to gain coverage for your news stories.

2. There is too much competition

Journalists receive hundreds, if not thousands of emails, every day and 99.1% of those will be attempts to gain press coverage. That’s a lot of competition when you consider that a journalist may write no more than 10 stories a day.

To get through every email – assuming they do – they will be scanning subject lines to determine which emails to open and then your pitch needs to be good enough to make the final cut.

Think carefully about your subject line and avoid waffle in your email. Get to the point and make sure your pitch is interesting and relevant!

3. You don’t have the right angle

I’ve seen so many cases of businesses mistaking company announcements for hard-hitting news. Unless you are Facebook, Apple or Google, a product update or appointment is not newsworthy. In fact, nothing you do as a new business is newsworthy. You are not the angle of the story.

The angle of your press release needs to be about an issue or trend that affects your target audience and your business should only feature in the story as a solution or commentator. That’s the way to write a story angle that will get covered.

4. A good story is no longer enough

Over the last decade, the number of people working in journalism has decreased. Titles have closed and editorial teams have been reduced which means there are far fewer opportunities for coverage. A good angle is no longer enough.

What you also need, aside from a great pitch, is a brilliant warm up act. This would look something like this:

1. Invest time in building a relationship with a journalist from your each of your target titles. You could do this by sending them biscuits or cakes on a Friday, praising them over email for a great article they wrote, sending comment to a breaking story, or offering them some other help such as the offer of exclusive stats or an interview with a high profile client.
2. Once you have made a connection, you can then start to offer them content. This should be in the form of a viewpoint (an opinion-based article) but make sure it’s a relevant and interesting topic that they haven’t covered before.
3. Once you’ve had your first piece of coverage published, you should be more on their radar but I recommend continuing to praise them and offering high quality content for a little longer.
4. Then when they’re responding fairly quickly to your emails and the language has become quite informal and friendly, you’re ready to pitch your press release. Just make sure to follow my tips above.

And there you have it. The harsh truth about why your startup isn’t getting media attention. Try the tips and see if you have more luck.