Will journalists actively request PR pitches?

Tech For PR reports on a new online service called PitchWire that facilitates the story pitch process for PR people and lets influencers (journalists, analysts, bloggers) specify their areas of interest and stories in progress. Tech For PR describes it as “a system for PR pros to reach influencers without getting under their skin.” The influencers in question don’t have to be signed up for the service in order to receive PitchWire pitches, but it helps…

For PR people, one of the most useful functions is that you can track your pitch history, see when your pitches have been read and (potentially) receive feedback on them. The service will only really be worthwhile, though, if it achieves a critical mass of registered influencers. It’s gambling on the fact that influencers view being pitched by PR pros as a necessary evil and are willing to participate in something that might make their lives a little bit easier – either by reducing the amount of email pitches or increasing their relevance. I’m a little skeptical about that. A totally unscientific poll of a couple of (news) journalists seemed to support that skepticism. And, of course, there are already media databases that provide (sometimes useful) info on individual journalists’ beats and preferences, as well as services like Profnet that let journalists request input on specific stories.

All that said, the term influencers is a very broad church these days and I can see PitchWire being a great way for bloggers to manage and extract value from the ever-increasing deluge of email from PR people.

Technorati Tags: PitchWire, PR