Hot Take: You should never pitch The New York Times
Hailey Murphy on being impossible to ignore
Alex here! In addition to being a GP at our seed fund, Orchard Street, I am also the founder of comms+ agency, Daly. As someone who started a PR agency, you would think I pride myself on being a top-notch publicist. Actually, not quite. Instead, I have built a stellar team of publicity pros that I have entrusted to do that work on behalf of Daly (that’s the power of a strong org chart, people!)
I always say our Comms Director Hailey Murphy is a far better publicist than I am, and that’s not just a sales pitch–she is chronically online, authentically loves the world of comms, and has the perfect professional background to boot. So, I am incredibly pleased to kick off summer with our first Cherry on Top Hot Take, penned by Hailey.
After 10 years in the industry, I’ve created a personal “bible” around the dos and don'ts of impactful comms.
My #1 commandment? Never pitch The New York Times.
Instead, make yourself so unavoidable that they come to you.
Let me explain. Journalists are experts at finding stories. Sometimes, those stories come from wonderful PR people like us. :) Other times, they come from a journalist’s honed expertise in discerning the stories people need to know, now. No pitch or warm relationship is going to make a reporter write a story they don't want to tell, especially at a top-tier publication. This is the key to modern PR: having a keen sense for newsworthy topics now always wins out over one’s reporter rolodex.
So, how do you secure a story in The New York Times if you don’t pitch them?
Let's dive into an example: Back in 2020, I began leading the PR efforts for a buzzy wine subscription company. This was during the height of at-home COVID activities when Zoom parties and delivery services were all the rage. The DTC wine market exploded and all the major publications were talking about it.
Just a couple months after we began working together, I remember getting the dreaded “Why aren’t we in this article” email from my client after The New York Times published a piece titled: “So You're Thinking About Joining a Wine Club.”
The truth is, I had been thinking the same thing. My mind swirled with questions:
“How did the reporter find the 24 wine clubs he chose to mention in this article?”
“How could he possibly not consider my client?”
And: “What am I doing wrong?”
What I quickly realized is: I shouldn’t expect the wine critic at the #1 media outlet in the U.S. to know about my client, when other media outlets didn’t know about them yet, either! Our work with this client had just begun moving from strategy to pitching, but this conversation lit a fire under me all the same.
Thus ignited my mission to make this client’s name so well known that The New York Times had no choice but to notice them—and hopefully include them in future category-defining stories like the one we missed out on in 2020.
Over the next several months, I executed a strategy that included seeding samples with editors at outlets with high-ranking SEO, consistently pitching both evergreen and trendjacking stories, and networking with dream targets—all in favor of getting my client’s name out in the world in a big, unmissable way. And it worked—the press hits started adding up quickly.
I had begun to build a name for myself as the go-to PR gal for consumer wine stories. Inbound inquiries from reporters I had networked with started to intermix in my inbox with my outbound wine pitches. And, nearly two years after we first started working with this client and hundreds of press clips later, it finally happened—I received an inbound from The New York Times looking to test out my client’s wine club.
Two months and 65 emails with the reporter later, our client was named The New York Times Best Wine Club of 2021!
While I may never know which specific piece of press or other factor compelled the Times to finally reach out, I am confident that their attention turning to us would have never happened without the swell of brand mentions my team secured. In the two years between that first Times story and my client’s eventual inclusion, we secured over 150 press pieces in outlets from niche newsletters to national publications.
It goes to show that you never know where the editors of high-impact publications are getting their news—it could be a women’s lifestyle publication or your favorite Substack. Ultimately, with the hard work and massive results at our disposal, I was confident that if someone at a top-tier publication was writing a story about our industry, they would find us.
You may disagree with my first commandment—this is a hot take, after all. But in my opinion, your time is better spent building the profile of a brand to the point where it can not be ignored rather than having an unopened pitch sitting in an overwhelmed inbox for an outlet everyone wants to be in. And perhaps, if a client isn’t open to this strategy, they aren’t a fit for you as a comms pro.
THE CHERRY ON TOP: Reporters are our partners in crime, not our minions. Our job is to support their work as journalists. Rather than doing everything you can to land coverage in The New York Times, ask yourself: What can I do to be a valuable asset to my reporter friendlies? Your kindness will not go unnoticed.
Hailey Murphy is a Comms Director at Daly, and a Business Insider Rising Star in PR.
As a reporter who’s worked with Hailey and other Daly team members, I can confirm that their generous and thoughtful approach is a breath of fresh air!