The back-to-school season provides an excellent opportunity for public relations professionals to pitch journalists in the education industry with related story ideas that will bring attention to their brand or client.
Fortunately, we have exclusive insight into what it takes to bring attention to your back-to-school story. Our 2024 State of the Media survey, which provides visibility into what journalists want and need from public relations teams, included responses from over 600 journalists who cover the topic of education.
Their feedback sheds light on what PR professionals can do to not only secure coverage in the education sector but also build solid relationships with reporters and other media influencers.
Inside the Minds of Education Journalists
Understanding what makes education journalists tick is the first step to building relationships with them. When you know the obstacles they face and how they approach work, you can tailor your outreach to be more meaningful, and your pitches will resonate more effectively.
For education journalists, “maintaining credibility as a trusted news source” emerged as the biggest industry challenge, underscoring the need for PR professionals to be extra diligent in backing up their stories with objective facts, verified data, and credible sources.
Social media has become ubiquitous for journalists in the education sector: 99% indicated they use it for work- related purposes – from promoting content to connecting with experts.
Note that “getting PR pitches” is noticeably absent from this list. Keep your pitches to email (88% of education reporters prefer it) and instead use social media to learn more about the journalists you want to connect with (and the topics they gravitate toward), engage with their community, and build rapport more organically.
What Education Journalists Want from Public Relations Professionals
Knowing what journalists want is critical in getting earned media coverage for your story. When confronted with this question, education journalists made it clear that they want press releases above all else (cited by 66%); however, original research (65%) and exclusives for stories are also highly likely to catch their eye.
And while only 34% explicitly requested multimedia assets, their actions indicate multimedia holds more value than meets the eye. The vast majority of education-focused journalists (86%) indicated that, in the past year, they used multimedia assets provided by PR professionals. Images (66%), data visualizations (34%), and videos (29%) were the most popular.
In addition, 56% of journalists are more likely to consider a PR pitch that includes multimedia elements (so long as the multimedia makes sense for the story, their audience, and their medium).
Consider how you can use these content assets to add more power to your media outreach.
What NOT to Do When Pitching Education Journalists
Equally as important as knowing what journalists want is knowing what they don’t want – or won’t even tolerate – from public relations practitioners.
When asked about the behaviors that turn them off most, journalists in the education sector cited getting spammed with pitches that had nothing to do with their coverage area or audience. Most also have no tolerance for public relations pros who give them inaccurate or unsourced information, are looking for free advertising, or refuse to answer questions.
Knowing when and how to follow up is critical – especially given that 1 in 2 journalists will block a PR professional who does so repeatedly. Most education-focused journalists (64%) actually recommend one follow up, but 1 in 4 recommend never following up at all.
How to Win Favor with Education Journalists
Getting a journalist to cover your story is a huge win, but an even bigger achievement is building a relationship with that journalist for more coverage down the line. The easier you make it for journalists to work with you, the more likely they are to do so – again and again.
With that in mind, consider the ways you can make education-focused journalists’ lives easier.
How to Identify the Right Journalists for Your Back-to-School Pitch
If you have a back-to-school (or other education-related) story, a media database like CisionOne Outreach can help you search top outlets and journalists covering education and discussing education-related trends and topics.
In addition to finding relevant journalists, you’ll also see in their profiles what other outlets they work for, recent articles they’ve written, other topics they cover, and social media activity.
From there, you can build a dedicated media list of education reporters and media influencers to target and craft pitches that are personalized (and more likely to stand out).
For more advice on crafting relevant, attention-getting pitches for any type of audience, check out our tip sheet, 10 Media Pitching Tips Directly from Journalists.
To learn how CisionOne can help you identify the most effective media contacts and channels to amplify your brand and reach target audiences, schedule a demo today.
