PR Pitches Getting Worse, Not Better

In the last few months, I have been getting deluged with press releases and pitches. Everyone who has something to say about marketing spams me without a) thinking about relevance and b) what's in it for me (who wants to serve you). This goes with the territory, but man, it is really discouraging to see the quality of pitches going down, not up.

Pete Cashmore's got an interesting solution. He's letting in totally biased submissions from company founders about why their new service or feature is so great. All submissions are clearly marked as a guest post from a founder or CEO. They also include Pete's take the end.

What do you think of this? Do you feel cheated that I am not linking to more or do you like my filter?

Comments

[Kevin Dugan]

Steve - The Bad Pitch blog is always here to help.

Send us the good, bad and ugly. We can keep them anonymous.

Based on the feedback we're getting, it's making a difference. It turns our we're educating as we entertain.

Changing your approach won't change the quality of pitches I'm afraid.

[Tina Lang-Stuart]

Bad pitches is an age-old conversation between journalists (and now its citizen journalists and bloggers) and PR professionals. It won't go away! Being able to expose a bad pitch on a blog and moan & sigh about the quality of pitches brings the issue to the forefront again. But quite frankly, it's just business as usual.
There's, however also the "other side" to the story. Journalists or bloggers being plain rude when receiving a pitch - even if it's a good pitch.
Web 2.0 is all about collaborating. I believe if both sides try a little harder to work together, we'll get a little closer to reducing bad pitches. But it's gotta be a sincere offer to work together. Right now, I primarily hear the bloggers complaining. There's hardly ever a post on receiving a good pitch and what came of it.

[Sean Kerner]

On the flip side of the bad pitch deluge though, is that when a real good pitch does show up, it looks that much better.

[Kevin Dugan]

Tina: You're right about never seeing a post about receiving a good pitch.

Part of the reason is that when a good pitch does it's job, it doesn't become the story. A bad pitch is just the opposite...it overshadows the news it's trying to promote.

[Ken Yarmosh]

Steve, please keep filtering. I don't want to read totally biased submissions. Pete has a different motive in mind (I imagine) - which is to continue to drive his ad dollars with more content (I'm not saying that is a sole motive but it is a motive). Nothing against Pete of course, it's a smart idea for what he is trying to accomplish. But his end game looks quite different than yours. Stick with what has succeeded to this point.

[Tina Lang-Stuart]

Thanks Kevin! In the blogosphere where we all tout so loudly the values of transparency and objectivity, it wouldn't hurt to mention both sides. There just seems to be a focus on complaints (and I know that's just human nature) versus praise.

But Steve and Pete both try to find a solution. That is helpful.