Secure earned media coverage and pitch journalists
Runs earned media strategy across reactive, proactive, inbound, and owned PR modes, with a pitch quality bar and beyond-AVE measurement.
Why it matters
Get your software product covered by journalists, podcasts, and newsletters through strategic earned media outreach-newsjacking trending stories, pitching original angles, responding to press requests, and building a press kit that converts attention into backlinks, brand legitimacy, and sales conversations.
Outcomes
What it gets done
Newsjack trending stories by scoring relevance, drafting angles, and pitching journalists within hours
Build scored media lists and pitch original stories to beat-specific journalists with data-driven hooks
Respond to HARO, Qwoted, and Featured press requests with quote-ready pitches under 200 words
Create a press page with company description, founder bios, logos, screenshots, and coverage list
Install
Add it to your toolbox
Run in your project directory:
curl -fsSL https://spark.entire.vc/get/ag-public-relations | bash Overview
Public Relations & Earned Media
This skill runs earned media strategy across four PR modes (reactive newsjacking, proactive pitching, inbound press requests, owned press page/media kit), gating every pitch through a 7-item quality bar and measuring coverage by AI citation rate and sales impact rather than AVE. Use it for PR, earned media, press coverage, or journalist outreach questions - when there's a real story, founder time to give quotes, and a clear ICP. Skip it pre-launch with no story, no pitching bandwidth, or an unclear audience.
What it does
Helps get software products covered by journalists, podcasts, and newsletters, working from a core philosophy that PR is a multiplier for distribution, not a substitute for it - a big press hit gives backlinks, brand legitimacy, AI-citation surface area, and sales ammunition, not 1,000 paying customers directly. It first checks for existing product-marketing context to avoid re-asking already-answered questions, then assesses whether PR is worth pursuing right now: a real story is needed (proprietary data, a strong opinion, a milestone, a sharp customer before/after, or a fresh angle on a trend), founder/exec time for quotes (journalists want people with skin in the game, not a PR rep), and a destination that converts attention (a press page, blog post, or launch) - versus skipping PR when there's no story beyond "we exist," no one can sustain pitching for 4-6 weeks, or the ICP isn't clear enough to answer "who reads this piece because of it." It recommends running at least three of four PR modes rather than over-indexing on one: reactive newsjacking (injecting a POV into trending news, low-medium effort, hours-to-days to coverage), proactive pitching (building a media list and pitching original stories, high effort, 2-8 weeks), inbound press requests (responding to journalist queries on HARO/Qwoted/Featured, low effort, days-to-weeks), and owned assets (a press page and media kit, one-time setup). The owned press page - the cheapest PR investment with the highest ROI on every future story - should include a copy-paste company description, downloadable high-res founder headshots and bios, a logo pack (SVG/PNG, light/dark, with usage guidelines), product screenshots, a recent-coverage list as social proof, founding date/headcount/funding if disclosed, and a press contact email (never a contact form) with a stated 24-hour response commitment that's actually honored. Before sending any pitch, a seven-item quality bar must all be yes: does this journalist actually cover this beat (checked against their last 5 articles), is there a clear news hook, could they write the full story from this email alone (data, quotes, customer name, contact), is the subject line specific enough to predict the headline, is the pitch under 150 words, does it avoid words like "revolutionary"/"game-changing"/"disruptive"/"synergy," and is the ask (interview, embargo, exclusive, quote) clear - if any answer is no, the pitch doesn't go out. Measurement tracks coverage count, the domain rating of placements, referral traffic from coverage, brand search lift, AI citation rate (whether ChatGPT or Perplexity quote the brand - called out as the new metric that matters), and sales conversations citing an article - explicitly ignoring AVE (advertising value equivalency), described as a vanity metric PR firms invented.
When to use - and when NOT to
Use it when someone wants help with public relations, earned media, press coverage, journalist outreach, or media strategy. Do NOT use it pre-launch with no story beyond existing, when no one can sustain a multi-week pitching effort, or when the ICP isn't clear enough to know who the coverage is even for. For startup/SaaS/AI directory submissions specifically, that's a separate directory-submissions skill with different intent and a different target list.
Inputs and outputs
Input is a trending story to newsjack, a beat or outlet to pitch, a HARO/press-platform query to respond to, or a press page to build. Output is a scored pitch angle or drafted pitch passing the quality bar, a researched and scored journalist list, a press-platform response, or a complete press page checklist.
Integrations
Reads existing product-marketing context before asking questions, and references separate materials for newsjacking, journalist pitching, press platforms, and media outlets; defers to the directory-submissions skill for startup/SaaS/AI directory listings specifically.
Who it's for
Founders and marketers pursuing earned media who want a structured way to decide if and how to pursue PR right now, run the right mix of reactive/proactive/inbound/owned tactics, and measure what actually matters (AI citations, sales conversations) rather than vanity ad-equivalency numbers.
Source README
Public Relations & Earned Media
When to Use
Use this skill when you need when the user wants help with public relations, earned media, press coverage, journalist outreach, or media strategy (not pull requests). Also use when the user mentions 'PR,' 'public relations,' 'press,' 'press release,' 'press coverage,' 'media outreach,' 'pitch a journalist,' 'get...
You are an expert in earned media for software products. Your goal is to help the user get covered by journalists, podcasts, and newsletters - efficiently, with respect for the people on the other end of the pitch.
Before Starting
Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
Core Philosophy
PR is not a substitute for distribution. It's a multiplier for it.
- Earned media doesn't drive direct conversions. A TechCrunch hit will not give you 1,000 paying customers. It will give you backlinks, brand legitimacy, AI-citation surface area, and ammo for sales conversations.
- Pitch journalists like you'd pitch a customer: specific, useful, fast, and never about you.
- The story is not your product. The story is the trend, the data, the conflict, or the human. Your product is the evidence.
- Speed beats polish on reactive PR. A B+ pitch in the first hour of a story beats an A+ pitch on day three.
When PR is worth it
- You have a real story - proprietary data, a strong opinion, a milestone, a customer with a sharp before/after, or a fresh angle on a trending topic
- You have founder/exec time - journalists want quotes from people with skin in the game, not from a PR rep
- You have a destination - a press page, blog post, or product launch that converts attention into something useful
When to skip PR (for now)
- Pre-launch with no story beyond "we exist"
- No one on the team can sustain pitching for 4-6 weeks (PR is a momentum game)
- You don't have a clear ICP - journalists ask "who reads my piece because of this?" and if you can't answer, neither can they
The PR Mix
Four modes. Most teams over-index on one. Run at least three.
| Mode | What it is | Effort | Speed to coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reactive (newsjacking) | Inject your POV into trending news | Low-medium | Hours to days |
| Proactive (pitching) | Build a media list, pitch original stories | High | 2-8 weeks |
| Inbound (press requests) | Respond to journalist queries on HARO/Qwoted/Featured | Low | Days to weeks |
| Owned (press page + media kit) | Make it easy for journalists to find you | One-time setup | N/A |
For the reactive newsjacking workflow - see references/newsjacking.md
For proactive journalist pitching - see references/journalist-pitching.md
For inbound press-request platforms (HARO, Qwoted, etc.) - see references/press-platforms.md
For where to pitch (media outlets, podcasts, newsletters) - see references/media-outlets.md. For startup/SaaS/AI directories, use the separate directory-submissions skill - different intent, different list.
Owned: Press Page + Media Kit
Set this up once. It's the cheapest PR investment with the highest ROI on every future story.
Press page (/press or /newsroom) should include:
- One-paragraph company description (copy/paste ready)
- Founder bios with headshots (high-res, downloadable)
- Logo pack (SVG + PNG, light + dark, with usage guidelines)
- Product screenshots (high-res)
- Recent coverage list (social proof for the next journalist)
- Founding date, employee count, funding (if disclosed)
- Press contact email (not a form - journalists hate forms)
- Recent press releases / announcements
One sentence at the top: "For interview requests or assets, email press@yourcompany.com - we respond within 24 hours."
Then actually respond within 24 hours.
Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar
Before sending any pitch, the answer to all of these should be yes:
- Does this journalist cover this beat? (Check their last 5 articles.)
- Is there a clear news hook - something that just happened or is about to?
- Could this journalist write a complete story from this email alone? (Data, quotes, customer name, contact.)
- Is the subject line specific enough to predict the article's headline?
- Is the pitch under 150 words?
- Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
- Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote?)
If any answer is no, don't send.
Measurement
What to track:
| Metric | Why |
|---|---|
| Coverage count (placements / month) | Activity baseline |
| Domain rating of placements | Backlink value |
| Referral traffic from coverage | Did anyone actually click? |
| Brand search lift | Did people search you after reading? |
| AI citation rate (ChatGPT, Perplexity quote your brand?) | The new measurement that matters |
| Sales conversations citing the article | The only one that matters for revenue |
What not to obsess over: AVE (advertising value equivalency) - it's a vanity metric PR firms invented.
Common Workflows
"Help me newsjack [trending story]"
Go to newsjacking.md, run the scoring rubric, draft 2-3 angles, pick the best, draft the pitch.
"Find journalists who cover [beat]"
Go to journalist-pitching.md, use the discovery checklist + dev-browser to research recent articles, build a scored list.
"What's worth pitching this week?"
Combine: recent product milestones + active news cycles + any data you've collected. Score each potential story by the quality bar above.
"Respond to this HARO query"
Go to press-platforms.md, use the response template, keep it under 200 words.
"Build my press page"
Use the checklist above. Most companies do this in an afternoon and forget about it for a year - that's fine.
Limitations
- Use this skill only when the task clearly matches its upstream source and local project context.
- Verify commands, generated code, dependencies, credentials, and external service behavior before applying changes.
- Do not treat examples as a substitute for environment-specific tests, security review, or user approval for destructive or costly actions.
FAQ
Common questions
Discussion
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