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The Colab Brief - 104: What the Media Layoffs Mean for Your PR Strategy

Welcome to The Colab Brief

Author

Ash + Lizzy
February 03, 2024

This week was tough.

In case you live in a cave (we don’t mean that in a rude way - we’re sure your rent/mortgage is still through the stalactite roof), TechCrunch did layoffs this week. 

We know, we know. Add them to the list. But somehow, after more than 2,500 layoffs in 2023, we still held out hope that TechCrunch, of all publications, would be spared from having to cut talent. 

We were wrong. 

Today, we dive into how the changing media landscape impacts your PR strategy and what to do about it. 

Read Time: 3 minutes 

The Skinny: 2023 saw 3,087 layoffs in the media alone. January 2024 saw 500 more. On Monday of this week, TechCrunch conducted layoffs amid a series of big industry pubs (BusinessInsider, Forbes, The LA Times). It did not go well: 

And while these seasoned reporters are left wondering what their next move is, PR people across the industry are also faced with the unknown. 

TechCrunch has, for the last nearly twenty years, been one of the most coveted tech publications in the world. Businesses at every stage make it a top-tier goal to be included in TechCrunch at least once. 

But now TechCrunch is saying that it’s shifting to “refocus its coverage around the investors, founders, and startups of Silicon Valley.”

Sooooo, what does that mean for the rest of us? 🤔

The journalism landscape has seen tremendous changes over the past several years. It used to be that you could get coverage for seemingly everything. But with the pool of journalists getting increasingly smaller, strategies have to change. 

Fewer reporters mean that there will be less overall editorial content. The media remaining will have less time to cover all of the companies/news within their beat, so it’s now your job to make it worth their while. Here’s how: 

  1. Be straightforward: From now on, your pitches need to be the most highly targeted they have ever been. You need to be upfront with why your client/topic will be of interest to this journalist and their audience, and why they should care NOW. You have a fleeting moment in your pitch, so be direct. Don’t waste their time. Serve it up to them on a recently polished silver platter, and don’t leave them guessing what makes your pitch newsworthy. 

  1. Be a buddy: Get to know the journalists you’re going to be targeting. Understand what kind of stories they work on and what kind of sources they do/don’t need to build those stories. Where relevant, offer up a spokesperson pitch so you don’t have to pitch them multiple times. After you’ve been of service to a journalist for a handful of months, you can try asking them what types of stories and sources they need for any upcoming pieces. 

  1. Be creative: Now is your time to become the best storyteller you can be. Take the time to deeply immerse yourself within your industries. Read all of the news and the research that you can. Understand what makes the industry tick - the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within, and any outside factors that may impact any of those elements. Entrenching yourself within a space will help you to come up with creative story angles when you’re short on news. 

It’s also important to keep an eye on the recently released journalists and what they do next. Many of them will start their own blog/publication/podcast of some sort, at least in the interim, so keep tabs on your top peeps. You may just get in on the ground floor of the next big thing.

Until next week -

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