PR & Media Relations: Top 22 Posts from a Decade of (Really) Bad Pitches

"I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice."— Kanye West

We’re a bit more humble than Mr. Kardashian. But, as we mark the 10th birthday of the award-winning Bad Pitch blog, we wanted to lead with swagger, good news and bad news.

The good news? Thanks to buzzwords like big data, the cloud, social media and more, it’s harder than ever to send a bad pitch.

The bad news? These same words make it easier than ever to send a bad pitch. Yes, after 10 years of writing the Bad Pitch blog, I’m afraid we can still suck as an industry. And some of us still do...big time. I get emails every day that prove this out.

We started the blog to help folks out more than anything else. Shaming was a way to blow some steam off in the process. I can tell you we never thought we'd be writing for it 10 years later. So here are some of the better posts from the last 10 years to help entertain and educate anyone that might be interested. 

Good & Bad Pitches: We get bad pitches and some really bad pitches. Even the media send them our way. And we even saw a deadly trend of bad pitches. But we also get good pitches. But the good to bad ratio of pitches sent to us? One in every 100. 

Better Writing: From the perfect pitch letter and the sordid email subject, to how pictures and math can improve our writing, we covered a lot of ground in our quest to help you tighten up your writing.

The News Release: Why is the news release discussed ad nauseum in our industry? It's so bad, we even managed to write three different posts on boilerplates alone. Seriously? There have been some smart, much-needed attempts to improve this sadly, ever-present tool. But we still find ourselves having to point out the obvious when it comes to the *@&$! news release.

Social Media & Blogs: We prefer covering newer territory. Like when pitching blogs and social media were still new. 

Interview Briefs, Spokespeople & So-Called Media You Should Avoid: We look well beyond the front end of the media relations process. This includes tips for the other side of the pitch...for spokespeople and interview briefs and more. We also warned you about the pay to play outlets. Don't get me started.

But Wait, There’s More!

We've got some more content headed your way to dust off the blog and celebrate 10 years of our wrath. 

We also turned the blog into an e-book: The Bad Pitch Blog: How To Not Suck at PR & Get Great Media Coverage For Your Business, Startup, or Non-profit 

Sure, the title’s too long (blame Google and all that SEO jazz). But we weeded out the irrelevant stuff and reorganized it. So it’s not even close to the the equivalent of printing out every post. And it's cheap too.

:: Kevin Dugan, @prblog 

Image via Liberty Voice