How to secure media coverage for your client

Integrate that rhythm seamlessly with perfectly-timed guests and sources, and you’ll ensure incredible press coverage for your client or organization. If that sounds easy, it’s not.

Opportunities abound, however, to gauge that rhythm and work within it to ensure absolute benefits:

1. Know when to hit “send” on a pitch.

Media researchers annually study the ” when” part of pitching. Anecdotal evidence supports their findings.

The media professionals with whom I spoke largely identified 7-10 a.m. Eastern time weekdays as the time when journalists are most receptive to pitches. Fridays are out, unless someone is writing or producing a weekend story. After 5 p.m. Eastern time on any given day is a nonstarter. Sending emails or calling on weekends is ridiculous unless you have the perfect contact for a breaking story.

“When I’m back at my desk around 9:30, I start reading in and review pitches for the next day,” a veteran producer for a cable network morning show tells me. “Others who run a show at different times may read in at other times, but hitting inboxes in the morning by 10 a.m. is usually a safe bet.”