NEW YORK: Earned media platform company Propel has released its Q3 2023 Media Barometer, which found that journalists are only replying to a small percentage of the pitch emails they open.
Based on an analysis of nearly 500,000 pitches sent through the Propel platform in Q2, the company found that while journalists opened an average of 49.14% of the pitches they received, they responded to an average of only 2.99%. Responses do not necessarily equate picking up the pitch either; it also included those who simply responded with a “no thank you.”
Propel found that 51.19% of pitch opens occur within the first hour that it is sent and 66.42% of responses take place the same day a pitch is received, typically within four hours of the send time.
When a journalist chooses to cover a story, the piece is often (68.3%) published within seven days of the pitch being sent. The most popular day for pitching was Tuesday, with 27.27% of pitches sent and 27.73% of journalist responses taking place that day.
When considering subject lines, the report found that pitches with short subject lines, between one and five words, saw the highest response rate (4.6%). Nevertheless, only 25,000 pitches used a short subject line, while most had between 10 and 15 words. These saw a response rate of 2.3%, while the middle range, or pitches with subject lines between six and nine words, had an average open rate of 3%.
The preference for short content carried to the body of emails as well. The highest response rate of 6.5% took place with pitches that were between 51 and 150 words. Those between 501 and 1,000 words saw only a 1.8% response rate.