02/12/2025

How to Toss a Fastball When Pitching to the Media

Every association professional is in the PR business

When I embarked on a daily journalism career with The Tampa Tribune in the early ‘90s, my employer immediately gifted me with something now viewed as an unabashed luxury in the news business—a beat.

I debuted covering a suburban city council before shifting to cops, tourism, and entertainment, then added business, energy, and politics to my repertoire after joining The Associated Press. Today’s continually shrinking media landscape obliges many contemporary journalists to act as generalists, compelling them to quickly master a subject the best they can before moving on to the next.

For its 2024 State of the Media Report, Cision surveyed more than 3,000 media professionals and found that 60 percent cited downsizing and reduced resources as their biggest challenge. And 66 percent of those journalists said public relations professionals can make their jobs easier by understanding journalists’ target audiences and what they find relevant.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE’s Center for Association Leadership.