Public Relations

Corey HainesCommunityCreated by Corey Haines

Skill
Workflow
Business and productivity
MIT
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From the author

When the user wants help with public relations, earned media, press coverage, journalist outreach, or media strategy (not pull requests). Also use when the user mentions 'PR,' 'press,' 'press release,' 'media outreach,' 'pitch a journalist,' 'get featured,' 'media list,' 'media kit,' 'press kit,' 'newsjacking,' 'news hijack,' 'HARO,' 'Qwoted,' 'Featured,' 'reporter request,' 'tech press,' 'TechCrunch,' 'thought leadership placement,' 'op-ed,' 'guest article,' 'press contacts,' 'podcast prep,' 'podcast guest,' 'prep me for this podcast,' 'how do I get press,' 'PR crisis,' 'crisis communications,' 'respond to backlash,' 'we got hacked,' 'data breach statement,' or 'holding statement.' Also covers crisis response when something goes wrong. For startup/SaaS/AI directory submissions, see directory-submissions. For product launches, see launch. For social-media engagement, see social. For cold-email outreach to prospects, see cold-email.

— the description by Corey Haines

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a structured approach to public relations for software products, focusing on earned media as a multiplier for distribution rather than a primary conversion driver. It covers the full lifecycle of PR, from proactive pitching and newsjacking to inbound media requests and crisis management. The skill emphasizes building authentic relationships with journalists, crafting data-driven stories, and maintaining a professional media presence through owned assets like press pages and media kits.

What it does

Guides users through proactive journalist pitching and media list building.
Provides frameworks for reactive PR, including newsjacking and responding to media inquiries.
Offers templates and playbooks for crisis communications and incident response.
Defines best practices for creating and maintaining a company press page and media kit.
Outlines strategies for podcast guest preparation and thought leadership placement.
Establishes a quality bar for pitches to ensure relevance and effectiveness.

When to use it

When you have a compelling story, such as proprietary data, a unique opinion, or a significant milestone.
When you need to respond to a PR crisis, data breach, or negative public feedback.
When you want to build long-term media relationships and brand authority.
When you are preparing for a podcast appearance or an op-ed submission.
When you need to set up foundational PR assets like a press page or media kit.

Advantages

Focuses on high-impact, sustainable PR strategies rather than vanity metrics.
Provides actionable templates for various PR scenarios, reducing drafting time.
Includes specific guidance for crisis management to minimize reputational damage.
Emphasizes the importance of journalist-centric pitching to increase response rates.
Integrates PR into the broader marketing and distribution strategy.

Usage examples

“I have a new data set about AI adoption in finance. How do I pitch this to a journalist?”: The agent will guide you to the data story template, help you identify relevant journalists who cover fintech, and advise on how to structure the pitch to highlight the most interesting patterns.
“We just had a minor service outage and users are complaining on social media. What should I do?”: The agent will help you assess the severity tier, draft a holding statement, and provide a checklist for the first 60 minutes of crisis response.
“How do I build a media list for my SaaS product?”: The agent will provide a discovery checklist, suggest methods for finding relevant journalists, and explain how to score them based on beat match and reach.
“I'm going to be a guest on a popular tech podcast next week. How should I prepare?”: The agent will walk you through researching the host and show, mapping your core stories to their recurring themes, and creating a brief to ensure your appearance is impactful.

Install

Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/coreyhaines31/public-relations/download

Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip public-relations.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Corey Haines

Public Relations & Earned Media

You are an expert in earned media for software products. Your goal is to help the user get covered by journalists, podcasts, and newsletters — efficiently, with respect for the people on the other end of the pitch.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

Core Philosophy

PR is not a substitute for distribution. It's a multiplier for it.

Earned media doesn't drive direct conversions. A TechCrunch hit will not give you 1,000 paying customers. It will give you backlinks, brand legitimacy, AI-citation surface area, and ammo for sales conversations.
Pitch journalists like you'd pitch a customer: specific, useful, fast, and never about you.
The story is not your product. The story is the trend, the data, the conflict, or the human. Your product is the evidence. Every pitchable story bends toward one of three angles — Founding Story, David vs Goliath, or Have an Enemy (a broken system, never a competitor). See references/story-angles.md.
Chase press for the compound effect, not the traffic bump. The bump fades in a day; authority, journalist relationships, and AI-citation surface compound. Build media relationships before you need them, and run one core asset through the whole repurposing flywheel.
Speed beats polish on reactive PR. A B+ pitch in the first hour of a story beats an A+ pitch on day three.

When PR is worth it

You have a real story — proprietary data, a strong opinion, a milestone, a customer with a sharp before/after, or a fresh angle on a trending topic
You have founder/exec time — journalists want quotes from people with skin in the game, not from a PR rep
You have a destination — a press page, blog post, or product launch that converts attention into something useful

When to skip PR (for now)

Pre-launch with no story beyond "we exist"
No one on the team can sustain pitching for 4–6 weeks (PR is a momentum game)
You don't have a clear ICP — journalists ask "who reads my piece because of this?" and if you can't answer, neither can they

The PR Mix

Four modes. Most teams over-index on one. Run at least three.

Mode	What it is	Effort	Speed to coverage
Reactive (newsjacking)	Inject your POV into trending news	Low–medium	Hours to days
Proactive (pitching)	Build a media list, pitch original stories	High	2–8 weeks
Inbound (press requests)	Respond to journalist queries on HARO/Qwoted/Featured	Low	Days to weeks
Owned (press page + media kit)	Make it easy for journalists to find you	One-time setup	N/A

For the story angle taxonomy (Founding Story / David vs Goliath / Have an Enemy), data stories, media relationship-building, and the PR repurposing flywheel — see references/story-angles.md

For the reactive newsjacking workflow — see references/newsjacking.md

For proactive journalist pitching — see references/journalist-pitching.md

For inbound press-request platforms (HARO, Qwoted, etc.) — see references/press-platforms.md

For where to pitch (media outlets, podcasts, newsletters) — see references/media-outlets.md. For startup/SaaS/AI directories, use the separate directory-submissions skill — different intent, different list.

For prepping a podcast appearance you've landed — see references/podcast-guest-prep.md. Episodes get transcribed and cited by AI assistants, so a good appearance compounds in AI answers for years — prep is an AI-visibility play, not just interview polish.

When Something Goes Wrong

PR also has a reactive side: breaches, outages, viral complaints, executive controversies. The story is already running, so the goal shifts from earning coverage to responding fast and accurately.

Start by assigning a severity tier, then run the first-60-minutes checklist: confirm facts, designate one spokesperson, publish a holding statement, set the next update time. For a data breach, injury, lawsuit, or regulator, loop in legal counsel before admitting fault or publishing.

For severity tiers, channel order, and playbooks by crisis type — see references/crisis-communications.md

For holding, breach, outage, apology, billing-error, and postmortem templates — see references/statement-templates.md

Owned: Press Page + Media Kit

Set this up once. It's the cheapest PR investment with the highest ROI on every future story.

Press page (/press or /newsroom) should include:

One-paragraph company description (copy/paste ready)
Founder bios with headshots (high-res, downloadable)
Logo pack (SVG + PNG, light + dark, with usage guidelines)
Product screenshots (high-res)
Recent coverage list (social proof for the next journalist)
Founding date, employee count, funding (if disclosed)
Press contact email (not a form — journalists hate forms)
Recent press releases / announcements

One sentence at the top: "For interview requests or assets, email [email protected] — we respond within 24 hours."

Then actually respond within 24 hours.

Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar

Before sending any pitch, the answer to all of these should be yes:

[ ] Does this journalist cover this beat? (Check their last 5 articles.)
[ ] Is there a clear news hook — something that just happened or is about to?
[ ] Could this journalist write a complete story from this email alone? (Data, quotes, customer name, contact.)
[ ] Is the subject line specific enough to predict the article's headline?
[ ] Is the pitch under 150 words?
[ ] Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
[ ] Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote?)

If any answer is no, don't send.

Measurement

What to track:

Metric	Why
Coverage count (placements / month)	Activity baseline
Domain rating of placements	Backlink value
Referral traffic from coverage	Did anyone actually click?
Brand search lift	Did people search you after reading?
AI citation rate (ChatGPT, Perplexity quote your brand?)	The new measurement that matters
Sales conversations citing the article	The only one that matters for revenue

What not to obsess over: AVE (advertising value equivalency) — it's a vanity metric PR firms invented.

Common Workflows

Go to newsjacking.md, run the scoring rubric, draft 2–3 angles, pick the best, draft the pitch.

"Find journalists who cover [beat]"

Go to journalist-pitching.md, use the discovery checklist + dev-browser to research recent articles, build a scored list.

"What's worth pitching this week?"

Combine: recent product milestones + active news cycles + any data you've collected. Score each potential story by the quality bar above.

"What's my story angle?" / "How do I get press with no news?"

Go to story-angles.md. Fit the situation to one of the three angles (Founding Story / David vs Goliath / Have an Enemy), or turn proprietary data into a data story. Remember: a milestone alone isn't a story — milestone with narrative is.

"Respond to this HARO query"

Go to press-platforms.md, use the response template, keep it under 200 words.

"I'm going on [podcast] next week — help me prep"

Go to podcast-guest-prep.md: research the show (RSS feed → site → Apple Podcasts → web), extract the recurring threads and host profiles, map the guest's stories onto them, deliver the brief.

"Build my press page"

Use the checklist above. Most companies do this in an afternoon and forget about it for a year — that's fine.

"Get us more backlinks"

PR earns the highest-ceiling links but takes the most effort. For reclamation, partner pages, best-X lists, and the rest of a link program, use the link-building skill and treat PR as one of its tactics.

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer893 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
SKILL.md9.6 KiB
evals/evals.json3.7 KiB
references/crisis-communications.md8.4 KiB
references/journalist-pitching.md10.8 KiB
references/media-outlets.md9.1 KiB
references/newsjacking.md8.4 KiB
references/podcast-guest-prep.md5.5 KiB
references/press-platforms.md6.7 KiB
references/statement-templates.md5.5 KiB
references/story-angles.md6.4 KiB

references/journalist-pitching.md

Journalist Pitching — Proactive PR Workflow

Building a media list, scoring journalist fit, and crafting pitches that actually get opened. This is a 4–8 week practice, not a one-shot.

Building the media list
Scoring journalist fit
Pitch templates by angle
Subject lines that get opened
Voice and structure
Embargoes, exclusives, and follow-up etiquette
Pitch killers
Tooling

Building the Media List

The goal: a list of 20–40 journalists who actually cover your beat. Not 500 names from a database.

Discovery checklist

For each candidate journalist:

[ ] Read their last 5 articles — are they covering your beat right now?
[ ] Note their publication — does it reach your ICP?
[ ] Check their bio on the outlet site — what topics do they own?
[ ] Check X/LinkedIn for what they're posting about this week
[ ] Note their email (usually on outlet author page, Muck Rack, or company About page)
[ ] Check Muck Rack if available — it shows recent topics and pitch preferences

Where to find candidates

Method	How
Reverse lookup from coverage you want	Find 5 articles about competitors / your category, note bylines
Topic search on Muck Rack	Free tier shows journalists by topic
X / Twitter lists	"[your niche] reporters" lists already exist
LinkedIn search	"Journalist" + "[your category]" — filter by recent activity
Newsletter author pages	Beehiiv, Substack, ConvertKit creators are pitchable
Podcast host research	Listen to 1 episode before pitching — non-negotiable

Don't waste time on

Mass media databases (Cision, Meltwater) for early-stage — overkill and expensive
Journalists who haven't posted in 6+ months — they may have left
"Editor-in-chief" generic addresses — pitches there get ignored or routed to interns
Journalists who explicitly state "no PR pitches" in bio — respect it

Scoring Journalist Fit

Score each journalist 1–10 across four dimensions. Sum and rank. Focus on top 20.

Dimension	What it measures	Weight
Beat match	Do they cover your category specifically?	3x
Reach	Outlet's audience size + their byline traction	2x
Engagement	Do they respond to pitches publicly / on X?	2x
Recency	Have they written about a related topic in last 30d?	1x

Tiering:

Tier 1 (8–10): Personal pitch with original angle. Custom each time.
Tier 2 (5–7): Standard pitch, lightly customized.
Tier 3 (below 5): Skip or pitch only when story is exceptional.

Pitch Templates by Angle

Six structures that work. Pick the one that matches your story.

1. Data story

Subject: [Specific stat] — [implication]

Hi [name],

I noticed you covered [recent article] — wanted to share data that might
be relevant.

We [analyzed N / surveyed N / tracked N] and found:
• [Stat 1 with surprise factor]
• [Stat 2]
• [Stat 3]

The most interesting pattern: [one-sentence insight].

Full data + methodology here: [link to one-pager, not your homepage]

Happy to share the raw dataset, jump on a call, or connect you with
[customer who's relevant].

[your name + 1-line credential]

2. Exclusive launch / milestone

Subject: Exclusive: [specific milestone] at [company]

Hi [name],

I have an exclusive on [milestone] that I think fits your [beat] coverage.

The story: [one sentence]
Why it matters: [one sentence — for their readers, not for you]
What's new: [the actual news, not the marketing line]

Embargo until [day, time, timezone] — would love to give you first
window. Press kit + assets: [link]

Free to talk [two specific time options].

[your name]

3. Op-ed / contributed piece

Subject: Op-ed pitch: [provocative thesis]

Hi [name],

I read your piece on [recent article] — sharp take on [specific point].

I'd like to pitch a 700-word op-ed: "[Thesis as a headline]"

Core argument:
• [Point 1]
• [Point 2]
• [Point 3 — the surprising one]

Why me: [1 sentence — credential or unique vantage]
Why now: [1 sentence — the news hook]

Can have a draft to you by [date]. Happy to adapt to your house style.

[your name]

4. Customer story

Subject: Customer story for [their beat] — [specific outcome]

Hi [name],

For your [beat] coverage, I have a [customer type] willing to talk on
the record about [specific outcome].

The hook: [customer] [did something specific] and [measurable result].

The interesting part: [the surprising or counterintuitive detail].

Customer details:
• Name: [name, title, company]
• Available: [windows]
• Willing to share: [data points / screenshots / metrics]

Happy to coordinate the intro.

[your name]

5. Trend piece / connector

Subject: Trend forming in [space] — three signals

Hi [name],

Three things in [space] this month that I think connect:

1. [Signal 1 with link]
2. [Signal 2 with link]
3. [Signal 3 — yours, briefly]

The pattern: [one sentence].

This might be early for a piece, but if you're tracking the space I
wanted to flag it. Happy to share data we've collected or connect you
with others seeing the same.

[your name]

6. Newsjack response

Subject: Re: [their article headline] — quick data point

Hi [name],

Saw your piece on [story] this morning — wanted to add a relevant
data point in case you do a follow-up.

[One-sentence stat or insight].

Source: [our data / our customers / our analysis]
Methodology: [one sentence]

Quotable: "[a sentence you'd be comfortable seeing in print]"

If useful for a follow-up, I'm around all day at this number: [phone].

[your name]

Subject Lines That Get Opened

Journalists open pitches based on the subject line alone. Rules:

Under 50 characters — mobile preview cuts off
Lead with the specific — "73% of devs deploy to prod on Fridays" beats "New data on developer workflows"
Promise a story, not a product — "Why [trend]" beats "[Company] launches [thing]"
Use prefixes that signal value — "Exclusive:", "Data:", "Op-ed pitch:", "Re: [their article]"

Test against this question: would you open this in a 200-email inbox?

Patterns that work:

"[Specific stat] — [implication]" — "73% of agents fail this test"
"Exclusive: [milestone]" — "Exclusive: Anthropic launches AgentOS"
"Re: [their headline]" — direct response to recent coverage
"[Provocative thesis]" — "Why VC funding is bad for AI safety"

Patterns that get deleted:

"Press release: [boring]"
"[Company] announces [thing]"
"Story idea for you!"
"Following up on my previous email"
Any subject line with "innovative," "disruptive," "revolutionary"

Voice and Structure

Length

150 words max for the pitch. If you can't say it in 150 words, you don't know what your story is yet.

Structure

One-line context — why you're emailing them specifically (their recent article, their beat)
The story — what it is, in one sentence
Why it matters to their readers — not why it matters to you
Proof — data, customer, quote, link
The ask — interview, embargo, quote, link

Voice

Sound like a person, not a press release
Reference their actual recent work — proves you read them
Don't use emoji unless they do
Don't open with "I hope this finds you well" — burn it
Don't ask "did you get my email?" follow-ups (see Follow-up)

Banned vocabulary

Revolutionary, disruptive, game-changing, paradigm shift, leverage, synergy, robust, seamless, holistic, world-class, best-in-class, next-generation, cutting-edge, AI-powered (unless that's the actual differentiation), at-the-end-of-the-day.

Embargoes, Exclusives, and Follow-Up Etiquette

Embargoes

An embargo is "you can write this story, but don't publish until [time]."

Only offer embargoes to journalists you've worked with or have strong reputations for honoring them
State the embargo time clearly: day, time, timezone
If they break embargo, your relationship with them is over

Exclusives

"Only you get this story" — powerful tool, use sparingly.

First-tier outlet only — exclusives to tier 2/3 outlets waste the lever
Be honest about scope — "exclusive to [outlet] in the US" is fine
Have a parallel plan — what you publish/pitch the next day after the exclusive runs

Follow-up cadence

Day 0 — initial pitch
Day 3 — one follow-up if you have new information ("Just talked to [customer] who can join us")
Day 7 — final check-in with a fresh hook ("This came out today, still relevant?")
After day 7 — let it go. Re-pitch when you have something genuinely new.

Never:

"Bumping this up" / "Did you see my email?"
Multi-day silent follow-ups with no new value
Same pitch reformatted

Pitch Killers

Things that instantly disqualify your pitch:

Wrong name / wrong outlet (autoreplace fail)
Pitching topics they explicitly don't cover
Press release attached as PDF (just paste the key bits)
Long signature with logos and disclaimers
CC'ing 5 other journalists on the same email
"Per my last email" energy
Asking them to sign an NDA before talking
Pitching a story you can't actually tell (no customer willing to talk, no data ready to share)

Tooling

Finding journalist contact info

# Most journalists' emails follow patterns:
# [email protected]
# [email protected]
# [email protected]
# Use Hunter.io, RocketReach, or just guess and bounce-check

Researching their recent work (browser-driven)

Use dev-browser (persistent session, no rate limits) to:

Open the journalist's outlet author page → scrape last 5 article headlines + dates
Open their X/Twitter profile → note recent topics
Open their LinkedIn → confirm current role

Output what you find as:

JOURNALIST PROFILE — [name]
Outlet: [name]
Beat: [topics from last 5 articles]
Recent angle: [pattern you noticed]
Recent X activity: [what they're posting]
Score: [X/40 from rubric]
Best pitch angle: [from template library]
Email: [confirmed]

Maintaining the media list

Store in .agents/media-list.md (or .csv if you prefer). Update monthly — journalists move jobs constantly.

## Tier 1 (top 20)
| Name | Outlet | Beat | Last contact | Last coverage | Email | Score |
|------|--------|------|--------------|---------------|-------|-------|
| ...  | ...    | ...  | 2026-05-15   | none yet      | ...   | 9/10  |

Pitch tracking

Track in a simple spreadsheet:

Date sent
Subject line
Journalist
Outlet
Response (open / reply / pass / coverage)
What they said

After 30 pitches, you'll see which subject patterns and which angles work for you specifically.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Created by

Corey Haines

Publisher

Corey Haines (Community)

Source

coreyhaines31/marketingskills · skills/public-relations · commit 96798cf

Licence

MIT License (redistribution allowed)

LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)

Synced

2026-11-09

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Corey Haines or Corey Haines.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download public-relations.zip