Claude Skill

suede-public-relations

Suede-owned earned-media discipline. Use when building a media list, validating a story angle, drafting a journalist pitch, preparing a press kit, evaluating newsjacking, or answering a reporter request. NOT FOR: directory submissions (use suede-directory-submissions), launch pac

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Skill manifest

Suede Public Relations & Earned Media

Suede Public Relations turns verified milestones, evidence, and timely angles into respectful earned-media briefs for journalists, podcasts, and newsletters. It optimizes story fit and source usefulness without treating a drafted pitch as sent or coverage as earned.

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. Treat it as a channel hypothesis whose value must be measured against the current audience, story, and sales motion.

  • Do not assume a placement drives or cannot drive conversion. Track referral behavior, brand search, citations, and sales influence for this campaign.
  • 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.
  • Test speed against relevance and accuracy. Use the story's observed coverage curve and deadline; never trade verification for haste.

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 the approved, measured test window
  • 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 possible modes. Select only those supported by the story, audience, capacity, and current source access.

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, draft original-story pitches Measure current capacity Set from story flow and response data
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 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 suede-directory-submissions skill — different intent, different list.

Owned: Press Page + Media Kit

Build this when verified newsroom assets and a maintained press contact would reduce friction for the current media motion; measure usage rather than assuming ROI.

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)
  • A current press contact path in the format the intended outlets accept
  • Recent press releases / announcements

State a response expectation only if the team has approved and staffed it. Use the team's real service level rather than a universal 24-hour promise.

Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar

Before presenting any draft for send approval, resolve these checks:

  • Does a bounded recent sample show that this journalist covers the beat?
  • 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 within the outlet's published word or character limit — or, if the outlet publishes none, within the limit the user stated?
  • Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
  • Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote?)

Pass rule: any unchecked box blocks the draft from being presented for send approval. Fix it or, if it cannot be resolved (the outlet publishes no limit and the user has not stated one), name the box as unresolved in the handover below rather than checking it.

Send-approval handover (the one gate in this skill)

Every workflow in this skill and its references ends here. Contacting a journalist is unrecallable, so nothing leaves as a draft-plus-send. At the handover:

  1. Stop. The work is complete; the output is a draft and nothing has been sent.
  2. Name the four variables, one line each: recipient (person and outlet), channel (email, platform form, DM), visible sending identity, and the exact message to be sent.
  3. State cost and timing if either applies (platform fee, embargo time).
  4. Offer three options: approve as written / revise (name what changes) / drop.
  5. Wait for the user's explicit pick. Approval for one recipient never transfers to another, and any edit to the message re-opens this gate.

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 One revenue-influence signal to reconcile with attribution limits

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

Common Workflows

"Help me newsjack [trending story]"

Go to newsjacking.md, run the scoring rubric, draft a bounded set of evidence-backed angles, and return a recommended draft for review. Do not pitch or publish.

"Find journalists who cover [beat]"

Go to journalist-pitching.md, use the discovery checklist, and first discover whether an authorized browser or research connector is callable. If not, work from user-supplied article URLs, exports, or a manual research worksheet. Build a sourced, scored list without claiming any profile or article was reviewed unless it actually was.

"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.

"Respond to this HARO query"

Go to press-platforms.md, use the response template, follow current outlet limits, and keep the result draft-only.

"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.

Boundaries

  • Do not contact journalists, submit reporter responses, publish press releases, or represent that a draft has been sent without explicit approval and a confirmed recipient.
  • Do not fabricate claims, data, quotes, customers, credentials, urgency, or coverage; separate verified facts from proposed angles.
  • Do not impersonate a source, promise exclusivity, or decide legal disclosure, embargo, or crisis-response policy.

Routing

  • Use suede-launch-packaging to coordinate a broader product launch.
  • Use suede-directory-submissions for directory and catalog listings.
  • Use suede-social for approved social distribution and engagement.
  • Use suede-copy to polish a verified press-page or announcement draft.
  • Use suede-co-marketing when the announcement is a joint launch with a partner.
Files (suede-creator-skills)
  • agents
    • openai.yaml 588 B 
      interface:
  display_name: "Suede Public Relations"
  short_description: "Suede earned-media research, angles, and pitch drafts"
  default_prompt: "Use $suede-public-relations on [target]. The user wants press coverage, is pitching journalists, or is deciding how to announce something publicly. Work through media lists, journalist pitching, newsjacking a live story, press kits, and responding to reporter requests, ground every recommendation in evidence the user can check, and return the decisions, the reasoning, and what to measure next."
policy:
  allow_implicit_invocation: true
  • references
    • journalist-pitching.md 12.3 KB 
      # Journalist Pitching — Proactive PR Workflow

Building a media list, scoring journalist fit, and crafting draft pitches for
review. Set the test duration from current story flow, team capacity, and
measured response rather than a universal campaign window.

## Contents
- 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

Build the smallest source-backed list that covers the relevant beat and current
story. Set its size from recent coverage volume and review capacity, not a fixed
quota or a database export.

### Discovery checklist

For each candidate journalist:

- [ ] Review a bounded recent sample from the author page; stop when the sample
      is enough to establish or reject current beat fit
- [ ] 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** | Review a bounded recent article sample and note relevant 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** | Review a recent episode or transcript when it is needed to verify topic and format fit |

### 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. Retain only
the candidates supported by current evidence and the approved review capacity.

| 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 starting structures to test. Adapt one to the verified story, recipient
preferences, and outlet format.

### 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

The subject line affects comprehension and may affect opens. Treat these as
drafting hypotheses and verify outlet preferences where published:

- **Concise enough for the current inbox preview** — verify the relevant client
  or test multiple readable lengths
- **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 to test:**
- "[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

Start with a concise draft, then fit the verified outlet preference and story
complexity. Do not treat 150 words as a universal maximum.

### Structure

1. **One-line context** — why you're emailing them specifically (their recent article, their beat)
2. **The story** — what it is, in one sentence
3. **Why it matters to their readers** — not why it matters to you
4. **Proof** — data, customer, quote, link
5. **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](#embargoes-exclusives-and-follow-up-etiquette))

### 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]."

- Offer an embargo only after current outlet practice, relationship, disclosure,
  and approval checks support it
- 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.

- Evaluate exclusivity from audience fit, story value, terms, and opportunity
  cost rather than outlet tier alone
- **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 hypothesis

- Start from any preference or deadline published by the journalist or outlet.
- If no preference exists, propose at most one follow-up only when it adds
  material new information; choose timing from story velocity and prior
  response data.
- Stop when the deadline, relevance, or consent context closes. Re-pitch only
  with a genuinely new, verified story.

Every initial pitch and follow-up remains a separate draft until the user
explicitly approves the exact recipient, identity, channel, and content.

**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

Use only a publicly listed professional email, the outlet's official contact
path, or a contact database the user is licensed and authorized to use. Discover
whether a current callable verifier exists before relying on one; otherwise ask
the user to verify manually. Do not guess addresses, send bounce probes, or
present an inferred address as confirmed.

### Researching their recent work

First discover whether an authorized browser or source reader is currently
callable and confirm the visible account identity and source terms. If
available:

- Review a bounded recent sample from the journalist's outlet author page and
  record article headlines, dates, and links.
- Review public professional posts only when the platform permits access.
- Confirm the current role from the outlet profile or another first-party
  professional source.

If no browser is available, ask the user for the author-page URL, article links,
or an export and provide a manual research checklist. Never claim the research
was performed when only the checklist was produced.

Output what you find as:

```
JOURNALIST PROFILE — [name]
Outlet: [name]
Beat: [topics from bounded recent sample]
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 a user-approved CSV. Recheck the role,
outlet, contact path, and source date immediately before each pitch; use a
calendar-based refresh only if the user's send cadence supports it.

```markdown
## Highest-evidence current tier
| 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

Review results after a predeclared, capacity-bounded cohort. Do not claim a
minimum sample is sufficient; report uncertainty and expand only when another
cohort is justified.
    • media-outlets.md 9.1 KB 
      # Media Outlets — Where to Pitch

A starting discovery list for software/SaaS PR, not a current media database.
Verify every outlet, byline, role, contact preference, and submission path from a
current first-party source before drafting. For startup/SaaS/AI directories, use
`suede-directory-submissions`.

## How to use this list

- **Don't pitch a publication. Pitch a journalist at that publication.** See [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md) for the discovery workflow.
- **Tier signals quality, not effort** — a small tier-3 outlet might be perfect for your niche
- **Submission/tip URLs may be stale** — use the route the current outlet or
  journalist explicitly requests
- **This list ages fast** — verify the outlet still exists and the journalist is still there before pitching

---

## Tech & Startup Press (Tier 1)

The big names. High bar to clear, high payoff when you do. Pitch the specific reporter, not the tip line.

| Outlet | Best for | Tip URL |
|--------|---------|---------|
| **TechCrunch** | Funding, product launches, startup news | techcrunch.com/got-a-tip/ |
| **The Verge** | Consumer tech, product reviews, policy | theverge.com/contact |
| **Wired** | Long-form tech, culture, business | wired.com/about/feedback |
| **Fast Company** | Innovation, design, business strategy | fastcompany.com/contact-us |
| **VentureBeat** | AI, enterprise tech, gaming | venturebeat.com/contribute |
| **Ars Technica** | Deep tech, science, policy | arstechnica.com/contact-us |
| **The Information** | Subscription-gated, scoops on tech industry | theinformation.com/about |
| **Bloomberg / Reuters** | Business, finance, big-picture stories | bloomberg.com/feedback |
| **WSJ Tech** | Enterprise, business angle | wsj.com/tips |
| **NYT Tech** | Mainstream tech, culture | nytimes.com/tips |

---

## SaaS & B2B (Tier 1–2)

Lower-profile than the consumer tech outlets but often higher ROI for B2B SaaS.

| Outlet | Best for | Notes |
|--------|----------|-------|
| **SaaStr** | B2B SaaS founders, growth, sales | Jason Lemkin's outlet; pitch contributed posts |
| **First Round Review** | Operator-level B2B insights | High bar; original frameworks only |
| **OpenView** | SaaS metrics, PLG, pricing | Often runs research-backed pieces |
| **Lenny's Newsletter** | Product / growth | Subscriber-only; pitch via Lenny directly on X |
| **Future (a16z)** | Tech + culture pieces | Long-form, original thinking required |
| **Stratechery** | Tech strategy analysis | Don't pitch Ben Thompson; engage via responses |

---

## AI / ML Press (Tier 1–2)

The hottest beat right now. Reporters here are inundated — your angle has to be sharp.

| Outlet | Best for | Notes |
|--------|----------|-------|
| **The Decoder** | AI news, fast-turn | Daily AI news cycle |
| **Import AI** (Jack Clark) | Weekly AI newsletter | Pitch research-backed angles |
| **The Batch** (Andrew Ng) | AI industry analysis | Submitted by deeplearning.ai team |
| **MIT Technology Review** | AI policy, capability, ethics | Higher bar, slower cycle |
| **Hugging Face blog** | Open-source AI tools | Contributed posts welcome |
| **Latent Space** | Practitioner-focused AI/ML | Podcast + newsletter |

---

## Developer & DevTools Press

Where to pitch if your audience is engineers.

| Outlet | Best for | Notes |
|--------|----------|-------|
| **The New Stack** | DevTools, infra, cloud-native | Active contributor program |
| **InfoQ** | Enterprise dev, software architecture | Long-form technical pieces |
| **DEV.to** | Self-published, community-driven | Build credibility before pitching |
| **Hacker Noon** | Tech blogging platform | Easy to publish but low signal |
| **Console** | DevTools newsletter | Curated weekly; submit projects |
| **DevTools FM** | Podcast | Pitch as guest |

---

## Business & Marketing Press

For pitching the business / marketing angle of your story.

| Outlet | Best for | Notes |
|--------|----------|-------|
| **Inc.** | Founder stories, business advice | Contributor program available |
| **Entrepreneur** | Small business, growth | Volume publisher; quality varies |
| **HBR.org** | Original research, frameworks | High bar; long lead time |
| **MarketingProfs** | B2B marketing | Contributor-friendly |
| **Marketing Brew (Morning Brew)** | Daily marketing newsletter | Reporter-driven, pitch directly |
| **Marketing Land / Search Engine Journal** | SEO, SEM, channels | Niche but high-intent audience |
| **Reforge** | Growth, product, retention | Original framework required |

---

## Newsletters (Reporter-Driven)

Newsletters are increasingly the most valuable PR placement — small audiences, but high-intent.

| Newsletter | Audience | How to pitch |
|-----------|---------|--------------|
| **Lenny's Newsletter** | Product/growth, ~600k readers | DM Lenny on X with sharp angle |
| **The Pragmatic Engineer** (Gergely Orosz) | Software eng leaders | Pitch via email; original engineering insights |
| **The Generalist** (Mario Gabriele) | Tech business analysis | Pitch via email; deep angles |
| **Stratechery** (Ben Thompson) | Tech strategy | Don't pitch; engage in replies |
| **Newcomer** (Eric Newcomer) | Tech business + scoops | Tips welcome via email |
| **Platformer** (Casey Newton) | Tech + policy | Pitch via Substack |
| **Big Technology** (Alex Kantrowitz) | Big Tech analysis | Pitch via Substack |
| **Not Boring** (Packy McCormick) | Tech + culture | Tough to crack; original takes only |

**For B2B SaaS:**
- **SaaStr Daily**
- **Demand Curve**
- **Growth Unhinged** (Kyle Poyar)
- **Trends.vc**

**For AI:**
- **Import AI** (Jack Clark)
- **The Batch** (Andrew Ng)
- **The Algorithm** (MIT Tech Review)
- **Interconnects** (Nathan Lambert)
- **AI Tidbits**

---

## Podcasts

A podcast appearance is often higher leverage than a press hit — longer engagement, evergreen replay, audience trust transfer.

### Top SaaS / startup podcasts
- **Lenny's Podcast** — product/growth
- **My First Million** — founder stories, business ideas
- **The Twenty Minute VC** — funding angle
- **SaaStr Podcast** — B2B SaaS
- **Acquired** — deep-dive company stories (don't pitch unless you're a unicorn)
- **The All-In Podcast** — broad tech/business (very hard to get on)

### Top AI podcasts
- **No Priors** (Sarah Guo, Elad Gil)
- **Latent Space**
- **Practical AI**
- **The TWIML AI Podcast**
- **The Cognitive Revolution**

### Top dev / engineering podcasts
- **The Changelog**
- **Software Engineering Daily**
- **DevTools FM**

### How to pitch a podcast

1. **Listen to 3 episodes** — non-negotiable
2. **Find the host's preferred channel** (X DM, email, guest form)
3. **Pitch a topic, not yourself** — "I'd love to come on and talk about [specific angle]" not "I'd love to be a guest"
4. **Bring evidence** — links to other appearances, your unique angle, what listeners will learn
5. **Make it easy** — bio, headshot, suggested questions in the pitch

---

## Industry / Vertical Press

Don't overlook trade press — smaller audience, much higher intent.

| Vertical | Outlets to investigate |
|----------|----------------------|
| **Marketing** | Adweek, Marketing Brew, AdAge, Search Engine Land |
| **Sales** | Sales Hacker, Modern Sales Pros |
| **HR / People Ops** | HR Brew, SHRM, HR Dive |
| **Finance / Fintech** | The Block, CoinDesk, Finextra |
| **Healthcare tech** | STAT, MobiHealthNews, Healthcare IT News |
| **Education tech** | EdSurge, EdScoop |
| **Real estate tech** | Inman, The Real Deal |
| **Legal tech** | Above the Law, Law360 |
| **Climate tech** | Heatmap, Canary Media, Latitude Media |
| **Devtools** | The New Stack, InfoQ, DevOps.com |

For your specific vertical: Google `"top publications" + "[your industry]"` and run the same scoring exercise from [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md).

---

## Regional / Local

If your company has a regional angle (HQ location, customer concentration, government contract), local press is underrated.

- **Local business journals** — Bizjournals network covers 40+ US cities
- **Local NPR affiliates** — high-quality, business angle welcomed
- **Local TV business segments** — high reach, easy to get
- **State / regional tech news** — e.g., Built In (Chicago, Austin, etc.), TechBuzz (Utah)

---

## What's NOT On This List (And Why)

- **Product Hunt, BetaList, Indie Hackers** — these are directories, not press. Use the suede-directory-submissions skill.
- **Press release wires** (PRNewswire, BusinessWire, GlobeNewswire) — overpriced for early-stage; journalists ignore them. Skip until you have IR / SEC requirements.
- **"As featured in" badge mills** — paid "media coverage" services. Worthless and damaging.
- **Random "guest post" SEO link networks** — Google penalizes these. Don't.

---

## Maintaining This List

This list will go stale. Refresh from current first-party sources:

- **Periodic review:** choose the interval from campaign activity and source
  volatility
- **Campaign planning:** add relevant outlets only after current verification
- **Per pitch:** confirm the journalist is still there before sending (check X / LinkedIn for "joined [new place]")

Store your live, working version in `.agents/media-list.md` (per [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md)).
    • newsjacking.md 9.4 KB 
      # Newsjacking — Reactive PR Workflow

Injecting your POV into a story that's already trending. Done well: free distribution off a wave of attention. Done badly: cringe at best, brand damage at worst.

## Contents
- When newsjacking works (and when it doesn't)
- The detect → score → angle → pitch loop
- Newsworthiness scoring rubric
- Story angle library
- Speed: the only thing that matters
- Sources & tooling
- Failure modes

---

## When Newsjacking Works

- **Tech/regulatory news in your category** — new law, new platform launch, competitor pivot, big acquisition
- **Industry data drops** — a major report drops, you have a sharper take or contradicting data
- **Public conversation** — a debate or controversy where your expertise is genuinely relevant
- **Seasonal/cyclical moments** — earnings season, year-end reviews, conference weeks

## When to Skip

- **Tragedies, accidents, deaths** — no exceptions. Don't.
- **Politically charged stories** unless your brand explicitly takes political stances
- **You have no genuine expertise** in the area
- **The window is already closed** — if a story is 48h+ old and you weren't first, you're late
- **The angle is "we have a product for this"** — that's marketing, not journalism

---

## The Loop

A repeatable draft-and-review workflow Suede can run on demand.

1. **Detect** — surface trending stories in your category (see [Sources & Tooling](#sources--tooling))
2. **Score** — apply the [newsworthiness rubric](#newsworthiness-scoring-rubric); drop anything below threshold
3. **Angle** — generate 2–3 angles per story using the [angle library](#story-angle-library)
4. **Validate** — sanity-check: do you actually have the expertise/data to back this angle?
5. **Pitch draft** — prepare a bounded, source-matched recipient set and a
   separate draft for each (see
   [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md))
6. **Owned-channel draft** — when current evidence supports a public trail,
   prepare a blog or social draft; do not publish it

Sending or publishing anything produced here runs the send-approval handover in
SKILL.md ("Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar"), which is the canonical
statement of this gate.

Output format Suede should produce:

```
NEWSJACK CANDIDATE — 2026-06-10

Story: "EU passes AI Act amendment requiring agent registration"
Source: TechCrunch, 3h ago
Score: 8/10 (high relevance, fresh, you have proprietary data)

Angles:
1. Data hot take: "Our analysis of 12,000 agent deployments shows 73% would fail this requirement"
2. Contrarian: "Why the registration rule will hurt safety, not improve it"
3. Customer story: "How [customer] is preparing — interview offer"

Recommended: #1 (you have unique data, strongest hook)
Pitch draft: [see journalist-pitching.md for template]
Target journalists: [list with rationale]
```

---

## Newsworthiness Scoring Rubric

Score each candidate 1–10 on five dimensions, multiply by the weight, then sum. Max possible: 80 (10 × the 8x weight total).

| Dimension | What it measures | Weight |
|-----------|------------------|--------|
| **Timeliness** | Is the story inside the justified current-coverage window? | 2x |
| **Relevance** | Genuinely in your expertise area? | 2x |
| **Angle uniqueness** | Can you say something no one else is saying? | 2x |
| **Authority** | Do you have data, customers, or experience to back it? | 1x |
| **Reach potential** | Will this story keep growing or has it peaked? | 1x |

**Threshold:** weighted total ≥ 50/80. Below that, skip.

**Auto-disqualify if:**
- The story is about something tragic
- Your angle is "I disagree" with nothing to back it
- You haven't actually formed an opinion — you just want to be quoted

---

## Story Angle Library

Use these templates to generate angles fast.

### 1. Data hot take
*"We analyzed [N] [things] after [event]. Here's what we found."*

Best when you have proprietary data. The journalist gets a stat, you get the citation.

### 2. Contrarian
*"Everyone says [popular take]. Here's why they're wrong."*

Best when you can defend the position with specifics. Weak when it's just contrarianism for attention.

### 3. "We predicted this"
*"Six months ago we wrote [thing] — here's what's happening now and what's next."*

Best when you actually did predict it. Lethal to your credibility if you didn't.

### 4. Customer impact
*"Here's a [customer type] who's directly affected. We can put you in touch."*

Best for B2B. Reporters love named customers willing to talk.

### 5. Insider explainer
*"This story is complicated. Here's what's actually happening."*

Best when most coverage is missing nuance. You're not arguing — you're educating.

### 6. Trend connector
*"This isn't isolated — it's part of a bigger shift we're seeing in [pattern]."*

Best when you have several data points or examples to connect.

### 7. Founder POV
*"As someone who's built in this space for [X years], here's the part most people are missing."*

Best for opinion pieces / op-eds. Weak as a soundbite pitch.

---

## Timing as a Current-Story Variable

Coverage curves vary by story and outlet. Use these only as starting research
windows when current source timestamps and outlet deadlines are unavailable:

| Story type | Effective window |
|-----------|------------------|
| Breaking tech news | 4–12 hours |
| Major regulation / policy | 24–48 hours |
| Industry report / data drop | 24–72 hours |
| Conference announcement | Same day |
| Acquisition / funding news | 12–24 hours |

Use observed coverage velocity, the journalist's current deadline, source
confidence, and review capacity to decide whether the angle remains timely.
Timeliness never bypasses the send-approval handover in SKILL.md.

---

## Sources & Tooling

Reuses the `suede-social` listening model. First inspect which source readers and
parsers are already installed and callable. If a dependency is missing, use a
manual/RSS-reader fallback or request explicit installation approval after
confirming the current platform and package source. Do not run package-manager
commands from this reference without that approval.

### Google News RSS (no auth)

```bash
# Replace QUERY with topic (use + for spaces, %22 for quotes)
curl -s "https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=QUERY&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en" \
  | xmllint --xpath "//item[position()<11]" - 2>/dev/null
```

### Hacker News (Algolia) for tech stories

```bash
SINCE=$(($(date +%s) - 86400))
curl -s "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query=QUERY&tags=story&numericFilters=created_at_i>${SINCE}" \
  | jq '.hits[] | {title, url, points, num_comments, created_at, hn_url: ("https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+.objectID)}'
```

### Reddit (for category-specific subs)

```bash
curl -s -A "newsjack/1.0" \
  "https://www.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDIT/top.json?t=day&limit=15" \
  | jq '.data.children[].data | {title, url, score, num_comments, created_utc}'
```

### Journalist research (browser-driven)

For finding *which* journalists are covering the story right now:
- First discover whether an authorized browser or research connector is
  currently callable, authenticated, and permitted for the intended sources.
- If available, search current news results, open the underlying articles, and
  record bylines, dates, URLs, and the evidence supporting beat fit.
- If unavailable, ask for article URLs or an export and provide a manual
  worksheet. Do not claim current coverage was reviewed from snippets alone.
- Confirm beat and recent coverage from public professional profiles or
  first-party outlet pages; never bypass a login or access control.

See also [journalist-pitching.md](journalist-pitching.md) for the full discovery workflow.

### Source list

For repeatable monitoring, add a "Newsjacking topics" section to `.agents/listening-sources.md` (template in the `suede-social` skill's references):

```markdown
## Newsjacking topics (Google News RSS)
- "AI agent regulation"
- "[your category] funding"
- "[your competitors] OR [adjacent competitors]"

## Industry data drops (RSS / manual)
- Pitchbook reports
- a16z state of [industry] reports
- [your category] benchmark reports
```

---

## Failure Modes

Things that have ended careers and brands.

- **Tragedy-jacking** — Oreo's 2013 Super Bowl tweet worked. Most attempts since have not. Wartime, disasters, deaths: don't.
- **The forced fit** — "Here's our take on [trending story] — it's actually about [our product]." Journalists see through this instantly.
- **The empty take** — pitching "we have an opinion" without specifics. Journalists need a quote-worthy line, not "we're closely watching this."
- **Speed without judgment** — being first with a bad take is worse than being late with a good one. The 30-minute "is this brand-appropriate?" gut check exists for a reason.
- **Undifferentiated bulk pitching** — duplicate outreach ignores recipient fit
  and can damage relationships.
- **No response plan** — if a journalist replies, use the stated deadline and
  approved team service level; do not assume a universal reaction window.

---

## Companion Practice: The Public Trail

An existing public trail can help a journalist verify the position. Before
proposing a pitch:

1. Check whether a current owned source already documents the verified position.
2. If not, draft an owned-channel post only when it would add useful evidence.
3. Reference a live owned source only after it has been separately approved and
   published by the user.

A public post is optional. Do not manufacture one merely to imply authority.
    • press-platforms.md 7.3 KB 
      # Press Request Platforms — Inbound PR

Journalists post source requests and may select a useful response. This reference
produces research-backed drafts only. Every platform submission runs the
send-approval handover in SKILL.md ("Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar") before
any external action.

## Contents
- The major platforms
- Daily triage workflow
- Response template
- What makes a response get selected
- What kills a response
- ROI reality check

---

## The Major Platforms

| Platform | What it is | Cost | Quality |
|----------|-----------|------|---------|
| **[Connectively](https://www.connectively.us)** (formerly HARO) | Daily email digest of journalist queries | Free tier; paid for filters | Mixed — high volume, lots of noise |
| **[Qwoted](https://www.qwoted.com)** | Web app with journalist requests | Free; paid for outreach | Good — better-quality outlets |
| **[Featured](https://featured.com)** | Web app, expert profiles, journalist requests | Free tier; paid pro | Good for thought-leadership snippets |
| **[Help A B2B Writer](https://helpab2bwriter.com)** | Twice-weekly email of B2B queries | Free | High — B2B-focused, low spam |
| **[SourceBottle](https://www.sourcebottle.com)** | Australia-focused but global queries | Free | Variable |
| **[Terkel](https://terkel.io)** | Roundup-style ("we asked 50 experts…") | Free | Volume-heavy, low effort |
| **[JournoRequests](https://twitter.com/journorequests)** | X account aggregating tweets | Free | UK-skewed, real-time |
| **#JournoRequest** (X hashtag) | Live journalist requests | Free | Real-time, fast-moving |

**Recommended starter set:** Connectively + Qwoted + Help A B2B Writer + monitoring `#JournoRequest` on X.

---

## Daily Triage Workflow

Treat platform volume, deadline pressure, and match rate as current-account
variables. Review only the authorized feed and size the triage pass to the
user's capacity.

### Step 1 — Filter (5 min)

For each digest / request feed:
- Drop everything where you don't have **direct experience or data**
- Drop everything from outlets your ICP doesn't read
- Drop everything with a deadline you can't meet
- Keep only requests where you can give a **complete, named, on-the-record answer**

Record the current feed volume and match rate; do not import a universal
conversion assumption.

### Step 2 — Draft a response

For each keeper:
- Read the request 3 times — what's the *actual* angle?
- Look up the journalist if possible — recent coverage, beat
- Write a custom response (see [template](#response-template))
- Record the stated deadline and return the exact response draft for approval

### Step 3 — Log

Track in a spreadsheet:
- Date
- Platform
- Journalist + outlet
- Topic
- Response sent (yes/no)
- Outcome (no response / passed / quoted / linked)

Review a predeclared, capacity-bounded cohort and report uncertainty; expand
only when another cohort is justified.

---

## Response Template

Follow the current request or outlet limit. If none is published, start concise
and preserve the evidence needed to answer the question completely.

```
Hi [name],

Quick response to your request about [topic].

[Specific credential — 1 sentence. "Built X for 5 years" / "Led marketing at Y" / "Have analyzed N companies in space"]

The most important thing about [topic]: [your actual point in 2 sentences].

[A specific example, story, or data point — this is what gets quoted.]

[If applicable: a contrarian or surprising angle that differentiates from typical answers.]

Happy to expand on any of this, share data, or be quoted directly.

Feel free to use this attribution:
[Your name], [your title], [your company]

Contact for follow-up: [email + phone]
```

**Note the structure:**
1. One-sentence intro
2. One-sentence credential
3. Two-sentence answer
4. Specific example (the quotable part)
5. Optional: differentiator
6. Clear offer
7. Pre-written attribution (saves them 30 seconds)
8. Contact info

---

## What Makes a Response Get Selected

Use these as drafting hypotheses, then compare them with current outlet
instructions and the user's observed results:

### Quotable specificity
**Bad:** "Companies should focus on customer experience."
**Good:** "When we A/B tested 47 onboarding flows, the version with a 30-second video at step 3 increased activation by 41%."

The good version is a quote. The bad version is filler.

### Concrete credential
**Bad:** "As a marketing expert..."
**Good:** "I've run growth at three Series B SaaS companies, all in B2B sales tooling."

Specificity beats title-stacking.

### Story over advice
**Bad:** "It's important to track the right metrics."
**Good:** "We almost shut down because we were optimizing for MRR when our real problem was activation. Once we switched to tracking 7-day activation, everything else followed."

Stories make articles. Advice makes filler.

### Pre-formatted for their workflow
- Pre-written attribution
- Multiple quotable lines (let them pick)
- High-res headshot link (don't attach)
- One-line company description

### Time match
Use the actual stated deadline, request timestamp, story velocity, and
current-account results to prioritize drafts. Never invent an earlier deadline,
and let no deadline shortcut the send-approval handover in SKILL.md.

---

## What Kills a Response

- **Pitching your product** when they asked for expert commentary
- **Generic advice** that could come from any expert
- **Multiple "experts" from your company** responding to the same request (looks coordinated, often is)
- **Hiring a PR firm to spam responses** — journalists smell it
- **Demanding a link back** to your site — most can't promise links
- **Ignoring the deadline** by 1+ days
- **Long bio sections** before the actual answer
- **Asking to "see the article before publication"** — you don't get to do that
- **Asking what other experts said** so you can differentiate — they won't tell you

---

## ROI Reality Check

Most teams overinvest in these platforms because they're cheap. Be honest:

| Test effort | Outcome to measure |
|--------|----------------------------|
| Capacity-approved custom drafts | Qualified responses, quotes, links, and time cost |
| Lower-capacity draft cohort | Same measures, reported with sample size |
| Outsourced to PR firm | Lots of submissions, few quotes |

**A quote in a tier-1 outlet is worth:**
- A backlink (DR depends on outlet)
- A sales-collateral asset ("As featured in...")
- AI-citation surface area
- Brand legitimacy in the abstract

**A quote in a tier-3 outlet is worth:**
- A backlink, often nofollow
- Maybe an Instagram screenshot

**Decision rule:** define an approved effort cap and evaluation window, then
compare qualified outcomes and opportunity cost with proactive pitching. Do not
use a fixed weekly-hour or 90-day threshold as a universal rule.

---

## Setup Checklist

Before you start responding:

- [ ] Press page exists and is current (see main SKILL.md)
- [ ] One-line credential is written and rehearsed
- [ ] Headshot is high-res and at a public URL
- [ ] You have a bounded set of verified stories or data points appropriate to
      the selected requests
- [ ] You've selected only the currently authorized platforms that fit the
      audience and review capacity
- [ ] You've approved a triage timebox derived from current feed volume
- [ ] You're logging responses in a tracker

Without these, you're spamming and wasting their time and yours.
  • CARD.md 4.2 KB 
    # Skill Card — Suede Public Relations & Earned Media

<!-- Generated by scripts/build-skill-cards.mjs — do not hand-edit. -->
<!-- Regenerate with: npm run build:cards -->

Release record for the `suede-public-relations` skill, following the NVIDIA skill-card template (<https://docs.nvidia.com/skills/skill-cards>). It tells a reviewer what the skill does, who owns it, what it needs, what could go wrong, and what evidence backs the release — without requiring them to open the source first.

## Description

Suede-owned earned-media discipline.

Status: production. Ships in the `suede-skills` plugin (the full pack) at release 0.19.0; loads as a Claude Code / Codex agent skill from this directory's [SKILL.md](./SKILL.md).

## Owner

Jason Colapietro, Suede Labs AI (<https://github.com/JasonColapietro>). Security contact: `info@suedeai.ai` per [SECURITY.md](../../SECURITY.md).

## License / Terms of Use

MIT ([LICENSE](../../LICENSE)). The pack's combined license expression is `MIT AND BSD-3-Clause`; this skill bundles no third-party licensed material of its own.

## Use Case

Target users: developers and creators running the skill inside a Claude Code or Codex CLI session.

Use when building a media list, validating a story angle, drafting a journalist pitch, preparing a press kit, evaluating newsjacking, or answering a reporter request.

Out of scope — directory submissions (use suede-directory-submissions), launch packaging (use suede-launch-packaging), social publishing (use suede-social), or contacting anyone without approval.

## Deployment Geography

Global. The skill is a prompt-and-script package that runs locally inside the invoking agent session; it pins no region-specific service of its own.

## Requirements / Dependencies

- A Claude Code or Codex CLI session with the `suede-skills` plugin installed (install options: <https://skills.suedeai.ai/>).
- Bundled files loaded relative to this directory: `agents/` (1 file), `references/` (4 files).
- Credentials: none are bundled or required by the skill files. Any tool or API credentials come from the host session; never paste credentials into skill files, prompts, or outputs.

## Known Risks and Mitigations

- Risk: an agent treats a quality gate as autonomous authority. Mitigation: every gate in the pack is advisory — it changes what is reported, never what the user decided; only extreme-risk findings (data loss, credential exposure, legal/rights violations, payment mistakes, irreversible public damage) pause for the user's explicit choice.
- Risk: a skill instruction is used to act outside its mandate. Mitigation: the hard limits in the skill body's "Boundaries" section, quoted below.

From "Boundaries":

- Do not contact journalists, submit reporter responses, publish press releases, or represent that a draft has been sent without explicit approval and a confirmed recipient.
- Do not fabricate claims, data, quotes, customers, credentials, urgency, or coverage; separate verified facts from proposed angles.
- Do not impersonate a source, promise exclusivity, or decide legal disclosure, embargo, or crisis-response policy.

## References

- Skill source: [`skills/suede-public-relations/SKILL.md`](./SKILL.md)
- Rendered reference page: <https://skills.suedeai.ai/skills/suede-public-relations.html>
- Security policy and reviewed scanner exceptions: [SECURITY.md](../../SECURITY.md) and [`.plugin-scanner.toml`](../../.plugin-scanner.toml) at the repo root

## Skill Output

Markdown analysis and recommendations returned in the agent's response. The skill publishes, posts, and sends nothing without the user's explicit authorization; delivery decisions stay with the user.

## Skill Version

0.19.0 — the pack is single-versioned, so every skill releases together; see [VERSION](../../VERSION) and [CITATION.cff](../../CITATION.cff) for the release identifier this card describes.

## Ethical Considerations

- The skill produces recommendations for a human decision-maker. Publishing, sending, payment, and rights decisions stay with the user.
- Its gates require verifiable claims and honest reporting; do not use the skill to fabricate claims, evidence, metrics, or attribution.
- Report suspected misuse or a security concern privately per [SECURITY.md](../../SECURITY.md); do not open a public issue for it.
  • SKILL.md 8.9 KB 
    ---
name: suede-public-relations
description: "Suede-owned earned-media discipline. Use when building a media list, validating a story angle, drafting a journalist pitch, preparing a press kit, evaluating newsjacking, or answering a reporter request. NOT FOR: directory submissions (use suede-directory-submissions), launch packaging (use suede-launch-packaging), social publishing (use suede-social), or contacting anyone without approval."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
---

# Suede Public Relations & Earned Media

Suede Public Relations turns verified milestones, evidence, and timely angles
into respectful earned-media briefs for journalists, podcasts, and newsletters.
It optimizes story fit and source usefulness without treating a drafted pitch as
sent or coverage as earned.

## 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. Treat it as a channel hypothesis whose
value must be measured against the current audience, story, and sales motion.

- **Do not assume a placement drives or cannot drive conversion.** Track referral
  behavior, brand search, citations, and sales influence for this campaign.
- **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.
- **Test speed against relevance and accuracy.** Use the story's observed
  coverage curve and deadline; never trade verification for haste.

### 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 the approved, measured test window
- 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 possible modes. Select only those supported by the story, audience,
capacity, and current source access.

| 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, draft original-story pitches | Measure current capacity | Set from story flow and response data |
| **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 reactive newsjacking workflow** — see [references/newsjacking.md](references/newsjacking.md)

**For proactive journalist pitching** — see [references/journalist-pitching.md](references/journalist-pitching.md)

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

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

---

## Owned: Press Page + Media Kit

Build this when verified newsroom assets and a maintained press contact would
reduce friction for the current media motion; measure usage rather than assuming
ROI.

**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)
- A current press contact path in the format the intended outlets accept
- Recent press releases / announcements

State a response expectation only if the team has approved and staffed it. Use
the team's real service level rather than a universal 24-hour promise.

---

## Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar

Before presenting any draft for send approval, resolve these checks:

- [ ] Does a bounded recent sample show that this journalist covers the beat?
- [ ] 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 within the outlet's published word or character limit — or,
      if the outlet publishes none, within the limit the user stated?
- [ ] Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
- [ ] Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote?)

**Pass rule:** any unchecked box blocks the draft from being presented for send
approval. Fix it or, if it cannot be resolved (the outlet publishes no limit and
the user has not stated one), name the box as unresolved in the handover below
rather than checking it.

### Send-approval handover (the one gate in this skill)

Every workflow in this skill and its references ends here. Contacting a
journalist is unrecallable, so nothing leaves as a draft-plus-send. At the
handover:

1. **Stop.** The work is complete; the output is a draft and nothing has been sent.
2. **Name the four variables, one line each:** recipient (person and outlet),
   channel (email, platform form, DM), visible sending identity, and the exact
   message to be sent.
3. **State cost and timing** if either applies (platform fee, embargo time).
4. **Offer three options:** approve as written / revise (name what changes) / drop.
5. **Wait for the user's explicit pick.** Approval for one recipient never
   transfers to another, and any edit to the message re-opens this gate.

---

## 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** | One revenue-influence signal to reconcile with attribution limits |

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

---

## Common Workflows

### "Help me newsjack [trending story]"
Go to [newsjacking.md](references/newsjacking.md), run the scoring rubric, draft
a bounded set of evidence-backed angles, and return a recommended draft for
review. Do not pitch or publish.

### "Find journalists who cover [beat]"
Go to [journalist-pitching.md](references/journalist-pitching.md), use the
discovery checklist, and first discover whether an authorized browser or
research connector is callable. If not, work from user-supplied article URLs,
exports, or a manual research worksheet. Build a sourced, scored list without
claiming any profile or article was reviewed unless it actually was.

### "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.

### "Respond to this HARO query"
Go to [press-platforms.md](references/press-platforms.md), use the response
template, follow current outlet limits, and keep the result draft-only.

### "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.

## Boundaries

- Do not contact journalists, submit reporter responses, publish press
  releases, or represent that a draft has been sent without explicit approval
  and a confirmed recipient.
- Do not fabricate claims, data, quotes, customers, credentials, urgency, or
  coverage; separate verified facts from proposed angles.
- Do not impersonate a source, promise exclusivity, or decide legal disclosure,
  embargo, or crisis-response policy.

## Routing

- Use `suede-launch-packaging` to coordinate a broader product launch.
- Use `suede-directory-submissions` for directory and catalog listings.
- Use `suede-social` for approved social distribution and engagement.
- Use `suede-copy` to polish a verified press-page or announcement draft.
- Use `suede-co-marketing` when the announcement is a joint launch with a partner.

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