When There’s No One Left to Pitch
How PR teams can adapt to shrinking newsrooms
“There are fewer reporters than ever before.”
I feel like I say a version of this sentence on a weekly basis — in Slack threads, in meetings, or over coffees with media friends who are “taking a break” (translation: laid off, burned out, or pivoting to brand work).
But 2025 feels different. This isn’t just attrition. It’s erosion.
What’s happening in media right now is quiet but it’s also cumulative…and devastating. Entire beats are disappearing. Photo desks are gone. Even national outlets are operating with smaller and smaller teams, while local news — once the connective tissue of our towns and cities — is facing very real challenges.
For PR people, this is an existential moment.
Because as the newsroom starts to fade, the trusted transaction that we’ve always relied on — the transformation of our message into their story — is cracking.
So, without being overly dramatic, what do we do when there’s no one left to pitch?
Forget pitching and start partnering.
The most successful communicators I know aren’t sending more pitches — they’re sending fewer, smarter, better pitches.
