What makes a journalist actually use your quote

Most expert-outreach pitches get ignored, and it's rarely because the expert wasn't qualified. It's because the pitch didn't do the one thing a journalist on deadline needs: answer the actual question, fast, with something they can paste in.

Answer the question that was asked

A journalist asking "what's driving churn in mid-market SaaS" doesn't want your general philosophy on customer success. They want one or two concrete reasons, ideally with a number or an example attached. If your first sentence doesn't answer the question, the rest goes unread.

Specific beats credentialed

"I've worked in this space for 12 years" tells a journalist nothing they can use. "We saw churn drop 40% after moving onboarding from email to in-app" is a sentence they can build a paragraph around. Lead with the specific thing, and let your title do the credentialing.

Respect the deadline in the subject line

A quote that arrives after the article ships is worth nothing, no matter how good it is. If you're not going to make the deadline, don't send a rushed version — skip it and wait for the next query that fits.

Say the thing you'd actually say

Ghostwritten quotes that sound like nobody read them back are easy to spot, and they're the ones that get cut in editing. A journalist is putting your name on this. It should sound like you.