4 C’s Journalists Use To Evaluate Sources

PR Coach, Michael Smart shares the 4Cs journalists use to evaluate sources! He recommends playing close attention to these when you’re pitching a journalist and asking them to quote your expert / client.

Credentials: Many PR pros rely too much on credentials. “He’s been CEO since 2015 and has an MBA from Harvard” isn’t enough to justify including. Those are just minimum standards that get your foot in the door. 

Clarity: Can your source succinctly explain their POV without jargon and hype? Do they know how to speak in sound bites (even for print/online)? A good way to prove this is to include a link to a short interview segment where your expert demonstrates this. If they don’t have a media clip, just shoot a quick interview with them yourself. 

Convenience: This used to not matter as much, but now can often be a deciding factor. How quickly can your source be ready to hop on the phone or Zoom for an interview? Believe it or not, many experts respond to journalists’ queries by saying, “That sounds great, I’m free a week from Tuesday.” Right in your initial pitch, prove that you understand deadlines and can deliver your source almost on-demand. 

Content: This is by far the most important of the “4 Cs.” Your source can have all the acronyms in the world after their name, but if they aren’t going to say something unique or interesting, there’s no point in pitching them. And today’s journalists don’t have time to do an exploratory interview to find this out. They need you to drop direct quotes right into your initial pitch so they can see that any time they spend talking with your source will be fruitful. Or, increasingly, when you get this right, they just grab the quotes from your email and drop them in their story.