Publication-to-Story Fit Map
Match each story type to the one publication most likely to cover it, before pitching anyone.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Founders waste pitches by targeting prestige outlets that structurally won't cover their story. Gerber maps the realistic startup-press landscape by what each publication actually covers, so you pitch the outlet aligned to your specific news and spokesperson rather than the biggest logo. The map is current-state and changes fast, so the real skill is the matching logic, not the list.
Origin
Emilie Gerber's operating playbook from running Six Eastern across 100+ tech companies; she notes media changes constantly (e.g. TechCrunch dropping op-eds) so the specific outlets are a snapshot.
Core principles
- 01Prestige outlets (NYT/WSJ) require on-the-record valuation plus hard business metrics for a feature — no metrics, no feature
- 02Match the beat reporter to your vertical rather than chasing the outlet's brand
- 03Every outlet has a 'bread and butter' — pitching against it just annoys reporters
- 04Awards, lists, podcasts and speaking slots at an outlet are alternative doors when the main feature is out of reach
How to run it
- 1
Classify your news type
Decide what you actually have: funding, product launch, partnership/deal with a monetary component, founder-journey story, an award/list submission, or a contrarian op-ed.
Pro tip If your only 'news' is a product with no metrics, look for an award/list or a founder-story angle instead of a feature.
- 2
Route to the aligned outlet
Funding and first-company pieces: TechCrunch (no paywall, drives day-of traffic). Deals/funding in healthcare/fintech: Axios (deals-focused; never pitch them a pure product launch). Pitch-deck stories, metrics-driven journey pieces, and 'top startups' lists: Business Insider. AI news: VentureBeat. Future of work, design, leadership op-eds: Fast Company. Awards (Fintech 50, AI 50, Under 30) and early-stage via contributor network: Forbes.
Pro tip Axios recently launched Local Edition — a region-specific story can get you an Axios hit that a national desk would pass on.
Watch out TechCrunch lacks dedicated beat reporters for Health Tech and martech; you'll often fail to place those there.
- 3
Match the spokesperson to the outlet's audience
Some outlets and shows only feature certain roles. If you sell to CFOs, put a CFO forward, not the CEO. Hire (or field) the persona that matches who you sell into.
Pro tip Hiring for the roles you sell into pays off in press — a CFO audience is far easier to reach with a real CFO as spokesperson.
Watch out Prestige features rarely happen for early-stage companies; expect to be one or two sentences inside a larger story, not the subject of one.
In the wild
CNBC targets people learning about public markets; their disruptor-50 list is for companies soon-to-be public, not early-stage.
→ Gerber tells early-stage founders CNBC features won't fit, saving wasted pitches.
Common mistakes
Assuming TechCrunch covers most funding rounds
A competitor counted 9 funding stories TechCrunch ran in a week against ~50 actual rounds that week — the outlet looks funding-heavy but covers a small fraction, so 'mine should be one' is a false assumption.
Pitching an outlet against its bread and butter
Pitching Axios a product announcement, or NYT a feature without shareable metrics, wastes the pitch and annoys the reporter.
Is it for you?
Best for
Startup founders or in-house comms leads deciding where to pitch a specific piece of news with limited time
Not ideal for
Late-stage/public companies with dedicated agencies, or teams optimizing paid affiliate coverage rather than earned press
From the transcript
“so yes Tech crunch a go-to for a lot of funding announcements a go-to for some product news too”
“you should never pitch them on a product announcement”
“Venture beat is huge for AI news”
“Fast Company is perfect for anything related to future of work how people work”
“Forbes especially um on the award side they have the fintech 50 AI 50 forbs under 30”
“they counted how many funding stories Tech crunch did in a in a week and it was nine”
“one is your valuation so that needs to be something that you're sharing on the record two is your like re like hard business metrics”
From the episode
The ultimate guide to PR
Emilie Gerber (founder of Six Eastern)