Worst pitch of the week: Low effort stories

A pitch with promise turned into a scavenger hunt—and a lesson in how not to overcomplicate a “quick win” story.

Welcome to this week’s installment of Worst Pitch of the Week. No screenshot this time because this one unraveled over a string of seven emails with a well-meaning but ultimately chaotic PR rep.

They pitched a top ten list—one of those ideas that can do well for us, depending on the topic and lift. In this case, I actually liked the idea. It seemed like a quick win, especially if they could provide photos so we could build it out as a gallery. Highly visual. Easy, right?

Wrong.

When I asked for the ten images to match the list, the PR rep responded quickly (points for speed!)—but just sent me a general link to their press release image library. Not ideal, but I followed up and asked again: Could they send a folder with the specific ten images? I explained this wasn’t a regular article; it was a gallery, and we needed visuals to match the items. Pretty straightforward.

Instead, I got a new link with multiple subfolders—each with three random photos, none of which matched the top ten categories we were building the story around. At this point, I’d already looped in our photo department to check usage rights and prep the layout. But the back-and-forth was taking too long, the photos still weren’t right, and we were slammed with other deadlines. What was supposed to be a low-lift story had become a time suck. So, I passed.

And look, I get it. I’ve been on the PR side. Maybe I could’ve been clearer (though I think I was). But this is a reminder: if a story isn’t a need to have, the job sometimes is to make it an easy lift—not send the journalist on a scavenger hunt. If I’m burning time chasing assets for a gallery we didn’t assign…I’m probably going to let it go.