How To Pitch AgriFoodTech Media — A Guide

This guide (last update Mar 6, 2024) provides helpful tips on how to pitch your story to relevant AgriFoodTech, Food, Ag, Food Policy, and Generalist media outlets.

Below you’ll also find lists of:

• Leading Global AgriFoodTech Media Outlets

• Leading Global Ag, Food & Food Policy Media Outlets

• Generalist Media Outlets That Cover FoodTech & AgTech News

Before you reach out to anyone, please read the below, as the tips may increase the likelihood of a journalist covering your story.

Practical Suggestions for Pitching Journalists and Other Content Creators

The most important part of PR strategy is: Who are you trying to reach? Why? Just like when pitching to investors, the better you understand how you fit into their strategy, the more efficient you can be with your time and the other party's time.

Journalists and editors are flooded with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of story pitches and press releases every day. You need to make sure your have a relevant story to tell, and that you tailor it based on your recipient. The easiest way for journalists to ignore your story is when you forward the press releases without showcasing the angle to your story that has a bigger context. No one is interested in doing a commercial for your company.

It often helps to show that you read the media outlet that you’re trying to secure coverage in (or at least make it sound like you do). Otherwise your pitch will sound off (wrong tone, angle, and target audience).

If you’re pitching a big publication, first research who writes about what. And don’t contact several journalists at the same publication simultaneously.

At the very minimum, make sure the journalist you’re pitching to writes about the context in which your startup operates (e.g. FoodTech, or a sub-vertical of FoodTech), and/or the geography in which your startup operates.

What is typically considered newsworthy

• A significant funding round (‘significant’ is relative to region and stage)

• A big M&A (i.e. a company getting acquired, with a specified dollar amount)

• New data that provides interesting or surprising insights

• A significant scientific or technological breakthrough

• Something where a famous celebrity is involved (maybe more relevant in food than in ag)

• A well-known founder doing or saying something interesting or controversial

• Regulatory changes (e.g. impacting where and how food products can be sold etc)

• A story impacting an industry or a large number of people (e.g. a big partnership with well-known food chain)

What is typically considered less newsworthy

• A very small funding round

• A product launch 

• A new market launch 

• A startup winning an award, or a big contract

• A new hire (e.g. that a startup has recruited a CTO)

• Event participation (e.g. a founder speaking at an event)

Things to consider when you reach out

Sometimes you may pitch a story to a journalist via social media, but the most common is to send an email with a press release. Keep these things in mind:

• Short, clear, and honest email subject line — 50 characters or less

• Get to the point! Include the most important takeaway from your press release in the first sentence of your email body text. The journalist is trying to read your email as fast as possible.

• Be direct: Explain what your startup is doing, and how it differs from the rest of the market, in a single, comprehensible sentence.

• The Big Ws: The person reading your email will want to know the big W’s: Who, What, When, Where, and Why

• Write a good headline: It often (but not always) become the article headline or at least the main storyline

• Have an unexpected hook, and help find an angle: Write content that the journalist can see will resonate with their readers

• Avoid buzzwords (e.g. ‘disruptive’) and hyperbole

• Avoid being generic, boring, and using bland PR

• Embargo? Mention it! (embargo means journalists are given access to info but are not allowed to publish or report on the info until the date/time when the embargo is lifted). But don’t make smaller outlets feel like you only care about NYT and TechCrunch

• Answer questions quickly (especially if there is an embargo)

• Offer something extra: E.g. exclusivity or an interview with a key person at your company (exclusivity means you give a news story, info, or interview to only one news outlet/journalist — meaning the info is not made available to other outlets/journalists simultaneously)

Paste your press release below your intro text in the email body (or attach/link to a Word/Google Doc — not a PDF). Don’t forget to include a link to e.g. a Google Drive with free-to-use images (of e.g. the founders, team, and product - here’s some best practice), and to add the contact details of your Media Contact so that the journalist can follow up for additional information.

If you need inspiration for a press release that ticks all the boxes, see this:

Remember — it’s all about people and relationships

• Be polite, be respectful of journalists’ time, and say thank you

• Answer questions quickly 

• Journalists are people too. If you know that something is coming up in two weeks, give them a heads up with an embargo; don’t make them scramble to push something at the last minute.

• Build personal relationships with journalists rooted in offering real, tangible value based on helping them make sense of what’s happening inside your industry ecosystem (read Play Bigger to learn how to create leverage through Category Deisgn). This will help you both going forward.

• Don’t pester the journalists for PDFs of their coverage. If you pitch a journalist to write about you/your story, meaning the publication is important enough that you want coverage, then take out a subscription and pay for it. This is true even if your startup has a super tight budget.

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Can’t be bothered with all of the above? Here’s 20+ Food and Climate PR agencies to help you get the word out.

Acknowledgments

Several people provided helpful feedback including insightful comments and constructive criticism on the above piece. I’d therefore like to extend my gratitude to the following persons (in no particular order):

Louisa Burwood-Taylor (AgFunder News), Connie Bowen (Agriculture is for People), Venky Ramachandran (Agribusiness Matters), Laura Hodgkiss (HackGroup), Anders Engström (AGFO), Shane Thomas (Upstream Ag Insights), Sonalie Figueiras (Green Queen), Michal Klar (Future Food Now), Larissa Zimberoff (Technically Food), Matthieu Vincent (DigitalFoodLab), Jennibeth Paglinawan (Forward Fooding), and Julia Glotz (The Trim).

Also thanks to Jake Berber at Prefer for letting me use your press release as a good example.