Every once in a while, we read something from a media partner that stops us in our tracks and makes us think…really think…about their work, our work, and how it all fits together in today’s tumultuous media landscape. Recently, Maggie Slepian shared one such piece on her Substack, a shockingly candid essay called “An Honest Reflection of the Media Landscape, Plus the Rate Chasm Between SEO and Essays.”
Maggie’s piece hits home. Our initial reaction was a head-shaking damn, it’s hard out there for freelancers. Then a second wave of realization hit us. This is a must-read for our team AND clients. It’s our job to educate our brands on what is happening in the media world. If they don’t have at least a basic understanding of the landscape, our PR efforts and results might not make much sense. On the flip side, it’s also our job to make connections, ideate story angles, and share products that make getting placements easier for media. So we’re sharing our thoughts in response to Maggie’s piece for two reasons:
- To contextualize the current outdoor media landscape for brands, including how it affects coverage opportunities.
- To provide constructive feedback for our team and other PR practitioners on how we can all be more understanding and accommodating toward our media partners.
Background
In her piece, Maggie breaks down the reality of making a living as a freelance writer in the current outdoor media landscape. She doesn’t hold back, diving into the economics of her unbalanced workload while elaborating on the necessity of writing “so many sock reviews” to pay the bills and offset the dwindling “Good Work” opportunities, such as essays and long-form outdoor features.
She shares the nuts and bolts of her hourly earnings on various article types, comparing more lucrative SEO-focused commerce roundups to heavily researched storytelling opportunities that end up bringing in far less after factoring in research, writing, and editing time. Her mounting frustration with the media landscape is easy to empathize with, and this poignant article provides an important reality check for PR practitioners and the brands we represent.
We reached out to Maggie, expressing our appreciation for her willingness to share the blunt realities of freelance writing. We also asked for her permission to write this response, while eliciting feedback on how PR practitioners can make freelancers’ jobs easier, not harder.
A Disclaimer for Brands
For brand teams reading this, we sincerely hope you’ll take the time to read Maggie’s whole Substack piece. We’re seeing the media landscape’s evolution in real-time, but reading the direct effects of these changes from a writer we respect, collaborate with, and often pitch hits a bit harder.
There’s a seismic shift occurring as media outlets reconcile with the ever-evolving economic realities of running a profitable media business. Information consumption trends are rapidly shifting, and with this shift, traditional ad-supported revenue streams are drying up. New technologies like LLMs further accelerate the evolution, faster than many media outlets can adapt. To fill in the revenue gaps, digital outlets are turning to affiliate income-generating product round-ups, gift guides, and SEO-driven listicles to capture attention and monetize traffic. However, with only so much capital to go around, it comes at the expense of longer-form, story-driven content.
For freelancers, this means the type of work available is shifting. And for folks like Maggie, who got into writing because of their passion for storytelling, this shift comes at a real cost.
“The media landscape feels incredibly bleak, while my cost of living continues to rise. This means fewer options for work I care about, paired with additional commercial assignments to pay my bills. Ever since my features editor was let go in a Hearst bloodbath several years ago, I’ve seen countless feature departments and editorial teams decimated [in] favor of listicles, SEO-based commerce, and clickbait fluff.
Each week seems to bring a new round of layoffs…each time I get the news, I miserably open my spreadsheet of editors and publications I want to pitch, and delete that row. It’s pretty soul-crushing to think about how hard I worked over the past 10 years to amass connections, narrative skills, and reporting experience for these types of features, only to sit here and watch the opportunities disappear.”
Brand Storytelling
At the end of the day, our job as PR professionals is to connect with media, human-to-human. So, we share a sense of concern for those affected by each round of layoffs and editorial team restructuring. Maggie does strike a hopeful tone at the end of her piece. With the emergence/resurgence of several print magazines dedicated to storytelling and a boom in platforms like Substack that are ideal for long-form journalism, these opportunities are slowly rebounding.
In the meantime, it’s essential to digest the realities of the current newsroom to understand why those in-depth, long-form brand features we all covet are so competitive to land. There are simply fewer resources allocated to traditional long-form brand storytelling because it’s hard to monetize. As PR practitioners and brands, this means we must do all we can to support those trying to do more with less. After all, the best PR partnerships happen with a collaborative effort from both sides. Here is a handy list of things we work with brands on to make compelling brand story pitches, and in turn, help media find placements for them:
- Identifying an easily accessible brand spokesperson
- Media turnaround times are tight, and a willingness to be flexible and available on their timelines goes a long way.
- Defining the specificity in the brand spokesperson’s expertise.
- Brand stories should be built around solutions…what problem or conflict is the brand solving? We’ll work with you to find one or multiple brand spokespersons with SPECIFIC expertise to add to the overall narrative.
- Connecting the story idea to the broader industry/world trends
- No media outlet will write a glowing brand story piece (that’s called advertorial) without a broader connection. We’ll work with your team to ideate story angles that are relevant to current happenings.
- Supporting assets
- There are never enough supporting lifestyle assets. This takes a world of work off of the media’s plate.
Human-First Approach:
In addition to these essential elements of a good brand story pitch, Maggie stresses the importance of thoughtful and timely communication. Taking a human-first approach is always best practice (but that goes without saying, right?). Being considerate in our outreach, especially on those weeks when we know media shakeups are happening, goes a long way. Maggie echoes this sentiment when it comes to PR/media collaboration.
“Understand that we’re all overworked right now, and our rates have been declining. We really appreciate the gear seeding and product info, so treating us like your collaborators too and not being super pushy about coverage is key. We also love when you talk to us like humans, not robots, interacting with branded marketing jargon.”
Freelancers often have tight deadlines and lack time to dig for assets, generate quotes, set up interviews, etc. PR pros are huge assets in this regard, as long as communication is timely, efficient, and adds value.
“Fast turnaround is amazing. And if we need quotes about a product category, make sure the sources you help us find aren’t being overly promotional. We can’t use those quotes and don’t want to waste anyone’s time or have our back-and-forth wasted.”
How PR Professionals Can Help Gear-Focused Freelancers
Let’s be clear, we believe gear guides, listicles, and SEO-based commerce articles have their place. There’s no doubt they provide value—for readers, for brands, for media outlets, and yes, even for writers. For PR pros, there are things we can all do to make life a little easier for our media partners working on gear-specific round-ups.
There are the obvious tenets of being a good PR partner:
- Keep the outreach informative and brief
- Understand tester/editorial timelines
- Respect journalistic integrity (after all, PR is earned, not promised)
But, there are additional steps for PR practitioners to consider when working with a product tester for a gear story. According to Maggie, the following practices are key in making testers’ lives easier.
Pre-Pitch Research and Personalization
Media get pitched constantly. With hundreds of new emails in their inbox daily, research is pivotal to ensure your outreach is relevant. Maggie explains further:
“For me, just sending the newest gear from your brands that actually fits what I test and cover, and any notes about what’s new in the lineup or what models have changed. I don’t need ideas sent over because I rarely pitch gear-related stories, most of my commerce assignments are just roundups and testing notes assigned from editors.”
Once you send that info, give it some time. When asked how PR teams can be a resource rather than another point of pressure, Maggie shared:
“The biggest thing agencies can do is ease up on relentless follow-ups. We aren’t in charge of when commerce pieces publish and when we have reviews assigned, and most of us are pretty clear in accepting product that we do our best to cover it but don’t have full control. There are some PR agencies I don’t accept product from anymore because they are so aggressive in following up.”
Conclusion
PR professionals sit at a unique intersection between brands and media, and it’s our responsibility to advocate for both with empathy, transparency, and efficiency. The media landscape is shifting quickly, and while commerce content is on the rise, long-form storytelling isn’t lost—it just needs more thoughtful collaboration to thrive.
Supporting our media partners in collaboration can take many forms, from respecting their time and bandwidth to offering resources that make their jobs easier, not harder. This also means making introductions and connections wherever possible. As Maggie puts it:
“If you know an editor looking for writers, please connect us!”