How do you get journalists to cover your Startup Story?

It can be done through a PR agency.

we have a local Telegram chat - try to find communities named "PR" or something in your region. It is more useful direct contact and it will be free or cheaper

I saw https://promotehour.com be recommended. Haven't tried it but plan to.

From my experience decent reporters that create high quality articles never ask to get paid. We managed to get our product covered in top tech media like ZDNet without a single dollar spent. Of course it greately depends on the product itself - it should be 💥 newsworthy. Researching on who writes what, finding reporters' contacts, writing custom pitches ✍️, nurturing relationships ♥ take some time, but this highly individualized approach brings results.

I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but thought I may as well throw it out there since your looking for a free/low cost option. Help a Report Out is a great site where journalists often find sources & people to interview regarding a story. If something is within your area of expertise, you'd be included in their article. Although it'd likely only be a few paragraphs within the article itself, you'd be credited, and they'd likely briefly mention you're startup as well.

Interestin question, @oluadedeji. We found a number of our competitors sniffing around and signing up on our site, which I think proves that the "industry" is interested in what's going on. However, I haven't managed to turn that into an actual article by a real journalist!

Guestposting mails! ) always

The best solution is crowd marketing. To be published for free, you should be known about you!

👋 Hey @nik_hazell @avidnote , I just wrote a whole response but appears to have just been deleted - anywho :) Take 2 There are a few playbooks on this, I just wanted to reach out to everyone else to see if there are "shorter-cuts" .Awareness generation can be "hacked" ... I'll keep you posted BTW - @nik_hazell your profile background pic is 🔥

Good question @oluadedeji, I upvoted this thread as I would also love to hear what other people feel regarding this. You're correct that the publications that charge you for writing about your story are usually a waste of money. From what I've been told, PR is like most other things, a question of who you know and what you can offer. If what you're doing is extraordinary or newsworthy in and of itself, getting people to write about it is obviously easier than if you're doing a B2b SaaS. Like the old saying goes, dog bites man --> not newsworthy but man bites dog --> newsworthy.

you know, I've had some big media coverage in the past, and the only good that came from it was to be able to use their logo and tell people I was on it. In terms of sales, I always got next to nothing. I get more traction on a single LinkedIn post these days. But, it's still in the minds of some people that you must be successful when you make the news. When I did it in the past, I had already launched the startup, and I came at an angle from something new and interesting and just reached out to a ton of people. If you can speak to specific stories that those specific reporters do, you'll have better odds. But, I'm telling you, the ROI of what you get after how many hours is required, is bad. You just have to really, really want those logos (in which case hiring some PR newsblast company for a couple hundred is probably a better bet).