(1888PressRelease)
November 06, 2009 - Less than 10 months after its launch, PitchRate.com (http://www.PitchRate.com) recently passed a major milestone with more than 100 active requests from journalists seeking experts across a wide range of topics.
“There is now a request at PitchRate for almost anyone to pitch,” says Shannon Nicholson, vice-president of sales for Blue Kangaroo, Inc., the web products company that created PitchRate.com.
PitchRate.com is a free online service connecting experts with journalists from magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and online sources. Since it went online in February, PitchRate.com has sent out more than 16,000 distributions to experts in an amazingly diverse array of topics.
Reporters use PitchRate.com to find experts on subjects such as publishing, marketing, parenting, finance, healthcare, interior design and product reviews. But PitchRate.com also includes requests for “everyday” experts — such as a current active query for men and women to share their “online dating fiascoes and successes.”
PitchRate.com’s media requests range from light-hearted (no fuss cocktail and holiday parties) to hard news (sweat lodge deaths) to consumer news (relief from your toxic mortgage loan). The media professionals seeking interviews and story sources on PitchRate.com include local to national magazine, newspaper, TV and radio reporters and an array of online journalists.
Blue Kangaroo CEO Drew Gerber, a dotcom veteran, created PitchRate.com because he realized journalists on deadline need to contact credible experts quickly and efficiently. PitchRate.com is the only service that rates the expertise of sources based on reporters’ reviews from previous interviews and other criteria. Here’s how it works:
When preparing for a story, print and online reporters and broadcast producers use PitchRate to make a request for experts or firsthand sources to interview. PitchRate.com sends out these queries each day in emails to its list of experts who can then pitch the journalists on their area of interest. It costs nothing to sign up as an expert or as a journalist.
PitchRate.com is unique among news query services because assigns a ranking to pitches so media professionals can find the best interviews quickly. Journalists can choose to cloak their requests so sources can’t contact them directly. Reporters can either have pitches emailed directly to them, or easily organize them on the site. Media professionals can also easily turn off requests so they don’t get bombarded with pitches after they have found what they need.
To schedule an interview with Drew Gerber, CEO of Blue Kangaroo, Inc. and co-creator of PitchRate.com, please contact Michelle Tennant, Executive Publicist, Wasabi Publicity Inc., at Michelle ( @ ) PublicityResults dot com or 828.749.3200.
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