The press release could soon be no more after one Australian media professional launched “tinder for the media industry”.
Polkadot Communications founder Dionne Taylor has started Story Match, an innovative platform that connects brands and businesses with relevant members of the media.
“I’ve done it because I am sick of hearing about all the pain points that both PR and journalists have when it comes to pitching and receiving pitches,” Taylor told B&T.
It’s a tech solution based on years of hands-on media experience.
Taylor started Polkadot Communications 13 years ago after previously working as a journalist.
Story Match aims to remove the ‘spray and pray’ PR approach, where releases are sent out to journalists ad lib, resulting in clogged inboxes for journalists, wasted time for PRs and a waste of money for brands paying thousands in agency fees.
Instead, Story Match allows journalists to select their relevant ‘tags’, based on editorial interests, so that they only see relevant pitches.
Brands are given 500 characters to create a short and snappy pitch to grab the attention of the journalists and over 50 different tags to filter the stories.
Journalists see the pitches based on their stated interests and can swipe right if they like the story, which will open a chat with the brand so both parties can begin working on the story.
As well as filtering stories for journalists, it helps brands to connect directly with journalists who are actually interested.
It’s a system that Taylor thinks can take agencies out of the process altogether.
“Brands don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to agencies to get their brands noticed,” said Taylor. “It completely changes the way we do things.”
In the six weeks since it has been live, Story Match has already had over 700 people sign up.
