The Pub Test: How to Know if You Have a Story Worth Pitching
One question separates the pitches that land from the ones that get deleted before lunch. Most founders get the answer wrong — not because they don't have good stories, but because they're framing the story for the wrong audience.
Before you write a single word of a press release or craft a single line of a pitch email, ask yourself this: if I told this to a stranger at a pub, would they lean in or check their phone?
If they'd lean in — you have a story. If they'd check their phone — you have a company update. Company updates don't get covered. Stories do.
The difference isn't how important the news is to you. It's whether it means something to someone who has never heard of your company and has no particular reason to care about it.
What this looks like in practice
A company wanted to lead their announcement with a $3 million capital raise. Reasonable instinct — it's a significant number and a genuine milestone. The agency led instead with the person: a former executive from one of the world's most recognised tech brands had just joined the board, and that signal — that someone with that track record was betting on this category — was the actual story. The $3M became supporting evidence. It landed as an exclusive in a national masthead. It would not have landed as "company raises $3M."
Another example: a company was announcing a rebrand. The founders expected national coverage. The agency looked at every major rebrand in that sector over the previous two years and found that even well-funded companies saw their rebrand stories land in vertical trade publications — not nationals. A rebrand alone is not a top-tier story. The agency was honest with the client, targeted trade publications strategically, and delivered exactly what those publications would cover. That's not a failure. That's correctly matched coverage.
How to find the angle that passes the pub test
For any story you're considering, work through these questions before you write a word:
Who does this affect beyond your customers? If the answer is "just our users," the story needs a broader frame. If the answer is "every founder trying to hire right now" or "anyone with a business credit card," you have impact.
Is there a number that would surprise someone? Data is the fastest path to credibility. A counterintuitive finding — something that contradicts what people assume — is often more compelling than your product itself. If you have proprietary data, it's almost certainly more interesting than your feature release.
Is there a person at the centre? A founder's story, a customer's experience, an employee whose situation illustrates the broader trend. Human stories carry more weight than corporate announcements. "A 27-year-old founder who nearly shut down the company before discovering this approach" is a story. "Company announces new feature" is not.
Is there tension? A gap between what people assume and what's actually happening. A regulatory requirement that doesn't yet have the infrastructure to support it. A trend where what people say they want contradicts what they actually do. Tension is what makes a story interesting rather than merely informative.
Is this connected to something already in the news? A story about hiring is stronger during jobs data week. A story about payments is stronger when payment regulation is being debated. Timing your story to ride an existing wave makes it more relevant to a journalist who is already thinking about that topic.
The tier question
Once you have a story, you need to match it to the right outlet. Pitching the wrong tier wastes your time and, more importantly, can damage your credibility with journalists who receive a pitch that's clearly out of place.
If your story has broad market impact — original data, a significant milestone that signals something about an industry, a named person who carries weight — top-tier national and international outlets are worth trying. If your story is interesting primarily to people in your specific sector, vertical trade publications will serve you better and produce coverage that your actual customers will read. If your story is mainly relevant to your existing customers or local community, that's where to focus.
Neither trade coverage nor local coverage is a failure. They are correctly matched coverage — and they're often more valuable to your business than a brief mention in a publication your customers never read.
The pub test in practice
Take your next three potential stories and run them through these questions:
- Write one sentence describing the story as if explaining it to a stranger.
- Does that sentence lead with the reader, or with your company?
- Would the stranger lean in or check their phone?
- Which tier of publication is this story realistically suited for?
If your sentence leads with your company name, rewrite it without the company name and see what's left. That remainder is usually closer to the real story.