Suede Public Relations

---
name: suede-public-relations
description: "Suede-owned earned-media discipline. Use when building a media list, validating a story angle, drafting a journalist pitch, preparing a press kit, evaluating newsjacking, or answering a reporter request. NOT FOR: directory submissions (use suede-directory-submissions), launch packaging (use suede-launch-packaging), social publishing (use suede-social), or contacting anyone without approval."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
---

# Suede Public Relations & Earned Media

Suede Public Relations turns verified milestones, evidence, and timely angles
into respectful earned-media briefs for journalists, podcasts, and newsletters.
It optimizes story fit and source usefulness without treating a drafted pitch as
sent or coverage as earned.

## Before Starting

**Check for product marketing context first:**
If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

---

## Core Philosophy

PR is not a substitute for distribution. Treat it as a channel hypothesis whose
value must be measured against the current audience, story, and sales motion.

- **Do not assume a placement drives or cannot drive conversion.** Track referral
  behavior, brand search, citations, and sales influence for this campaign.
- **Pitch journalists like you'd pitch a customer:** specific, useful, fast, and never about you.
- **The story is not your product. The story is the trend, the data, the conflict, or the human.** Your product is the evidence.
- **Test speed against relevance and accuracy.** Use the story's observed
  coverage curve and deadline; never trade verification for haste.

### When PR is worth it

- You have **a real story** — proprietary data, a strong opinion, a milestone, a customer with a sharp before/after, or a fresh angle on a trending topic
- You have **founder/exec time** — journalists want quotes from people with skin in the game, not from a PR rep
- You have **a destination** — a press page, blog post, or product launch that converts attention into something useful

### When to skip PR (for now)

- Pre-launch with no story beyond "we exist"
- No one on the team can sustain the approved, measured test window
- You don't have a clear ICP — journalists ask "who reads my piece because of this?" and if you can't answer, neither can they

---

## The PR Mix

Four possible modes. Select only those supported by the story, audience,
capacity, and current source access.

| Mode | What it is | Effort | Speed to coverage |
|------|------------|--------|-------------------|
| **Reactive (newsjacking)** | Inject your POV into trending news | Low–medium | Hours to days |
| **Proactive (pitching)** | Build a media list, draft original-story pitches | Measure current capacity | Set from story flow and response data |
| **Inbound (press requests)** | Respond to journalist queries on HARO/Qwoted/Featured | Low | Days to weeks |
| **Owned (press page + media kit)** | Make it easy for journalists to find you | One-time setup | N/A |

**For the reactive newsjacking workflow** — see [references/newsjacking.md](references/newsjacking.md)

**For proactive journalist pitching** — see [references/journalist-pitching.md](references/journalist-pitching.md)

**For inbound press-request platforms (HARO, Qwoted, etc.)** — see [references/press-platforms.md](references/press-platforms.md)

**For where to pitch (media outlets, podcasts, newsletters)** — see [references/media-outlets.md](references/media-outlets.md). For startup/SaaS/AI directories, use the separate `suede-directory-submissions` skill — different intent, different list.

---

## Owned: Press Page + Media Kit

Build this when verified newsroom assets and a maintained press contact would
reduce friction for the current media motion; measure usage rather than assuming
ROI.

**Press page (`/press` or `/newsroom`) should include:**
- One-paragraph company description (copy/paste ready)
- Founder bios with headshots (high-res, downloadable)
- Logo pack (SVG + PNG, light + dark, with usage guidelines)
- Product screenshots (high-res)
- Recent coverage list (social proof for the next journalist)
- Founding date, employee count, funding (if disclosed)
- A current press contact path in the format the intended outlets accept
- Recent press releases / announcements

State a response expectation only if the team has approved and staffed it. Use
the team's real service level rather than a universal 24-hour promise.

---

## Quick Reference: Pitch Quality Bar

Before presenting any draft for send approval, resolve these checks:

- [ ] Does a bounded recent sample show that this journalist covers the beat?
- [ ] Is there a clear news hook — something that just happened or is about to?
- [ ] Could this journalist write a complete story from this email alone? (Data, quotes, customer name, contact.)
- [ ] Is the subject line specific enough to predict the article's headline?
- [ ] Is the pitch within the outlet's published word or character limit — or,
      if the outlet publishes none, within the limit the user stated?
- [ ] Did you avoid the words "revolutionary," "game-changing," "disruptive," and "synergy"?
- [ ] Is the ask clear? (Interview? Embargo? Exclusive? Quote?)

**Pass rule:** any unchecked box blocks the draft from being presented for send
approval. Fix it or, if it cannot be resolved (the outlet publishes no limit and
the user has not stated one), name the box as unresolved in the handover below
rather than checking it.

### Send-approval handover (the one gate in this skill)

Every workflow in this skill and its references ends here. Contacting a
journalist is unrecallable, so nothing leaves as a draft-plus-send. At the
handover:

1. **Stop.** The work is complete; the output is a draft and nothing has been sent.
2. **Name the four variables, one line each:** recipient (person and outlet),
   channel (email, platform form, DM), visible sending identity, and the exact
   message to be sent.
3. **State cost and timing** if either applies (platform fee, embargo time).
4. **Offer three options:** approve as written / revise (name what changes) / drop.
5. **Wait for the user's explicit pick.** Approval for one recipient never
   transfers to another, and any edit to the message re-opens this gate.

---

## Measurement

What to track:

| Metric | Why |
|--------|-----|
| **Coverage count** (placements / month) | Activity baseline |
| **Domain rating of placements** | Backlink value |
| **Referral traffic from coverage** | Did anyone actually click? |
| **Brand search lift** | Did people search you after reading? |
| **AI citation rate** (ChatGPT, Perplexity quote your brand?) | The new measurement that matters |
| **Sales conversations citing the article** | One revenue-influence signal to reconcile with attribution limits |

What not to obsess over: AVE (advertising value equivalency) — it's a vanity metric PR firms invented.

---

## Common Workflows

### "Help me newsjack [trending story]"
Go to [newsjacking.md](references/newsjacking.md), run the scoring rubric, draft
a bounded set of evidence-backed angles, and return a recommended draft for
review. Do not pitch or publish.

### "Find journalists who cover [beat]"
Go to [journalist-pitching.md](references/journalist-pitching.md), use the
discovery checklist, and first discover whether an authorized browser or
research connector is callable. If not, work from user-supplied article URLs,
exports, or a manual research worksheet. Build a sourced, scored list without
claiming any profile or article was reviewed unless it actually was.

### "What's worth pitching this week?"
Combine: recent product milestones + active news cycles + any data you've collected. Score each potential story by the quality bar above.

### "Respond to this HARO query"
Go to [press-platforms.md](references/press-platforms.md), use the response
template, follow current outlet limits, and keep the result draft-only.

### "Build my press page"
Use the checklist above. Most companies do this in an afternoon and forget about it for a year — that's fine.

## Boundaries

- Do not contact journalists, submit reporter responses, publish press
  releases, or represent that a draft has been sent without explicit approval
  and a confirmed recipient.
- Do not fabricate claims, data, quotes, customers, credentials, urgency, or
  coverage; separate verified facts from proposed angles.
- Do not impersonate a source, promise exclusivity, or decide legal disclosure,
  embargo, or crisis-response policy.

## Routing

- Use `suede-launch-packaging` to coordinate a broader product launch.
- Use `suede-directory-submissions` for directory and catalog listings.
- Use `suede-social` for approved social distribution and engagement.
- Use `suede-copy` to polish a verified press-page or announcement draft.
- Use `suede-co-marketing` when the announcement is a joint launch with a partner.