Jason Feifer on Getting Press, Pitching Journalists, and Opportunity Set B

Jason Feifer on Getting Press, Pitching Journalists, and Opportunity Set B

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Jason Feifer on Getting Press, Pitching Journalists, and Opportunity Set B

Jason Feifer — Editor-in-Chief at Entrepreneur Magazine; previously senior editor at Fast Company, Men’s Health, and other publications; author of Build for Tomorrow; podcast host and keynote speaker — joins Lenny’s Podcast for a tactical guide to getting press for your product. The conversation covers the full three-step framework (prep, target, pitch), why the fundamental mental model most founders use is wrong, and why freelance writers are often a better path than senior editors. Closes with Feifer’s career philosophy: Opportunity Set B.

Source: Lenny’s Podcast Speaker: Jason Feifer

Key ideas

  1. Media is not a service. Editors serve their audience, not the people pitching them. The question is not “how do I get coverage?” but “what is this publication trying to do for its readers, and how does my story serve that?” Publication missions differ fundamentally: Entrepreneur is about counterintuitive thinking that entrepreneurs can extract from, not a directory of entrepreneurs. Pitching without understanding the mission is ordering a hamburger from someone who doesn’t sell food.

  2. Three-step framework: prep, target, pitch. Prep means clarifying what press is actually for (growth, investor credibility, authority, repositioning) and identifying the genuinely interesting part of your story — usually a counterintuitive decision or clever workaround, not the product itself. Target means finding the right publication and the right specific writer, not emailing the editor-in-chief. Pitch means a short, human, personalised email that tells the story as the writer would tell it to their audience.

  3. Freelancers beat staff editors. Freelancers are paid per story and are actively hunting for material; they receive far fewer pitches and read nearly all of them. Staff editors are flooded, self-source the majority of their stories, and treat inbound pitches as noise until proven otherwise. Finding the freelancer who covers your space is often more effective than targeting the masthead.

  4. “Be part of the story” rather than being the feature. You do not have to be the subject. Create context that journalists want to write about and embed yourself within it: produce original data (survey, annual report), surface a trend you are part of, or offer an angle that is more compelling than your direct pitch. Barbara Corcoran built her real estate authority by publishing the Corcoran Report — data nobody else was compiling — before anyone knew her name. Zapier produces its fastest-growing-apps list annually; it gets covered every time.

  5. Opportunity Set B is where growth happens. Two categories of opportunity exist at any moment: Set A (what is asked of you) and Set B (what is available to you even though nobody is asking). Focusing exclusively on Set A means remaining qualified only for what you already do. Feifer attributes all compounding career development — speaking, podcasting, book, identity as entrepreneur-who-helps-entrepreneurs — to acting on Set B without external instruction.

On press as social cachet

Most feature stories in major publications reach only 5,000–10,000 readers, despite the publication’s millions of monthly unique visitors, because volume dilutes individual story traffic. A coverage win may generate no measurable conversion on its own. But the cachet play often exceeds the traffic play: “as seen in” on the website; the link forwarded to investors or partners to signal legitimacy; the article repurposed as a targeted ad to the audience you specifically want to notice your credibility. Feifer and co-host Nicole Lapin got Variety coverage for Money News Network — no measurable business from it, but every advertiser outreach email now includes the link and changes how recipients pay attention.

On the pitch email

No magic formula. What works: signals of customisation (referencing specific work of the writer or publication), making it clear this was not mass-blasted; opening with the interesting story, not the product description; telling the story the writer would tell their audience, not the founder story you want in the world; three paragraphs maximum; being human. What kills it: press-release-style copy, faking familiarity, pitching the wrong person (e.g. the editor-in-chief rather than the writer who covers the beat).

Good example from the archive: Meg O’Hara emailed Feifer about her Canadian landscape painting business during Covid. She had read his Problem Solvers podcast, structured her pitch in the same problem/solution format the show uses, and led with how border closures killed her ski resort work but opened a direct-to-consumer market of home-bound skiers who wanted paintings of their favourite runs. He replied within hours.

On exclusivity

Offer one outlet a window (e.g. three hours before the founder responds to others) rather than simultaneous pitching or total exclusivity. An exclusive interview with a named personality (e.g. a founder-investor who is the actual story) alongside universal news release is another clean structure. The principle: let everyone feel they are being treated fairly — no games, no deception.

See also