Use public-relations when real data, a milestone, or a meaningful experience may interest journalists, podcasts, or industry newsletters. The focus is why their readers should care, rather than amplifying product claims. PR here means public relations, not a code pull request.
Install and invoke
Run this in your project terminal to install only this skill for Claude Code:
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill public-relations -a claude-code
Node.js and npx must be available. For Codex, replace -a claude-code with -a codex. In the agent conversation, explicitly ask it to use public-relations and supply your material. The installation command belongs in the terminal, not in your content brief.
Explain why the story matters now
Provide the development, timing, public evidence, and people available for interviews. A feature announcement without a reader-relevant consequence is not yet a complete story. Data and user experiences also need clear scope and limitations.
Example brief:
Use public-relations to assess three angles in research-summary.md.
Read methodology.md for methods and limitations and team.md for interview contacts.
Choose an angle relevant to design-industry readers, then research three journalists recently covering related topics.
Draft only. For each, provide the fit, a short email, evidence links, and outstanding confirmations. Do not send anything.
Determine whether the material supports a trend, concrete problem, founder story, or customer development. Do not turn correlation into causation or internal speculation into a research finding. If no angle is yet substantiated, strengthen the evidence rather than manufacturing significance from an ordinary release.
Make basic facts easy to use
Read recent articles by each target journalist to understand their subjects, audience, and format. The pitch should briefly explain what happened, why it fits, what supports it, and the proposed next action. Adaptation should go beyond replacing the recipient’s name.
Prepare a stable media-resource page with a concise company description, approved screenshots, logos, confirmed biographies, and contact details. List only coverage that actually exists. Interview availability and any embargo arrangements require confirmation; do not invent customer quotations or commitments to complete the draft.
After a response, handle scheduling, additional evidence, and publication details through the real team. Review accuracy, relevant reach, and observable subsequent actions rather than treating media logos or short traffic spikes as proof of paying customers. The skill helps organize research and writing, while relationship-building and timely responses still require actual effort.
Turn “we have news” into material someone can report
Ask why this matters now, to whom, and which facts can be independently checked. A new feature is not automatically a news story; original data, a change with consequences for a group, or a permitted customer account may offer a clearer angle. Have the skill build a fact sheet with dates, sources for numbers, an interview contact, approved examples, and claims still awaiting confirmation. If there is no credible hook, preparing a press page may be more useful than forcing a mass pitch.
Try one journalist or podcast first. Read the topics they have covered recently and write a short pitch that connects the story to their audience, with usable quotations and a contact. A public email address is not an invitation to send every kind of promotion. The official pitch-quality check emphasizes beat fit and whether the supplied facts can support a story, not only an attention-grabbing subject line.
After coverage, record actual mentions, relevant referral visits, and resulting questions. Placement count and domain metrics are partial signals; they do not tell you whether the audience understood the product. If a story contains a factual error, prepare citable correction material for the editor rather than circulating the incorrect clipping.
Example: pitch a survey without overstating its reach
Suppose a team surveyed two hundred design leads and found slow approval handoffs, but the questionnaire reached only existing email subscribers. Give the skill the survey, recruitment method, aggregate results, and quotation permissions. Ask: “Use public-relations to identify one angle about design-team work. Draft a fact sheet, sample limitations, and one pitch to a journalist who has recently covered this topic. Do not describe subscribers as representative of the entire industry.”
Trace every number to the results table and state the sampling boundary in headline and body. Confirm interview contacts and permission to publish quotations. If the agent turns correlation into causation, or claims a journalist has a relevant beat without checking recent work, send it back for verification. A useful pitch also tells the journalist which charts and knowledgeable people are available. If the evidence cannot support news coverage, publish a transparent research note instead of mass-mailing an inflated conclusion.
Check whether a reporter could tell the story independently
Remove the product name from the first line of the pitch. If a timely, evidenced, audience-relevant story remains, add the product back as one part of the evidence. Founder Zach Schleien’s firsthand guide emphasizes matching a journalist’s beat, giving proof, and making an easy interview request instead of forwarding a generic press release. Ask the Skill for the three facts most in need of checking, then verify dates, numbers, spokesperson availability, and the destination page before sending.
Consumer brands should separate a story a journalist might cover from a product listing in a gift guide. Sush Padhye’s retail fork keeps pitches to journalists, podcasts and newsletters in PR, while routing gift guides and deal aggregators to directory submissions. Negative coverage calls for fact-finding, an owner and a holding response rather than a launch pitch. Track brand search and relevant sales questions afterward, but a revenue spike is not automatically caused by the placement. This is a public method adaptation without customer outcome data.