Who does what: agency vs. you (the responsibility split)
The split is simple to state: the agency owns everything that requires access to reporters, and you own everything that requires access to your business. Targeting, pitching, follow-up, and reporter relationships are theirs, and that access is genuinely scarce: PR specialists now outnumber journalists by roughly six to one, so a relationship that gets your pitch read is hard to replicate on your own. News, data, customer proof, and the founder on a call are yours. No agency manufactures news you don't have.
That access test settles almost any task. Building the media list needs reporter access: theirs. Deciding what counts as news needs business access: yours. Neither side can do the other's half.
| The agency owns | You own |
|---|---|
| Building and updating the media list | Deciding what counts as news |
| Writing and sending pitches | Approving the message and the claims |
| Reporter relationships and follow-up | Showing up for the interview, on time |
| Timing against the news cycle | Customer intros, data, screenshots, metrics |
| Reporting on what landed | Calling the priorities each quarter |
Engagements rarely fail inside either column. They fail at the handoffs. Watch these four:
- Approvals - the agency drafts, you sign off. A pitch waiting on your approval is a pitch not sent, and "Why your responsiveness decides the outcome" covers how much that one variable moves results.
- Source material - they can shape your data point into a hook, but they cannot invent the data. "What to feed the agency to get coverage" lists what to hand over.
- Spokesperson time - a booked interview you skip burns a reporter relationship the agency spent months building, and you pay for the rebuild in slower coverage.
- Direction - they name what's winnable this month; you name what matters this quarter. Without your call, they optimize for whatever lands easiest.
Judge the split with one question each month: is the agency doing what only an outside operator can do, or billing hours to chase material only you can produce? The first is leverage. The second means the inputs stopped, and that problem sits on your side of the table.