How to review pitches and quotes without strangling them
Make exactly two kinds of edits: fix what is factually wrong (a number, a spec, a claim you can't defend on a call) and flag anything you won't stand behind. Everything else, the tone, the word order, the rhythm, is the agency's call. Most pitches that die in review die from a third kind of edit, the one that rewrites a plain sentence into a corporate one.
Founders over-edit because a pitch looks like marketing, so they apply marketing voice. The market runs the other way. A reporter skims dozens of pitches a day and trusts the plain ones; polished copy reads like a press release, and press releases get deleted. Propel found short pitches, under 150 words, draw about four times the response rate of long ones. Swap "we help teams ship faster" for "an end-to-end platform that empowers stakeholders" and the pitch becomes easier to skip.
So sort every edit you're tempted to make into two piles, and act on one:
- Wrong - a number, a date, a customer name, a claim you couldn't repeat in an interview. Fix every one of these.
- Different from how you'd say it - tone, word choice, sentence order. Leave it alone unless it actively misleads.
When you catch yourself in the second pile, name the impulse:
| Your impulse | What to do |
|---|---|
| It corrects a fact or an indefensible claim | Make the edit, always |
| It adds an adjective or a qualifier | Drop it; specifics persuade, adjectives don't |
| It hedges a strong line into a safe one | Drop it; the strong line is why a reporter replies |
| It makes the pitch sound more official | Drop it; official language is what reporters skip |
The one input only you can supply is truth: whether the claim holds and whether you'll back it in an interview. That part is non-delegable. Sentence rhythm and reporter taste are not, and a good agency knows the beat better than you do. Agree on the two-pile rule at kickoff, and treat an agency that pushes back on your over-edits as doing its job.
Restraint is half of a good review; speed is the other half. A pitch held a week for wordsmithing misses the news cycle it was written for. How fast you turn reviews around is covered in "Why your responsiveness decides the outcome."