in: Public Relations - How To Pitch These Websites
by: Katie Hellmuth Martin
Yahoo! as an online publication and media outlet that is largely a mirror website. It appears to aggregate articles from websites around the web, like Marie Claire, People, Cosmopolitan, Time, Huffington Post, but it's really partnered with most of them. Meaning, editors at Yahoo! call the shots about what articles from those website show up at its own website.
There is some original content coming out of Yahoo!, but not much. Sections including Yahoo! Lifestyle, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Originals do have original content laced in with articles that originally appeared - and live at - the other publication's websites.
How To Get Featured On Yahoo!
If you want your business or brand featured in an article that appears on Yahoo!, your best bet is to focus on getting coverage at those other publications. Follow the writers of the articles that appear at those other websites, and continue pitching them with different story angles and reasons why your brand appeals to different people. You'll want to stay top-of-mind for when that writer suddenly needs to feature your pumpkin butter, for instance, when Yahoo! puts in an order for "10 best pumpkin recipes for fall" and the writer you've been staying coze with instantly thinks of your product.
If My Business Is Written About At A Partner Magazine's Website, Will It Get Featured At Yahoo!?
As far as I know, unless the writer tells you, there is little chance that you will know if your article got picked up by Yahoo!, because actually, the article was most likely planted at that other media outlet by Yahoo! itself. Says an editor who is familiar with their partner agreements with other publications: "Yahoo! says 'We want 10 stories about recipes for fall that use pumpkin" and you send 30-something pitches on that topic, hoping that 10 get picked. They choose the ones they like, send the list back to your company, and they're assigned out to your staffers and freelancers.'" That editor gave us more insight here in this exclusive article for our blog.
Or, says the editor, an article on the topic may already exist at that other publication that Yahoo! has a content partner agreement with, and they basically purchase the article to republish at their own website but with different formatting. Should this happen, your Google Alerts may inform you if the article republishes and your business name is mentioned.
How to Find Media Contacts at Yahoo!
An All Access Membership with Tin Shingle does grant you instant access to our database of names with brief descriptions of what that person in the media specializes in. However, you're going to be focusing on Contributing Writers in this case, and not necessarily looking for names at Yahoo!. Contributing Writers are freelancers who write for 1, 5 or 10 different publications at once. Focus on their beat (aka what they like to write about called "Area of Interest" in our database), and get cozy with them.
You can learn more about membership here, and sign up for our free newsletter for more tips like this.
If you do land a PR hit, and you're a member of Tin Shingle, do let us know about it so that we can highlight it on Tin Shingle's website! Tin Shingle Members are able to upload their press to their Press Portfolios which adds to their exposure.
