Big changes at a top PR platform (and they involve AI)
Here’s what PR pros need to know about the new AI detector at one of the most popular pitching platforms.
Joni Sweet is a seasoned writer, editor, and content strategist with 13+ years of media experience. In this newsletter, Joni reveals insider tips to help PR professionals sharpen their pitches, avoid rookie mistakes, land coverage for their clients, and build stronger relationships with writers. Book a Flash Consulting session with her to get journalist’s perspective on your biggest PR roadblocks.
Breaking news: Qwoted is taking a tougher stance on AI-generated content in media pitches and expert quote submissions. Until now, it’s been using GPTZero to flag when a pitch or quotes submitted to a journalist might be written by ChatGPT or another AI program. But today, the platform announced it’s scrapping that tool in favor of a new partnership with Pangram, which calls itself “the most accurate technology for AI text detection.”
(Psst… if you haven’t tried Qwoted yet, use code JONI to get $50 off your first month and two free pitch credits. It’s one of my favorite HARO alternatives!)
My take as a journalist: OK, at risk of alienating myself from nearly all of my colleagues who publicly rail against AI… I don’t actually care that much if a pitch, quote, or even a piece of content from a professional writer had some AI help. The only thing I really care about is whether something I’m reading is accurate, original, and interesting.
The problem is, many publications flat-out ban AI-generated content, which means if you slip me an AI-written quote and I include it in my article, I’m in violation of my contract, which could be a death sentence for my relationship with that editor and publication.
(I talked a bit more about this at the Story Seeds Pitch Clinic with Pitchcraft. So if you want the replay, sign up for Pitchcraft and use code JONI200 to get $200 off your first month or JONI400 to get off $400 your first annual membership.)
Honestly, I believe every journalist who wants to be sure that the quotes they gather are truly from a human should get on the phone or video chat and do a real interview—it’s what I try to do for most of my reporting. But given the low rates writers are paid, many of us (including myself at times!) accept written quotes to help us work more efficiently and hit our deadlines.
And that’s where it’s helpful that Qwoted has partnered with Pangram to check submissions for AI generated content. I’m pretty skeptical of AI detectors—some of them have even flagged my old drafts as AI-generated, even though they were written well before generative AI existed—so I ran a few of my writing samples through Pangram to see how it did. I was impressed with how accurate it was. It’ll definitely make me raise an eyebrow next time the integrated tool flags a submission on my Qwoted dashboard as AI-generated in a way other detectors never did.
What this means for PR pros: If your client hands you a ChatGPT-polished quote and you use it to respond to a journalist’s query through Qwoted, you risk being the one flagged as sending “AI slop.” And that’s not just about having one client ignored—it could end up eroding trust with a journalist you probably want to work with again in the future. I’ve already shared my thoughts on whether relationships with journalists really matter, so I’ll be the first to tell you that once I’ve been burned by a PR rep, I’ll probably ignore everyone else in their roster.
It also means that you have another responsibility of playing the role of AI quote cop. If you’ve arranged an email interview for a client, I highly recommend getting them to submit the quotes a few days before the real deadline, running them through Pangram, and making sure they don’t come back as AI generated before you send them to a journalist. You might be surprised at what gets caught, even from your most trusted clients.
Want to go above and beyond? Ask your client to respond to emailed interview questions via voice note and send them to you. Use the transcription from Apple’s Voice Note app, give them a light polish, and pass them along to the journalist. That way you know they’re 100% human, and they’ll often read more natural and conversational than anything generated by ChatGPT. You can even send your client these journalist-approved tips for acing an interview to give them an edge.
Cool PR job alert
One of my PR pals, Shannon Overholser, sent me a lead on a PR job that should be on your radar. Redpoint—the agency she worked for, left, then came back to because she missed it so much—is looking for a PR account executive in travel and tourism. I took a look at the benefits package and this seems like a really sweet gig. On top of the usual benefits (insurance, 401k matching, etc.), the person who lands this role will get an annual wellness stipend, travel perks, tailored professional development retreats, and *mandatory* “rejuvenation leave” every five years (that’s four extra weeks of PTO!). And did I mention it’s remote?
Here are the details. And if you decide to apply, let me know!
Trip to Vegas
My partner’s turning the big 4-0 next month, so to celebrate the big birthday in style, we’ve decided to head to Las Vegas from Sept. 16-20. I’ll be covering our revelry for Yahoo, and keeping all of the experiences I have in mind for future stories at other publications. If you have a client I should consider checking out (spas, restaurants, tours, experiences, over-the-top birthday ideas, etc.) please let me know ASAP (jonimsweet@gmail.com)!
This is great! I've had things that I've actually written inside the Qwoted message box get tagged as AI. So, hopefully, this one will be more accurate and will force people to level up with their answers.
I think this is a positive stance for Qwoted to take; they've really impressed me as a platform.