Media Enquiry Form Template

Journalists don't browse websites; they work stories against clocks. A media enquiry that sits unread for six hours isn't answered late, it is answered never, because the piece ran with "did not respond to requests for comment" where your perspective should have been. This form is built backwards from that clock: deadline first, needs explicit, and a routing promise the newsroom can feel.

Deadline first, everything follows. The deadline question leads because it determines everything downstream. A same-day flag should interrupt someone's afternoon, while a flexible feature request can wait for Monday's comms review, and three honest tiers sort those without negotiation. The needs checklist is the field journalists thank you for: "a quote, an interview, or just the press kit?" is the clarifying email you would otherwise send, and its absence from most press pages is why journalists dread contacting companies. Asking the story angle, including who else they are talking to, is preparation: knowing the frame a quote will land in is the difference between a usable one and a generic one. The outlet field's placeholder welcomes freelance and student press, which costs nothing and occasionally befriends the reporter who covers you for a decade.

Left off for the journalist's sake. Phone numbers as a requirement (journalists guard their numbers; email-first respects that, and interview logistics move to scheduling once you have said yes), PR-agency screening questions, and embargo checkboxes. Embargo terms belong in the correspondence where they are enforceable, not in form metadata.

Who fields press on this. Startups whose press@ inbox is a black hole, established companies routing regional and trade press, universities and hospitals fielding expert-comment requests, and nonprofits whose spokespeople need context before commenting on sensitive stories.

Wire it to the newsroom clock. Put this behind a /press link with your press kit beside it, since half of enquiries are solved by assets alone and the checklist tells you which half. Turn on notifications and route by webhook to wherever your comms people live, usually a chat channel rather than an inbox. The ending promises a reply from someone authorized to speak; align internally so that is true, because journalists remember which companies answer. The responses log doubles as your media-contacts history, so export it before your next comms review.

Deadline is the covenant. Everything in this form exists to get the right answer to a writing journalist before their editor stops caring. Build your handling process to the same clock.