{"id":34184,"date":"2025-10-15T11:53:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/?post_type=insight&p=34184"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:19:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:19:49","slug":"pan-press-pass-jennifer-conrad-senior-writer-at-inc","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/insights\/pan-press-pass-jennifer-conrad-senior-writer-at-inc\/","title":{"rendered":"PAN Press Pass: Jennifer Conrad, Senior Writer at Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For this edition of PAN Press Pass, our reporter Q&A series, we sat down with Inc.\u2019s<\/em> Jennifer Conrad<\/a>, a senior writer covering American entrepreneurship and fast-growing companies, as well as the trends they need to know about. Jennifer discusses how she looks for her next story, what makes a valuable source, and how AI is impacting the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Read >> <\/strong>PAN Press Pass: Carl Franzen, Executive Editor at VentureBeat<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What drew you to your beat, and what keeps you interested? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I like to interview entrepreneurs and understand their businesses and who they are\u2014their backstories. Specifically, when looking at tariffs and small businesses, it\u2019s been a hard but really dynamic eight months. For me, having an economics degree and background in international relations\u2014which I couldn\u2019t have anticipated using ever again\u2014helps to tell these stories.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve enjoyed getting a sense of what\u2019s on the ground and how entrepreneurs are adapting their businesses to tariffs and recent policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Where do you look for your next story? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It varies. Sometimes the reporters and editors at Inc. look at the news or certain newsletters to figure out if there\u2019s an angle to a major news story that hasn\u2019t been covered or a question that business owners might have that hasn\u2019t been addressed. Sometimes I turn to social media or LinkedIn, especially for companies that are trending or doing something interesting. Some of it does come through PR pitches, but it\u2019s really a combination. A lot of times, someone in the office will start hearing about a particular company a fair amount, and then we\u2019ll start discussing if that company is interesting, and if they are, who would cover it, why they\u2019d cover it, and how.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: How much collaboration is there across teams at Inc? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re a pretty small staff, so we do tend to talk to each other a lot. We have a morning news meeting every day where we go over what people are writing, and what other things we should be tracking. We meet about once a week to talk about ideas and longer-term stories.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What are some of your PR pet peeves? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Unless it\u2019s super urgent, like there\u2019s a major error in a story or there\u2019s a last-minute piece of information I need before we can publish, there\u2019s really no reason to call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be really distracting and disruptive. It\u2019s one thing if it\u2019s someone I\u2019m already working with on a story says “Hey, can we talk through this?” or “Hey, the CEO is here. He has five minutes.” If it\u2019s just a pitch and people are texting or calling at all hours\u2014that’s really annoying. I think that almost every reporter would say that. Some people will actually block those contacts. I don\u2019t do that, but I know a lot of reporters block PR people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing is that sometimes a story won\u2019t work because either the source isn\u2019t willing to be forthcoming enough or provide financial information, or there just isn\u2019t enough of a narrative arc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other times, a pitch may fall outside our coverage area. We pretty much only cover American companies, and it can be frustrating when you explain to someone why a story isn\u2019t going to work, and they continue to pitch it anyway or argue about it. Most good PR people don\u2019t do that, but sometimes people are just like “Well I really think it could work because of XYZ.” It\u2019s just not worth anyone\u2019s time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What makes a strong source to you? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s really important that business owners are willing to talk about their revenue, growth, and any kind of metrics that will help us understand the size of the company. Inc. <\/em>is a business publication, and our readers are business owners that want to understand how other businesses are operating on a very technical, financial level. We can negotiate until everyone is comfortable with what we\u2019re sharing, but we really need some transparency around finances. We’re generally looking for a company that is profitable or on a path to profitability. I\u2019m typically looking for a company where there is a product in the market\u2014rather than, say, a startup that has an idea and is fundraising.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another element that makes a good story is when founders are willing to be honest about the challenges they\u2019ve faced. Ideally, there\u2019s a challenge and then a solution. There\u2019s no narrative arc or takeaway for others if business has always been doing well.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For B2B companies in particular, I like to do case studies, but it can\u2019t just be that your clients never had an issue. I get this a lot with cybersecurity companies where I’ll ask them to talk through a time when their client had an incident and overcame it, and what others can learn from the experience. The companies often just want to discuss clients who never had an incident. I mean there\u2019s not really a story there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can anonymize whatever details we need to. But if everything\u2019s going great, you never had a problem, never had to solve anything\u2014a reader can\u2019t really get anything from that.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: How is AI impacting your role? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In my role, I definitely don\u2019t use it for any sort of content creation or writing. I use machine translation or transcription AI to help with reporting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, within every newsroom around the city, people are experimenting with these tools and trying to understand how these tools are impacting their jobs. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019re ready to publish anything that\u2019s been written by AI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No surprise to anyone, but because there are so many more AI-generated search results and so much more AI-generated content, all of a sudden, it makes it much harder to be a publication right now. We\u2019re just figuring out how to adapt to the new reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Read >> <\/strong>Generative AI Search Engine Optimization Explained<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: How do you feel about exclusives and embargoes? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re valuable if it\u2019s truly embargoed, original information, or company announcements. The thing editors say is that it\u2019s not really an exclusive if no one else wants it. If it\u2019s just an opportunity to cover a new product feature for a company that nobody is searching for and maybe one other publication is going to pick it up\u2014that’s not really an exclusive, per se. I might still do a story if it\u2019s relevant to Inc.<\/em> readers, but I wouldn\u2019t frame it as an exclusive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when we can get exclusives or even just early access, that is helpful. A few days heads up, even if you don\u2019t have all the information, is great so we know it\u2019s coming. A 24-hour turnaround can be hard because sometimes I\u2019ll be focused on something else, or I won\u2019t hear back from my editor in time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We try to know as early as possible what\u2019s going to be published the next day because it affects newsletters, the homepage, and social media plans. It\u2019s not that we can\u2019t do a last-minute story or breaking news, but early notice about a potential story is helpful when possible.,  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitching That Lands: How PAN\u2019s Media Team Blends Strategy and Story\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From funding announcements to thought leadership bylines, the pitch is everything. Reporters want more than the boilerplate; they\u2019re looking for a sharp hook, a unique perspective, and a story that connects with their readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to evaluate your media strategy? Get in touch<\/a> with our Media Relations experts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34187,"template":"","categories":[157],"insight_type":[164],"insight_author":[734],"class_list":["post-34184","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-relations","insight_type-blog","insight_author-sophie-tolsdorf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPAN Press Pass: Jennifer Conrad, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Inc. journalist Jennifer Conrad shares insights on PR best practices, exclusives, and how AI is reshaping the media landscape.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pancommunications.com\/insights\/pan-press-pass-jennifer-conrad-senior-writer-at-inc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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