1.0BuzzStreamhttps://www.buzzstream.comVince Nerohttps://www.buzzstream.com/blog/author/vincenero/rich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="RwAlxbPapf"><a href="https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/best-time-to-send-emails/">When is the Best Time to Pitch Journalists? (A Study of 4.5M Emails)</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/best-time-to-send-emails/embed/#?secret=RwAlxbPapf" width="600" height="338" title="“When is the Best Time to Pitch Journalists? (A Study of 4.5M Emails)” — BuzzStream" data-secret="RwAlxbPapf" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /* <![CDATA[ */ /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); /* ]]> */ </script> https://www.buzzstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/best-time-to-send-emails-1.png102410248–9 AM local time sees the highest journalist email engagement across most major media domains. Monday is the top-performing day for both opens and replies, especially among freelancers and UK-based journalists. Freelancers show broader engagement throughout the week but still peak around 8 AM. US journalists engage most between 9–11 AM; UK journalists between 7–9 AM local time. Best send times vary by publication and domain—most still favor 8 AM local time. Personalization beats timing: use bios, publish times, and social media to tailor outreach per journalist. Of all the questions PR pros ask, the best time to send consistently ranks near the top. And since PR professionals send millions of emails through BuzzStream, we have a pretty good sense of when recipients (i.e., journalists) are active. I dug into the data to really get to the bottom of the best times to pitch journalists, broken down by a few factors: time, domain, and freelancers. Quick Note on Methodology For this study, we analyzed both open rates and engagement shares. Although we’ve omitted opens from Apple’s MPP, open rates can still be less reliable. So, we are using reply rate more as an additional confidence metric that journalists are indeed active around that time. To get the actual open time, first, the user’s send time is marked. Then we track the seconds until the first open. This lets us track open rates in each hour. First, we broke this down by open and reply rates, but as you can imagine, we end up with skewed data when certain hours of the day have lower send volume. So, we went with engagement share. If an hour has a high send count but a low open share, the audience is not engaging at that time. If an hour has a high open share, […]