Tales From the Beat Episode 120: String Theory

Here is the episode's transcript, via AI and edited by a staffer:

Hi everyone, I’m Ed Garsten, and welcome to episode 120 of Tales from the Beat, where we look at news and PR from both sides of the scrimmage line.

String theory comes along and suggests that inside particles, there’s something else. And today, I want to talk about turning particles into stories.

Now, string theory isn't just for physicists trying to explain the mysteries of the universe—it has a distant corollary you may not have heard about. It actually applies to journalists and PR professionals and forms the basis for how great stories come to life—and how we can rescue weak ones from ending up in the trash.

“String” is a term reporters have used forever to describe what we gather: interviews, research, images, video. For example, I recently attended an industry event with several significant speakers—not to write a story right away, but to gather string for future stories.

Let me show you what I mean. Here’s a literal piece of string—let’s say it represents an interview. Here’s another one: a few quotes from a presentation. And here’s another: data from an infographic. These individual strands come from all kinds of sources. But alone, each one is too weak to support a full story.

However, when you find a common theme and a creative way to tie them together—like this (yes, I was a Boy Scout many years ago)—you end up with something stronger. A solid strand of content.

Let me give you an example. I recently filed a story for Forbes.com about a company I’ve followed for a while—Archer Aviation. They’re developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. I’ve written about them before when they hit some major milestones, but I didn’t want to write a story every time they put out a news release.

Still, I told their PR person, “Keep sending me updates.” And over the past few months, Archer had a few big developments—including being named the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

So, my plan was to write a catch-up story using those releases, plus commentary from an analyst and an interview with the CEO. All of that became string for the story.

Then, just a few days before the interview, I got an embargoed press release from a PR rep for an Israeli eVTOL and drone startup called AIR. It was a good story—but not enough for a full article—so I filed it away.

Now I had two related companies, but just throwing them together in a piece didn’t feel right. The Archer story, honestly, was starting to feel too promotional.

I needed one more strand.

Then President Trump issued an executive order to accelerate the commercialization of eVTOLs and drones. That gave me a newsworthy hook and a unifying theme. I got quotes from both Archer and AIR on how the order would affect their businesses—and suddenly, the pieces of string came together into a much stronger story.

One more important point: I was upfront with both PR teams—not just to manage their expectations, but to help them manage their clients’ expectations too. You know how it goes—“Get me in the paper! Get me on air!”—thinking it’ll be a free commercial. Instead, I gave them an honest sense of what the story would really be.

Now, this kind of honesty is nothing new for reporters, but the practice of gathering string to build real stories is something I think PR folks use way too infrequently. Many focus solely on publicizing their client without seeing the broader picture. The result? Weak, narrow-minded pitches that end up in the trash.

So let me suggest this: it’s more work, but it could mean the difference between being instantly rejected and getting serious consideration.

Just like reporters gather string to eventually weave into a story, PR people should aim higher than the immediate subject of a release. Unless you're announcing something truly significant that stands on its own, most releases are too thin—often self-serving and barely worth a business brief mention.

The odds of a journalist picking it up? Less likely than Elon Musk sending Donald Trump a Valentine’s Day card. In other words—not going to happen.

So, try using string theory.

Here’s a real-life example: A PR person once pitched me an interview with a CEO of a company working on tech to boost autonomous vehicle safety. Now, normally, the pitch would end there. But she went further—she did research on accidents involving self-driving cars and highlighted how many were caused by the problem their tech addressed. She even included a few bullet points from a government study.

That’s the kind of string that can sell a reporter on a legitimate story. Sure, we still need to do our own research—because we can’t always rely on a PR rep to give us the full picture—but it was a solid start. It showed an understanding of what turns a promotion into real news.

My suggestion? Once a PR person is assigned a client or release, raise your sights. Look at the competition. Consider where your client’s product or service fits into the bigger picture. Use Google Trends, AI tools, and keyword research to find what people are searching for and what aspects of the topic interest them.

That’s the string you need to craft a more complete story pitch—one that doesn’t smell like a free commercial, but instead offers an examination of a broader trend while still spotlighting the client. That gives you a much better chance of getting a journalist on board.

In the end, the “string theory” of story creation—used by both reporters and PR people—is really pretty simple.

It’s kind of like a guitar string: instead of making a sound, each vibration represents a different particle.

"Precisely. And when you express it in 11 dimensions, Einstein’s relativity equations pop out. Sound like a coincidence?"

"It does not."

"Yep. That’s what I think."

So—did we just solve string theory?

No, but we might’ve helped you rope in a few more readers and reporters.

That’s Tales from the Beat for this time around. I’m Ed Garsten. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back soon with more tales. Take care.

[Image: Ed Garsten]

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