Expert Source Request Response

Reporters ask for sources every day and most responses are unusable: late, generic, written by nobody in particular, or a product pitch wearing a quote. Since the request platforms filled with automated replies, volume has become a liability rather than an advantage, and desks now filter senders who answer everything. What still earns coverage is a small number of fast, specific answers from a named person whose standing a reporter can verify in one click, in the two or three topics where the business genuinely knows more than the writer does.

The skill file

---
name: expert-source-request-response
description: Use when you want press coverage without commissioning a data campaign and someone in the business has genuine expertise to offer reporters.
---

# Expert Source Request Response

Reporters ask for sources every day and most responses are unusable: late, generic, written by nobody in particular, or a product pitch wearing a quote. Since the request platforms filled with automated replies, volume has become a liability rather than an advantage, and desks now filter senders who answer everything. What still earns coverage is a small number of fast, specific answers from a named person whose standing a reporter can verify in one click, in the two or three topics where the business genuinely knows more than the writer does.

## What you need first

- a named expert with a verifiable public profile who will approve a quote inside an hour
- two or three narrow topics written down as the scope, so everything else can be ignored without a debate
- source request feeds relevant to your market, plus reporters you already have any relationship with
- a bio, title, headshot and company description approved in advance so nothing waits for sign-off

## Method

1. Write down the two or three subjects you will answer on and refuse the rest in writing. Answering outside your competence is how a team burns credibility with the exact reporters it needs later.
2. Route alerts to the person who can actually answer, not to a marketing inbox. Most requests are filled the day they go out, so an excellent answer on day two is worth nothing.
3. Answer the question asked in the first two sentences and put context after it. Reporters lift a quote straight out of the email, and a response opening with company background is deleted before the useful part.
4. Supply something they cannot get from any other respondent: a figure from your own data, a specific named case, a mechanism explained properly. General opinion is what the automated replies already flood the desk with.
5. Close with the approved bio, title and a link to the expert's own profile in a fixed block, so attribution needs no follow-up email from a writer working to a deadline.
6. Do not ask for a link. Linking conventions vary by outlet and are often decided by a subeditor, and the request identifies you as a marketer rather than a source.
7. Track responses sent against pieces published and links earned, per feed. Most feeds will not clear a usable rate, and cutting them is the entire point of keeping the count.

## What this produces

A running source response routine with named expert, written topic scope, standing bio block, and a per-feed record of responses sent, quotes used and links earned.

## Where this goes wrong

- answering everything to raise volume, which lowers quality and gets you filtered by the desks that matter
- sending marketing copy where a reporter asked a question, the most common reason a response is never used
- letting brand or legal sign-off run past the deadline, so the work is done and wasted
- counting mentions as links, when plenty of outlets have a standing policy of naming a source without linking

---

From the QuQi skill library - https://www.quqi.io/skills/expert-source-request-response

What you need first

• a named expert with a verifiable public profile who will approve a quote inside an hour
• two or three narrow topics written down as the scope, so everything else can be ignored without a debate
• source request feeds relevant to your market, plus reporters you already have any relationship with
• a bio, title, headshot and company description approved in advance so nothing waits for sign-off

Method

1. 01 Write down the two or three subjects you will answer on and refuse the rest in writing. Answering outside your competence is how a team burns credibility with the exact reporters it needs later.
2. 02 Route alerts to the person who can actually answer, not to a marketing inbox. Most requests are filled the day they go out, so an excellent answer on day two is worth nothing.
3. 03 Answer the question asked in the first two sentences and put context after it. Reporters lift a quote straight out of the email, and a response opening with company background is deleted before the useful part.
4. 04 Supply something they cannot get from any other respondent: a figure from your own data, a specific named case, a mechanism explained properly. General opinion is what the automated replies already flood the desk with.
5. 05 Close with the approved bio, title and a link to the expert's own profile in a fixed block, so attribution needs no follow-up email from a writer working to a deadline.
6. 06 Do not ask for a link. Linking conventions vary by outlet and are often decided by a subeditor, and the request identifies you as a marketer rather than a source.
7. 07 Track responses sent against pieces published and links earned, per feed. Most feeds will not clear a usable rate, and cutting them is the entire point of keeping the count.

What this produces

A running source response routine with named expert, written topic scope, standing bio block, and a per-feed record of responses sent, quotes used and links earned.

Where this goes wrong

• answering everything to raise volume, which lowers quality and gets you filtered by the desks that matter
• sending marketing copy where a reporter asked a question, the most common reason a response is never used
• letting brand or legal sign-off run past the deadline, so the work is done and wasted
• counting mentions as links, when plenty of outlets have a standing policy of naming a source without linking

Use this skill in your own AI

The download is a plain markdown file with the name and trigger in its frontmatter. Where an assistant supports skills it can load itself, that frontmatter is what it reads to decide this one applies.

Questions about this skill

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