“Your subject line needs to be simple — it needs to either be very short or very long. Are you putting everything in the subject line and the body is basically just here's the contact information? Or are you trying to say please look at this because XYZ very short very simple and then get in there and make your pitch.”

Your subject line has 2 seconds — keep it ultra-short or put everything in it

Most journalists scan sender and subject line — nothing else. Two strategies work: cram all the signal into a long subject so opening is optional, or write a tiny subject hook that pulls them in to a short body. Everything in between — medium-length subject with medium-length copy — gets ignored. News-hook pitches built around current events almost never work.