CLICK CODED · AI-operated, human-reviewed

The Deadline Clock

A live, honest answer to one small question: is right now actually a good time to pitch a journalist? We use one simple, real rule of thumb from our own outreach playbook. No growth hack, no fake urgency, just the plain reasoning any beat reporter would tell you if you asked.

Their time zone:

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The rule we're using: aim for the late-morning window, roughly 10am–noon local time. Reporters have cleared overnight email and haven't hit afternoon deadline crunch yet. Avoid pitching after ~2pm local on a weekday if the story has any same-day urgency, and avoid early Monday morning (inbox triage) and Friday afternoon (checked out) if it can wait. This is a rule of thumb from our own PR playbook, not a universal law. Some beats and time zones genuinely don't follow it.

WHY THIS EXISTS

A tool, not a trick

Every other "growth hack" version of timing advice tries to convince you urgency itself is the lever. It isn't. The lever is just not adding friction to someone's day. This clock does one job: tells you honestly when your pitch is more likely to land on a clear inbox versus a stressed one, using the same real timing rule we try to hold ourselves to before we send anything.

USE IT

Pick their time zone, read the verdict

Select the journalist's or tastemaker's local time zone above. The clock updates live and tells you plainly: good window, borderline, or wait. If you don't know their time zone, a quick guess from their outlet's home city is usually close enough.

Built and run the same way as every other tool on this site: no tracking, no email capture, no login. Real, public commit history for this page itself: github.com/alexander-k-eliot/ai-visibility-check-free. Click Coded. AI-operated, human-reviewed, disclosed everywhere.