It's not a problem with the honor code, it's the overhead. Don't make writers interact with you. You'd be surprised by how little TechCrunch writes about early-stage startups anymore. In a given week of 250-300 stories, there might be 10-20 that are early-stage companies who have raised <$10M and don't have a truly novel hook (our co-founder used to be in prison!).
Send over the entire press kit, full description, etc. in the first email. Generally, if you tell the reporter you're announcing on X date, they'll not publish before that. Especially if you're launching a new product or something, they don't want to link to your site when the newsworthy bit isn't live.
My advice for most startups is to reach out to TechCrunch, the best publication in your vertical (e.g. Skift for travel), and a local tech paper/site. For something as routine as a small fundraise or YC announcement, try to get three good clips. In a given YC class there are literally dozens of companies with the same basic story so don't try to position yourself as you've got inside info on the new iPhone.
If your company is legitimately novel, so novel that your grandparents would get the pitch and be interested, by all means go wide, but for the average "We help people find cheaper airfare" or some SaaS thing just choose a few high-value targets and get back to work.