During my 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Boston Globe and then as business editor at NECN, I have read thousands of pitches. Here are some tips for getting your pitches noticed.

1. Why does someone who is not you and not your client care about this story? If you can’t come up with a compelling answer … don’t pitch!
2. Know your publication or outlet and what they do – and don’t – cover. Understand their standing features, columns, and daily segments, the readers and viewers they’re trying to serve and those they’re trying to reach, and know their editorial calendars and when they’re looking for specific kinds of content. Know why they will welcome your pitch.
3. Understand the reporter you’re pitching. Pull up their last 10 stories on Google News. How do those stories prove they’ll welcome this pitch? If what you’re pitching is similar to something they’ve recently covered, why is your story news? What can you learn from Facebook and Twitter about what these reporters like to cover and how? What is in the news today, or coming in the news tomorrow, that will make this reporter want to hear from you? How can your pitch make their coverage smarter and better?
4. Before you pitch, are all your ducks in a row? Will your spokesperson really be available when the reporter gets your pitch? Do you need approval from a client or partner before pitching this story--and have they signed off? Do you need any approvals from anyone to allow a reporter and photographer into a location at a specific time? Once you’ve offered the story to a reporter, are you certain there’s nothing that can force you to rescind the offer? Having to withdraw a pitched story isn’t just embarrassing, but a potential professional relationship-ender if you have to kill a story that’s already in a news budget or rundown.
5. Email, part 1: You’ve got 50 words. Make every one count. Start with a direct, personalized, clear subject line. No gimmicks. “Story pitch for [reporter] at [outlet] about [subject]” works just fine. Make the first sentence of the pitch a grabber, summing up what the compelling news is and why you know readers/listeners/viewers of this outlet will want to learn it, or why you know it will fit into and enhance coverage the outlet is planning. Be crystal-clear and 100 percent honest about whether this is an exclusive pitch or if you’re shopping it to other outlets, too, and if it is an exclusive offer, by when the outlet has to decide whether to go with it before you go elsewhere. Put the pitch right in the body of the email, not an attachment. Even if it takes 250 words to adequately explain your pitch, you’ve got 50 words – maybe – to grab an editor’s or reporter’s attention before they’ll hit DELETE.
6. Email, part 2: Pictures and video. Include them in a pitch, even to a print outlet. They are indeed worth 1,000 words. If you want your client interviewed by electronic media as a subject matter expert, make a 60-second iPhone video of your client being interviewed, and make it available on the Internet or as a video file available for email, so a reporter knows their energy and style.
7. “Real people” – find them, vet them and make them available. Reporters don’t just want to talk to your CEO or company spokesperson, they want to talk to a customer/consumer/client whose work/life/home/business/career has been changed or will be changed by your product, service or project. This is especially true for TV. Satisfied customers beat CEOs as spokespeople every day of the week. Disclose fully any personal or financial relationship your “real person” has with your company.
8. If your client really wants to be on TV and can be a “subject matter expert” on a breaking-news story, you need to drop everything to make it happen when the opportunity arises. You never know when the opportunity will return, and if you’ve pitched a client, TV says yes, and then the client can’t make it, you may never get called again. If you can go to where the reporter (and her or his live truck) are located, do it. Most of television journalism is logistics, not journalism. Television reporters never have enough time for their stories, ever. Do everything you can to save them time and make their logistics as easy as possible, including lining up “real people” in the same place at the same time as your company spokespeople and offering cleared-for-use b-roll video in a format the station can edit.
9. Twitter: Most reporters find it a lame way to get pitches, but if you’re bent on doing it, ask first if reporters welcome pitches by Twitter and/or want to get DM’d or emailed.
10. Even in 2016, newspapers are still the de facto assignment desk for many TV and radio stations. If you want the electronic press to come to your 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. press conference, make sure you’ve fed the story to a local newspaper/website to be published that morning. But be sure to leave something – new pictures, the first chance to interview a newsmaker, the first chance to see inside a new place, something – to make sure the electronic media will still be interested when you call and email them that morning.

By Peter Howe, Senior Advisor

Peter J. Howe’s 22-year career with the Globe included stints covering the Massachusetts State House and Boston City Hall, resulting in multiple awards, including from the Associated Press Managing Editors and American Society of Business Editors. During his NECN tenure, Peter interviewed nearly 300 CEOs for its acclaimed “CEO Corner” and produced more than 1,800 TV stories.

To learn more about private media training with Peter J. Howe, call 617-482-0042 or email info@denterlein.com