Tom Banse

Thanks for joining us. We will begin a few minutes past the hour to allow everyone time to settle in.

Sian Wu

Story Pitching: How to Get in Tune with Reporters’ Needs

November 2010

About Resource Media

•  Communications Strategy •  Execution and Outreach •  Digital and Social Media •  Environmental and Health Focus

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Have a question? Need help?

1. Research your pitch

2. Practice your pitch

3. Practice good reporter etiquette

4. Understand your audience: the media

5. Make it memorable: hooks and angles

6. Special Guest: NPR Reporter Tom Banse

What we’ll cover today

Tuning up: research your pitch 1

First ask:

• How will media achieve my end goal?

• No media is a strategy

Think strategy

•  Aggressive?

•  Informative?

•  Buzz-building?

•  Base-activating?

What kind of story do you want?

•  Has this been covered before?

•  Who’s been quoted on this?

•  How is the issue currently framed?

•  What types of outlets would be most influential?

•  Who writes on this?

•  Do we want to go national or local first?

Do a sound check

Know their beats

Make a note of:

•  What they’re interested in

•  The stories/blogs they’ve written

•  Who doesn’t want to be called

•  Who is on social media

•  Their status after your pitch

Keep tabs on them

Practice good reporter etiquette 2

Be mindful of their lives:

•  Pitched by hundreds of people

•  Working on daily deadlines

•  Need to answer to their editors

•  Need a good visual (especially true for TV)

•  “Just calling to follow up.”

•  “Wanted to make sure you got it.”

Irksome words

Sometimes I just popup for no particular

reason, like now.

Build relationships

Support their work by:

• Spreading good reporting to your networks

• Posting stories to your blog and newsletter

• Following reporters on Twitter and retweeting their content

• Commenting on stories online

Find them on Twitter

Media on Twitter: • http://mediaontwitter.com

Muckrack: • http://muckrack.com

Journalist Tweets: • http://journalisttweets.com/search

Grace under fire

•  What are their pitch preferences?

•  What are they interested in?

•  Where can you read more or connect?

Listen

Know when to let go

Understanding your audience: the media 3

Stay in tune with a reporter’s needs

• Access to spokespeople

• Quality images, logos and video

•  Embargo lift date and time

•  Transparency

•  Timeline of important decisions

• Access to primary documents

TV needs

•  It’s all about the visual

• Don’t make them go the distance

•  “If it bleeds it leads”

• Keep in mind competition and sweeps weeks

• Demonstrations and personality

Stay in tune with a reporter’s wants

•  Peculiarity

•  Proximity

•  Prominence

•  Promptness

•  Peer review

•  Blatant self promotion

•  Internal news

•  Opinion—ax to grind

•  Pitch robots

What strikes a bad chord?

Mending fences

•  Recognize ideologically hostile press

•  Show them you’re a real person

•  Change up your spokespeople

•  Hit other outlets

Make it memorable: hooks and angles 4

Develop your news hook

What’s:

• New

• Interesting

• Surprising

• Timely

• Relevant or

• Localize a national story

What are the impacts that haven’t been covered yet?

•  Economic •  Political •  Environmental •  Social •  Health

Identify the problem, substitute a better question and reframe positively

Find the right angle

•  Always call with breaking news

•  Be mindful of deadlines

•  Give advance notice for events or feature story ideas

•  Suggest a meeting or field trip

•  Try, try again

The conflict angle

•  Media loves it

•  How to avoid it

•  When to play it up

It’s not all about you

Let the news lead with your organization as a supporting character in the story

Warming up: practice your pitch 5

Practice your pitch

•  Role play with a coworker

•  Think of tough reporter questions

•  For email pitches: •  Lead with the big news

•  Keep it short

•  Use AP style and proofread

•  Stay jargon-free

•  Know the main messages

•  Line up facts and figures

•  But don’t read from a script

Be prepared

Know your land mines

What topics are no-go zones?

Who can speak to that?

Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to see in the story:

•  On the record

•  Off the record

•  On background

•  Consider how media will help you achieve your goal

•  Know your reporters really well by being a news junkie

•  Understand reporter deadlines and inboxes

•  All good stories need a good hook

•  News stories aren’t all about you

Reminders:

Special guest: Tom Banse

Tom Banse Northwest Regional Correspondent NPR News

Sian Wu Program Director Seattle Office sian@resource-media.org 206.374.7795 x102 @ThatsSoEco

Tom Banse Northwest Regional Correspondent NPR News

We welcome your questions!

1.  Would you recommend this webinar to a friend?

2.  How would you rate this webinar on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 as not helpful and 10 as very helpful for my work?

3.  Suggestions for future webinar topics?

4.  Other comments?

Feedback?

Explore More RM Trainings • Blogger Relations – December • Coming up in 2011:

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In the Beginning