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by Jon
Greer
The Media Bridge
 What's
the best strategy for pitching
stories to reporters? As we all
know, journalists hate to be
bombarded with pitches, especially
those pitches that are not
relevant to their beat or
specialty. But it's often hard to
know exactly what a reporter's
beat is, even with the help of
databases. And when you do figure
out a beat or coverage area,
there's no guarantee that a) the
journalist will respond favorably
to your pitch, or b) the
journalist is still even on that
beat since reporters change jobs
and switch beats a lot.
There's
also a lack of uniformity in the
media defining beats: for
instance, some retailing reporters
might also cover e-commerce, but
at other publications, that sector
might be covered by an
"Internet" reporter. And
at some publications beats are not
strictly adhered to, meaning that
a reporter can write any story
that interests them.
Given that background, there are
three basic ways you can build a
media list to pitch a particular
story:
- Fastballs:
If you do a lot of homework,
you can build a highly
accurate media list that
includes only those reporters
who cover a certain beat or
topic, using a media database
and doing research (such as
looking up past stories) to
create that list. If you do
this, you will be pitching
fastballs -- that is, fast,
straight-ahead pitches right
to your targets.
- Curveballs:
You can also be creative in
building a media list, adding
general assignment and feature
reporters, or other reporters
who might be interested in the
story. Then, when you follow
up, you tailor your pitch to
what you know about that
reporter's interests. Here's a
story from my past: I was
covering the advertising
industry for the San
Francisco Chronicle and
opened the paper one day to
find a big feature on an
advertising agency in the
Entertainment section. When I
later asked the PR person why
he didn't pitch me the story,
his answer was simple: because
he knew I wouldn't cover it,
and he instead pitched it to a
friend in the Entertainment
department who would. And he
was right -- I would not have
found that story worthy of a
business section write-up. But
he got his clip for his
client.
- Wild
Pitches: You know what I mean
here -- pitching everyone in
sight, from the managing
editor down to the lowliest
cub reporter. Journalists hate
this, but there's a reason PR
people do it: it sometimes
works and it's not that much
more expensive than the other
two approaches. The reason it
sometimes works is that by
spreading the story to the
widest audience, you may find
a reporter willing to do the
story who otherwise might have
slipped through the cracks.
What's
the best approach? In my view,
wild pitches are disrespectful of
the media and do not put your
company in a favorable light. But
I wouldn't limit myself to
fastballs only. For most stories,
I would recommend building a media
list with all the fastballs you
can find, plus some additional
curveballs to increase the odds of
the story being picked up.
This
article was adapted from MediaBridge
Extra, a free e-mail
newsletter about media relations
written by former journalist Jon
Greer, founder of the
MediaBridge corporate
communications and media
training firm in Emeryville, CA.
For more information about
MediaBridge and a free Extra newsletter
subscription, visit www.themediabridge.com
or email info@themediabridge.com.
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