Pitch

What is a pitch? 

When you have a story, a campaign, or some news from your organisation that you would like to be picked up by the media, you “pitch it” to them. In other words: you contact the media that you would like to cover your press release, event, campaign etc… and the role of the pitch is for you to convince the journalist, in as brief a way as possible, to cover it.

Easy, right?

Hmmm… unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds! The media is, these days, often under-resourced, with fewer journalists covering many stories, for different channels (maybe they are now writing for the print newspaper, as well as doing a different version for online and perhaps some video too). The rise of online media means rolling deadlines and more articles to be written.

How to pitch?

First of all, draft a pitch text. Gather all the information that you need about your story, so that you could send it as an email, use it when making a phone call or have a chance to meet a journalist at an event. In written form, it’s good to include most relevant materials which could be the press release, a selection of images, statistics and case study material.

The introduction to your email should highlight why you think this is a good story – try to highlight why it is newsworthy (check out the news criteria!) and what the key elements to the story are. Keep in mind you should remain relatively short and only give the most essential information in a clear message. This email can then be followed up after a reasonable length of time with a further email or phone call to assess the interest of that journalist. If they are not interested in your story or you do not hear back from them, move on to your second choice of media outlet. If the journalist declines in a polite way, do ask why they are not interested. It’s a great way to learn what they want and what they don’t want and sometimes, as part of this conversation, you can actively suggest another angle that they do find useful.

Some tips on best pitching practice:

• Is it newsworthy? It’s best to make an assessment of whether the material you have for your pitch make it newsworthy enough for the media you are contacting to cover it. You don’t want to damage relationships with journalists by contacting them with pitches that do not interest them! 
• Do your research: contact the right person at a relevant media outlet. It is going to be more likely that they cover your story if you already have an established relationship with the journalist.
• Contact the media at the right time. If your pitch is seeking to get media coverage for an event, for example, get in touch well in advance of the event. 
• Create a package: ensure that your pitch email has everything that the journalist needs to create a full story. For example, do you have research or statistics to back up your story? Do you have a case study to add some human interest? Both of these will help to make your pitch more appealing.
• Find a good reason to call: if you can think of a “hook”, some relevant, wider news angle that can make your pitch stronger it will help. For example, research “international days…”, selling in your pitch on “International Youth Day” will make it more persuasive.