1. 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

2. About Resource Media
• Communications Strategy
• Execution and Outreach
• Digital and Social Media
• Environmental and Health Focus

3. Staff
30
9 Offices
San Francisco Seattle Boulder Kalispell Sacramento
Bozeman Portland Salt Lake City Anchorage

4. Have a question? Need help?

5. 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

6. Tuning up:
research your pitch
1

7. First ask:
• How will media achieve my
end goal?
• No media is a strategy
Think strategy

8. • Aggressive?
• Informative?
• Buzz-building?
• Base-activating?
What kind of story do you want?

9. • 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

10. Know their beats

11. 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

12. Practice good
reporter etiquette
2

13. 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)

14. • “Just calling to follow up.”
• “Wanted to make sure you
got it.”
Irksome words
Sometimes I just
popup for no particular
reason, like now.

15. 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

16. Find them on Twitter
Media on Twitter:
• http://mediaontwitter.com
Muckrack:
• http://muckrack.com
Journalist Tweets:
• http://journalisttweets.com/
search

17. Grace under fire

18. • What are their pitch
preferences?
• What are they
interested in?
• Where can you read
more or connect?
Listen

19. Know when to let go

20. Understanding your
audience: the media
3

21. 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

22. 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

23. Stay in tune with a reporter’s wants
• Peculiarity
• Proximity
• Prominence
• Promptness
• Peer review

24. • Blatant self promotion
• Internal news
• Opinion—ax to grind
• Pitch robots
What strikes a bad chord?

25. Mending fences
• Recognize ideologically hostile
press
• Show them you’re a real person
• Change up your spokespeople
• Hit other outlets

26. Make it memorable:
hooks and angles
4

27. Develop your news hook
What’s:
• New
• Interesting
• Surprising
• Timely
• Relevant or
• Localize a national story

28. 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

29. • 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

30. It’s not all about you
Let the news lead with your organization as a
supporting character in the story

31. Warming up:
practice your pitch
5

32. 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

33. • Know the main messages
• Line up facts and figures
• But don’t read from a script
Be prepared

34. 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

35. • 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:

36. Special guest: Tom Banse
Tom Banse
Northwest
Regional
Correspondent
NPR News

37. 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!

38. 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?

39. Explore More RM Trainings
• Blogger Relations – December
• Coming up in 2011:
• Communicating science TBD
• Branding TBD
• Interviewing and public speaking TBD
• LinkedIn for nonprofits TBD

40. In the
Beginning