What Journalists are Looking For

The life of a journalist is fast paced and competitive. Not only do they have to continuously prove themselves at work, they are competing with every other source of information available. This includes magazines,television,radio, and social media. There are many ways that people get their information and journalists know that every story counts. When you’re pitching to a journalist, it’s important to know what journalists are looking for.

1. An Actual News Story

Before you pick up the phone, send a DM on social, or draft an email, make sure that you have news and that your news is something that the journalist will care about. It has to be relevant to their audience and to be newsworthy, it also has to be timely and provide some sort of benefit.

When pitching your storyidea, present the most important information first. How will your news impacttheir audience? What do they gain by covering your story?

Of course, to be able towrite a great pitch and putting the most important information first, you haveto research your journalist. Know who their audience is and what they writeabout. This will help you position your information in the best way.

2. Personal Connections

You’re more likely to take action based on information from someone you know or are connected with over a virtual stranger, right? The same is true for journalists. If you don’t have a connection established with the media representative that you’re reaching out to with your pitch, then make sure you do as much research on them as possible so that you can personalize your pitch.

This means addressing them by name in your pitch as well as referencing a story or two that they covered that are also relevant to your story idea. Personalizing your pitch can mean the difference between the journalist actually reading your pitch or clicking away.

3. Information

Make sure that your pitchcontains relevant information including any data that backs up your story. Letthe journalist know that you have images and consider including links to yourmedia page or supporting information. For example, if you’re citing newresearch, you might give the journalist a link to the research report. Ifyou’re announcing the launch of a new product, provide them with links to seeproduct photos. Put yourself in their place before you pitch. What would you want? Whatwould make you pay attention to your story idea? What would capture yourattention? That’s what journalists are looking for. They want a quality storyidea presented to them in a professional way by someone who has done theirresearch. And they want their job of writing the story to be as easy aspossible.