How Soon Is Too Soon?

My question refers to one of travel pitching’s age-old posers: if Publication X covered Destination Y a year ago, would they want to do so again yet? What if it was two years? Or three?

The predictably annoying, useless and inconveniently true answer is: it depends on where you’re talking about (and, to a lesser degree, which publication it is). In newspapers and the wide-remit likes of Condé Nast Traveller or National Geographic Traveller, classic places — Paris; Marrakech; New York — tend to appear with semi-regularity, because of their A-list popularity with readers. The less typical the destination, the less regularly it’ll be featured… all the way down to the niche likes of Timbuktu, Tajikistan or Tonga, each of which are eternally unlikely to see two pieces in five (or even ten) years unless a major anniversary, film or new direct comes along.

Let me give an example to try and be more specific. If I was planning to pitch something in, say, Tunisia, I’d first check when my intended publication had last run a piece on it. The Sunday Times, I see, ran a Big Weekend (RIP) piece on Tunis last April, so I doubt they (or The Times) would cover the country again quite yet. Maybe in autumn; 18 months is a good gap. Chris Leadbeater wrote an ‘In defence’ piece about the country last October for the Telegraph, so that would rule them out.

The Guardian hasn’t had a full Tunisian travel feature since 2018, but would likely be hesitant due to the need for flights. Richard Collett penned a report for The Indy in November, so forget trying there. Ditto the Sun, where a write-up appeared last August. I can’t find anything on the Mail website, so that could be one to try — although I’m unsure that they’d be keen on Tunisia.

So, basically, things wouldn’t be looking too good if I was planning a Tunisian pitch. And if that’s how it is, then that’s how it is. Sometimes we (PRs and freelancers) have great stories but the timing just isn’t there, or someone has beaten us to the punch. In that case, I tend to think it’s best just to begrudgingly accept it, rather than pitch anyway and almost certainly rack up a rejection.

One last thing: when I do pitch, I always try to include a note about when coverage last appeared in my target publication and — specific to the hotel or angle — if any has recently in rival publications. This isn’t solely to make me look like a swot: it also, hopefully, saves the commissioning editor some time. It’s something worth considering at your end, too.