Well done, you. You’ve reached out to a journalist, sparked their interest, and managed to lure them away from their desk for a quick coffee.
Or maybe you’ve booked a ticket to a Roxhill Speed Pitching Live event where you get to pitch your best ideas directly to a journalist and make a great impression.
Either way, preparation is key and it’s essential to know what you’re going to say beforehand.
Here are our top five tips for pitching to a journalist in person.
1. Do detective work
Make the journalist your Mastermind subject before you meet with them.
Most importantly, make sure you’ve read as many of their recent articles as possible, so you’re totally up to speed on their beat and their writing style.
Then, go further. Journalists often have public social media profiles, so with a tiny bit of digging you might find out that they have four cats, have just come back from a trip to Japan, and recently raved about the latest Ann Patchett novel.
Showing that you’ve taken time to understand who they are and what they care about will immediately set you apart.
And asking thoughtful questions before you launch into your pitch helps conversations feel more natural and less transactional.
2. Come with personalised ideas
While it’s fun to chat about cats and Ann Patchett, certainly, a journalist’s time is precious and it’s important to get to the point.
Ideally, you’ll be prepared with 3-5 stories that would work specifically for your targeted journalist and their audience.
For each one, be prepared to answer the following questions:
- What will the headline be?
- What’s new about this story?
- Can you provide strong images, or is a shoot needed?
- Who can comment?
- Why is this right for their audience?
3. Develop an elevator pitch for each client
For each of the clients you’re pitching, it’s essential to know who their main competitors are, be able to highlight their points of difference, and why they deserve attention now.
Boil the information down into snappy language, concentrating on the most relevant nuggets of information, and make sure you’ve memorised any key stats that back up your points.
"In occasional journalism tutorials, I tell students that if they can’t distil a story idea into a couple of pithy sentences they haven’t nailed the pitch yet. I’d recommend you think along similar lines."
4. Let them know if you’re in an open relationship
Unless a story is a real exclusive, journalists understand that PRs are speaking to multiple outlets.
It might feel uncomfortable in the moment, but this relationship will last beyond a single story if you’re candid about which other titles you are talking to, and if coverage has been promised anywhere else.
5. Know how to follow up
If a journalist says they are keen on an idea and days pass without a word, it’s best not to engage with other writers right away.
A more diplomatic method is to ask if they have had a chance to think further, pointing out that other people are interested but that you want to check with them first.
Sometimes, journalists will have been too swamped with work to get back to you.
If you give them a date to get back by, that helps; there’s nothing that focuses a journalist’s mind like a deadline.
You've got this
Pitching in person can feel daunting at first, but if you come armed with research, prep and personalised pitches, you can feel confident that journalists will want your good ideas as much as you want to place them.
Roxhill's exclusive events
As a Roxhill client, you'll get access to our in-person and online events with top journalists, so you can start building rewarding media connections.
Roxhill's exclusive events
As a Roxhill client, you'll get access to our in-person and online events with top journalists so you can start building rewarding connections.