How to pitch a news editor

Members of the Maine PR community (and a few on the freelance periphery like myself) met at the Maine Public Relations Council annual conference recently at the University of Southern Maine. This was my first MPRC conference, and I gleaned some interesting tidbits about PR and social media that will be helpful in the future.

As a former magazine editor, I found a connection with the panel “Speed Pitching with No Filter.” The lineup featured four news editors, Seth Koenig from the Bangor Daily News, Bill Nemitz from the Portland Press Herald, Susan Sharon from Maine Public Radio and Ted Varipatis from WCSH-TV6. PR professionals from the audience were given two minutes to pitch the panel on stories they thought should be covered, and the editors followed with feedback.

After the first pitch, Nemitz asked “Why now?” What makes the story pertinent at that particular moment? he asked. Nemitz and other editors use this criteria everyday to filter what makes a story relevant to their audience.

Seth Koenig, Bangor Daily News; Bill Nemitz, Portland Press Herald;
Susan Sharon, Maine Public Radio; and Ted Varipatis, WCSH-6.

Over the span of 20 years editing magazines and receiving countless press releases that never answered that simple question, I concur with Nemitz. If you can’t answer that, do not send your press release — wait until something arises that actually makes it newsworthy. A new product rarely makes headlines on page 1, but may find itself included in a trend story if that connection can be made.

All the editors on the panel preferred receiving a press release via email rather than a phone call. I’d also agree with that advice; I am a slave to email and would always take a quick scan of a press release. But if it was longer than a page, I’d rarely get to the end before I got distracted by something more pressing. Varipatis mentioned a limit of five paragraphs, which is about a page. He also mentioned a timely call after a press release can be helpful— but do not call right before one of the channel’s newscasts was about to air.

I would concur with Varipatis; a follow-up voicemail is helpful, especially for editors who travel frequently and most likely get overwhelmed by new emails. Looming deadlines, no matter what media, always trump reading that pressing new email. And let’s face it, emails do get deleted, and sometimes it’s by accident. Sometimes.

PR folks have to keep in mind that all newsrooms are understaffed, but the amount of news has not dwindled with staff numbers. Consider what you’re sending, and the time of day you’re sending it. Never send a press release to the entire editorial staff, the editors concurred. The “spray and pray” method of PR/marketing has always been a turn-off for me. Editorial teams do talk to each other, and auto-filling the entire staff’s names into your contact list is top on the list of what NOT to do.

Another item on that “not” list that I would add is calling an editor and becoming combative when a story didn’t hit the mark. That’s a a good way to never get your story covered. Ever. One would assume that being nice would be a top parameter to pitching a story, alas I learned many years ago to never assume anything, either in the media business or life in general.

The bottom line is pitching news editors with your client’s story does work, as long as you follow a few simple parameters, including providing the answer to “Why now?”

Fighting the blank screen

 One of my college writing professors once said the only way to get past a blank page is to just start writing. It doesn’t have to be a Pulitzer-winning novel, he said, it may only be thoughts on what’s happening in the news or your life. But if you don’t start writing, then you’ll never be able to call yourself a writer.

The Eastern Trail in Kennebunk.

If I had writer’s block when I was working fulltime Portland I’d look out my window facing Casco Bay for inspiration. If that didn’t work, I’d leave the building and walk around the block. My office was near the Portland Museum Art off Congress Street, which I often referred to as “Crazy Alley” due to the amount of transients with bizarre behavior begging for money. This was always a swift kick in the pants that I needed to return to my office to get some work done.

Since being laid off in May, my home version of Crazy Alley includes a Jack Russell Terrier, Tipper, and two cats, Stormy and Penny. They certainly aren’t homeless but each have their own bouts of craziness while they beg for food.

The life of a freelance writer and editor can get lonely pretty fast, so today I took advantage of a sunny fall day to hit the Eastern Trail on mountain bike. Nothing beats fresh air before the long Maine winter sets in, and today it’s just the colorful leaves falling on the trail and rush of cool air through the bike helmet.

At about mile 2 my writing brain starts to kick in, with topics ranging from the anger of being laid off to the joys of not having to commute anymore or deal with office politics. The problem with writing brain and being on a bike is there’s no way to harness the ideas. I decide it’s best to stop at a bench and enter a few notes into the iPhone.

Eastern Trail bridge over I-95, Kennebunk.

My approach to mile 5 brings the realization that my legs are throbbing, and I have 5 miles to trek to get back to my car: Ugh. I dredge up the last bits of energy, switch gears to top speed, and crank on.

I begin thinking of all the editors and writers I’ve dealt with in the past 20 years who I need to reach out to. I begin my mental checklist and thoughts on how to remember the list when I get back to the office. Alphabetical? It’s worth a shot, but I get to letter “F” and forget the name that begins with letter “A”. My thoughts drift back to writing topics instead of specific names and I spook a chipmunk and narrowly miss clipping its tail. That lucky one lived to see another acorn.

To the writers I may have inadvertently clipped in my years of BtoB editing, I apologize. Somewhere along the path of fulltime magazine editing and having twins, there were some rocky moments fueled by sleep deprivation. I didn’t fully appreciate the daily struggle of finding work as a freelance writer and editor until I recently entered the freelance world myself. The only thing I can do is learn from those mistakes and move on.

I’m finally back at the car after a glorious 10 mile ride. My legs are burning and I’m starved. But I’ve got motivation to fight the blank screen and start writing.