How to pitch your story to journalists and why you shouldn’t be the story even though you want to be

Only recently, I received pitching guidelines from a very good and helpful editor while pitching a PR story as a media consultant. In them, they mentioned that among the things they weren’t looking for were stories that read like charity press releases.

There’s a reason for this: they’ve been sent these so many times.

They also stressed that an issue should be at the heart of the story, not the organisation or even their work, no matter how wonderful or interesting it is.

There are also reasons for this, and I won’t spend time going into all of them, but most notably, editors are accountable to readers and can’t run stories that are seen as puff pieces.

It’s the same for PRs, of course. Yet I can’t tell you how many times as a media consultant I’ve seen groups put their work front and centre in a release or an op-ed. I’d say it’s one of the most common mistakes NGOs and others make, so I thought it might be a good idea to remind people of this.

Please, put the issue and put the community, put people who are being affected, put the humans at the centre of your stories, if you want them to get picked up. As a widely published and experienced journalist of more than 20 years who has worked all around the world, I know that this is what journalists and editors are looking for. It’s never changed and it won’t.

What else can you do?

Including an independent expert is a smart move, as journalists and editors won’t want to run a story that looks like PR. And yes, I’ve said before that this was or should be a reporter’s job and maybe they would have done this back in the day. I don’t think we should waste time debating this. This is where we are. The reality is that reporters are so stretched these days that if you do this, there is a greater chance of getting the story over the line.

A case study is also worth including. Increasingly, it’s the pitches with case studies that are getting placed. Make sure you choose people who are approachable, happy to speak to the media, and give good quotes and details.

Accept that you may be part of a much larger story, so including partners and members and facilitating contact with them may help the story land. The aim is to tie everything up in a nice bow for journalists and editors.

If you’d like to hire me as a media consultant, you can see my work and my services. There are some glowing reviews here.

I also run webinars that I’ve designed myself, with real-life case studies and scenarios based on my experience, on how to land media coverage and how to write op-eds.