Follow Simple Guidelines when Pitching Media via Email

August 4th, 2008 at 02:30pm Rebecca Kopf

With the Internet and computers prevalent in all media organizations today, the landscape of pitching media has changed quite dramatically just in the past few years. Where pitching the media was previously done only through phone calls, faxes and mail, today the majority of our media pitches happen through email.

Email pitching has its own set of challenges, but these issues can be overcome and you can make electronic story pitches successful by following some simple guidelines:

* Research/identify the appropriate person at each media outlet. Check out the media’s web site or call to identify the proper individual’s email addresses rather than sending the pitch to a general “news” or “editor” email.
* Make the initial pitch in the subject line. Advocate the topic in the email’s subject line to alert the media person what they are receiving. For example, “Story idea: How Bank XYZ is making its customers saving-savvy.”
* Make your point fast. Grab the attention of the media within the first two lines of the email. Provide date and times if it is an event. If they are interested, they’ll keep reading.
* Don’t attach large files. Attaching a press release is fine, but not .jpg files or other huge attachments. Ask within the email if the media would like the attachments and only then send them.

Using email to pitch a story is effective, but can be quite impersonal. Make sure you follow up with the specific media person to ensure they’ve received the email and to build a relationship with them.

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