During AHCJ’s March Lunch and Learn, freelance members swapped tips about a perpetually charged topic: pitching. Some writers like me enjoy coming up with my own ideas. It satisfies my creative muscle and gives me a better chance of writing the types of stories I’m actually interested in — and others avoid it. It’s true: Pitching takes unpaid time and mental energy, and can end in rejection if you get any response at all.
Another of my peers’ frustrations: Like so many aspects of journalism, pitching is different these days. There are fewer outlets and editors to pitch to, and more of our outreach goes unanswered. What pitching strategies worked for some freelancers decades or even a few years ago no longer reliably yield assignments. So here’s a summary of what Lunch and Learn participants shared works (and doesn’t) for them right now.
Get over rejection
If fear of rejection is holding you back from sending your pitch, remember that it’s simply a part of the deal. Staff writers get their ideas turned down, too. Editors who like and have worked with you still won’t accept every pitch. It’s not about you; it’s about the idea or something out of your control, like the outlet already planning a story on a too-similar topic. Plus, a slew of rejections can help you rework your pitch or keep trying it in new places, making any eventual “yes” feel even sweeter.
Subject lines are more critical than ever
Subject lines have always been vital to catching an editor’s eye. But they’re especially crucial now, a time when editors are receiving thousands of emails a day. (When I worked as a health correspondent at Business Insider, I received an email — most of them some sort of pitch — about every minute or two. I suspect my editors’ inboxes were equally or more crowded.)
When pitching a new editor, one freelancer said she’ll put the name of a friend who’s worked with them in the subject line to get noticed. Just double-check with your friend, first, if you try the same tactic. If she has no connection, she’ll say something like, “Pitch from an award-winning journalist” in the subject line, followed by her proposed headline. She might take as long on the subject line as the pitch itself because, she said, “you only have five or six words to get their attention, and it can be challenging to figure out what those five or six words should be.”
The word ‘query’ is out
Years ago, freelance writers frequently sent “queries” to editors to pitch their ideas. “Pitches” tended to mean emails from public relations professionals. But these days, the term “query” seems to have fallen out of favor, and “pitch” can mean both a story idea from a writer and a request for coverage from someone in PR. That blurring of meanings is yet another reason your subject line needs to shine.
Improve your research techniques
Here’s a practical tip: Instead of using the search function on a publication’s website to see if they’ve covered a topic or angle before, use Google. Just put the outlet’s URL into the search bar followed by a colon and the term or terms at hand. It tends to more reliably dig up the relevant stories. An AI program like ChatGPT can help with this task, too.
Approach pre-reporting strategically
How much pre-reporting should go into your pitch? Everyone’s comfort level is different, and different story ideas require different amounts of research. But one rule of thumb is to do just enough to confirm that your idea has legs. If you do less, you could get an assignment only to realize that your pitch was only a theory — and lose that editor’s desire to work with you along the way. If you do more, you’ll waste uncompensated time and energy.
“I think over-reporting a pitch is one of the worst ways to squander your time,” one Lunch and Learn participant said. “So I try to report enough that I can see that it’s actually a story — and not a second more.”
Don’t overthink source outreach
Speaking of pre-reporting, sometimes you’ll need to get some insight or quotes from an expert to give your pitch enough substance. While some freelancers worry about reaching out to sources before a pitch is approved since they can’t guarantee that person will be quoted, keep in mind that plenty of expert interviews go unused or unpublished even when you do have the assignment. People who’ve talked to the media before and agree to talk to you as you’re “looking into a story” — a fine way to phrase it — tend to understand that.
Personally, for this aspect of a pitch, I try to double dip: While on the phone with an expert for an assignment, I might end by saying, “Unrelated, I’ve been thinking about pitching a story about XYZ. What’s your gut reaction?” That often gives me enough fodder to roll into a separate pitch without scheduling an entirely new call.
If it’s truly time-sensitive, say that
While most good pitches have some time-sensitivity — you should be able to answer, “Why now?” — some truly are time-sensitive, perhaps tied to a pivotal event or major study’s release. In these cases, including “time-sensitive” in the subject line is important, as is giving the editor a deadline to respond. You could say something like, “I think your publication is the right place for this piece, but given its time-sensitive nature, if I don’t hear from you by EOD tomorrow, I’ll move on to other outlets.”
Getting on the phone can help
One freelancer said she’s had some success with 5-minute phone calls with editors she already has a relationship with. For example, if a few iterations of a pitch just isn’t landing, she’ll ask for a quick call to flesh out exactly why — and what might work instead. I, too, have had success with an editor phone call. In at least one case, while the specific idea I was pitching didn’t get a “yes,” the editor took a look at her list of stories to assign and gave me one on the spot.
Be cautious of broad pitch callouts
Some editors post pitch callouts on social media platforms like LinkedIn. They seem to be inundated with hundreds of responses within minutes. If yours is one of them, it could easily be lost in the shuffle. Unless you’re confident that your idea will cut through the noise, you might be better off waiting until the tidal wave of pitches has passed — or focusing on different outlets entirely.
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