Fees: The health vertical at NBC News’ digital platform does not pay by the word. Rates range from $400 for a 500 to 800 word article about a new study, with three interviews, to $700 for an enterprise feature from 800 to 1,500 words in length. These rates are negotiable.
Submit to: Jane Weaver, managing editor of the Health & Medical Unit at NBC News, at jane.weaver@NBCUNI.com or Sara Miller, the unit’s health editor, at sara.miller@NBCUNI.com.
Website: https://www.nbcnews.com
Owner: Comcast Corporation, a multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate.
Readership demographics: NBCNews.com is a general news website. Readership is pretty evenly split between women and men. “I am as interested in women’s health stories as men’s health stories,” Weaver said.
Frequency of publication: The health vertical at the website is updated several times a day.
What editors look for in a pitch: Pitches should be concise, and newcomers to reporting for NBC News should send links to some of their clips.
- Study stories: The health vertical at NBCNews.com covers studies in the major journals, such as the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and the Pediatrics and Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), and usually assigns them to its frequent freelancers. Don’t pitch those unless you have a unique angle, Weaver said. Two or three sentences will suffice because it is likely that the editors will have read the embargoed study. Weaver is open to pitches about studies in reputable smaller journals, although those pitches should be a bit longer.
- Feature stories: Weaver is receptive to pitches within the areas of infectious diseases, public health, disadvantaged communities, health care and health care access, among others. The stories should be about underreported trends and not have been written about in other national news outlets. An exception would be if the freelancer has a unique take on the story or unusual access to sources. Weaver is particularly interested in stories about health trends in younger people, and she is open to taking a pitch that brings a national angle to a local story. Pitches should include a nut graph and the types of sources the writer plans on interviewing. “I would love voices of patients,” said Weaver.
Are the editors open to pre-pitches?: Yes, writers can send an email asking if there would be interest in receiving a pitch about a particular story idea.
Most common mistakes she sees with pitches: Pitching a story that has already been reported by a competitor, unless the freelancer has a really fresh angle; pitching a topic, not a story; and pitching unnecessarily alarmist stories.
Lead time for pitching: The editors will get back to freelancers within a day or two. “I don’t mind one followup email,” Weaver said.
Best way to break into the publication: “If you have not pitched to us before, I would prefer a pitch for a feature story,” said Weaver.