Monday 17 October 2011

Dos and don'ts of pitching to the media

On Friday, I had an extremely exciting opportunity to spend the day with a journalist. I’m sure many of you have heard of him, as he has a segment on Global TV as a consumer reporter. Sean O’Shea let me tag along for a day while he reported on the iPhone 4S launch. (You can follow him on Twitter).

I also got to meet a lot of great PR practitioners, including some from Apple. I want to share some of the things I learned that day, because as exciting as it was to hang out at the Global TV studio, it was great for me to get an inside look at how the media perceives people in our field.

Pitching

One of the main things I learned about was pitching to the media. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Do not pitch between the hours of 3 and 6. This is the time when journalists are getting their stories together and finishing up last minute ideas. If I learned one thing on Friday, it was to NEVER pitch during this time. Ever.

2) Let them know what you can offer visually. Be specific. Where can they set up their cameras? What is the easiest way to get there? Will you be providing the location or will they have to set something up?

3) Find out what their preference is for communication. Some people prefer getting pitches over email, and some prefer over the phone. It seemed to me that the trend was to email the younger journalists and phone the more senior ones.

4) Make sure they are relevant! When sending out mass emails for a pitch, make sure you do not send them to people who will not find it relevant. For example, Sean is a consumer reporter. If someone sends him a pitch that has to do with sports, he will delete the email, and will likely never open up another email from that person. It is not relevant to what he does.

I also talked to a few different reporters about follow-up phone calls for pitches. Some say that they don’t mind if PR practitioners call to check up on the status of a pitch, but some HATE it. It’s a grey area, but perhaps asking around before you make the phone call is a good idea.

I LOVED spending the day at Global, and would do it again in a heartbeat. I learned a lot about how stories come together, what the Apple corporate culture is like, and especially, how to pitch to the media. A great deal of what I heard overlapped with what we have been learning in class, so take everything we learn seriously!


One last thing, I got a great picture of a funny PR pitch. I will upload it as soon as Bell fixes my picture messages!

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