Pitching Journalists

As I was listening to Thursday's edition of For Immediate Release #62: the Hobson and Holtz Report, something their guest Chris Marlowe said really resonated with me. The particular segment that struck me was at 52:55, when
Ms. Marlowe admonishes prospects to know their own topics and to know what she does and to know why the story they are pitching would be relevant to her. "We all get pitches that we can't imagine what people are thinking we are interested in," she wonders.

It echoed something that Amy Gahran and I have been discussing lately. I was floundering about, dreading writing press releases, when she suggested instead that I research specific journalists that I would like to form relationships with.

And note that phrase "form relationships with." Not "get an article out of." Ms. Gahran encouraged me to do exactly what Ms. Marlowe described--research the journalist I want to pitch. Read her articles. Note the kind of things she writes about. Get a feel for what she might think would appeal to her audience, and then and ONLY then drop her a polite line with well-constructed article ideas that would appeal to her specifically.

As a matter of fact, I'm so timid about pitching journalists that I started with simply quoting them on my podcast or blog and then dropping them a line to let them know that I had done that, thereby opening up a conversation about their body of work. Talk about a nice, in-your-comfort-zone way to approach a journalist!

The full 40-minute interview with Chris Marlowe is available on Eric Schwartzman's podcast, On the Record Online.