So many times PR people see a pitch as being the one that lands on the front page of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
You know as well as I do that that doesn’t usually happen. What usually happens, after the intial euphoria of “OMG, this is the one!,” is “OMG, what now?” And how can I be as excited to pitch papers in Lexington or Denver when the Journal was on my radar?
I submit to you hyperlocalism. It’s all the rage in journalism, with local media outlets focusing more on the local part of reporting. The stories that matter to people in communities are the ones that happen in and affect those communities.
Therefore, pitch locally.
I’m not saying to forget about the Big Fish. Your client will love you if you get a hit in a huge outlet.
But the key to grabbing a reporter’s attention is to make it worthwhile to him or her. It all goes back to knowing who you’re pitching…and where they are.
Here are three tips to doing that.
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Focus your efforts. Big national releases are great, but rarely get the pickup you dream about. Focus on key markets that can have a positive effect on your pitch and your client.
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Connect the dots. Think of how your pitch fits in to recent news. There’s nothing better than timeliness. But there’s nothing worse than a recycled story. Check your media’s archives to see if anything about your pitch has been produced in the last year. Then, add a new element to that story.
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Look to the future. So you’ve looked to the past in the archives. Now how will your pitch affect the future of readers? Grab statistics, pick up on trends and elaborate on the significance of your pitch
Since I live in Lawrence, Kan., I’ll call this the Lawrence test. Will the citizens of Lawrence, Kan., care about your pitch? Why or why not? And if they won’t, how can you formulate it so they will care? So keep your audience in mind when you’re pitching.
Alex Parker is a reporter at the Lawrence Journal-World, and a graduate student of journalism at the University of Kansas. He is a former Arment Dietrich employee.
