"Any pitch that has URGENT in subject of email will be URGENTLY deleted" ~Thomson Reuters' Patrick Flanary
On Wednesday, February 27th, NYU PRSSA attended Muck Rack's monthly class on #howtopitchajournalist led by Patrick Flanary, a PR manager at Thomson Reuters and a contributor to Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post among others. Natan Edelsburg led the Q&A, as Flanary discussed his experiences and suggestions in building relationships with journalists in this ever-advancing technological world.
Here are some key points:
Customize your emails – journalists know what they’re doing; they will know if you send out that very same email to 15 other journalists.
Subject lines and opening sentences are the two most important aspects in the email – journalists are so busy that they will often not read past that if it is already boring.
Get to the point; be brief and try to make a connection. Keep it less than 2 paragraphs, make it 2 sentences, 3 sentences max.
Call only if it is ‘the scoop.’
Don’t bury the lead; bring it to the top.
Link your sentences to why that particular topic matters to that particular journalist.
If you promise an exclusive, make them aware of a deadline, so you don’t seem two-faced if you end up giving that information to another journalist.
Wait at least several days to follow-up, maximum wait one week.
Twitter is our generation’s newspaper, so get on that!
Do not bold, underline, or italicize when sending an email pitch.
Never pitch on a Monday or a Friday; a good time to pitch is in the middle of the week, from 10 – 11 AM before work gets too busy.
Meet lots of people!
Hope you enjoyed these tips!
Till next time,
Claire
VP of Communications