KEMBAR78
Pitch Letters: Form and Format Target: One Reporters or One Editor (By Name) | PDF | News | Communication
Scribd
Upload
89 views3 pages

Pitch Letters: Form and Format Target: One Reporters or One Editor (By Name)

This document provides instructions for writing an effective pitch letter to a reporter or editor. A pitch letter aims to persuade the recipient to write a feature story about a topic, as opposed to a one-time news event. The pitch letter should target a specific reporter based on their beat. It should frame the proposed story angle in the first paragraph and convey that the story will interest the publication's readers. An effective pitch letter includes a news hook, angles the story in an unusual or timely way, keeps the introduction tight, includes one killer statistic, demonstrates newsworthiness, introduces relevant people, and promises help with interviews. It avoids lengthy details and saves new information for the end.

Uploaded by

Abdul Rehman Rezzy
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
89 views3 pages

Pitch Letters: Form and Format Target: One Reporters or One Editor (By Name)

This document provides instructions for writing an effective pitch letter to a reporter or editor. A pitch letter aims to persuade the recipient to write a feature story about a topic, as opposed to a one-time news event. The pitch letter should target a specific reporter based on their beat. It should frame the proposed story angle in the first paragraph and convey that the story will interest the publication's readers. An effective pitch letter includes a news hook, angles the story in an unusual or timely way, keeps the introduction tight, includes one killer statistic, demonstrates newsworthiness, introduces relevant people, and promises help with interviews. It avoids lengthy details and saves new information for the end.

Uploaded by

Abdul Rehman Rezzy
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

COMM e-150 Writing for Public Relations & Marketing Session 5 ASSIGNMENT: WRITE A PITCH LETTER

Pitch Letters: Form and Format Target: One reporters or one editor (by name)
Pitch letters are the tool used to persuade an editor or reporter to create or cover a story -typically a FEATURE story, rather than a ONE-SHOT NEWS EVENT. Thus, a news release is the appropriate tool to use when attempting to obtain publicity for a special event. But a PITCH LETTER, which is sent to ONE TARGETED EDITOR OR REPORTER AT A TIME, is an attempt to persuade the editor or reporter to do a FEATURE STORY - e.g., a profile of a top manager who is having a newsworthy impact on his or her organization -- and perhaps even on his or her industry. Examples of features include the profile, the trend story (e.g., your bakery clients low-carbohydrate diet line of products); a roundup story (your company is among the leading lights in its sector or industry or group).

The objective of the pitch letter:


To positively position the organization (YOUR CLIENT) by persuading an editor/reporter that the story youre proposing is in fact very likely to be interesting to the READERS OF THE PUBLICATION YOU ARE PITCHING. The bottom line isnt to sell the personality of the president of the college (e.g.), but the impressive nature of the colleges identity (i.e., which translates into positive market positioning).

Tips:
Frame the feature story idea/angle in the very first paragraph, but succinctly. Also in the first paragraph, say what you mean -- i.e., that youve got a story that is likely to interest his/her readers. Beat the Drum. Make sure youve targeted correctly the BEAT-- carefully select the NAME OF THE REPORTER OR EDITOR, based on your having actually quickly researched his/her name. If youre pitching a low-carbohydrate bakery, you should have targeted a reporter who has written about diet, nutrition, etc., not (say), international relations.

COMM E-150

Robert E. Brown, PhD Harvard University Session 5 Assignment

Hook: The feature pitch should include a news hook -- for example, not just pitching an author to a Living Arts editor, but including the HOOK that this author has a NEW BOOK out. Angle: Stories are interesting, in part, not merely because of the facts or information -but because they come at the material from a particular angle -- something unusual, interesting, timely. So when a professor pitches a story about a PR campaign to a PR trade magazine, he says that its not just a story about a winning campaign -- its a story about a bunch of undergraduates who won a top prize for creating an award-winning campaign for a great cause.. The most-likely-to-succeed pitch letter will have: A tight, rather than lengthy, lede A killer statistic, but not a jillion of them A trend story -- that goes beyond and behind and around our client company Awareness of what the targeted reporter has written about before -- and how our client storys a match Newsworthiness (i.e., consequence, interest, locality, prominence, magnitude) but not buried in the body of the letter A sense of the top manager, or team, running the show Sometimes: The importance of Luck, when its combined with Strategy and Execution Inverted pyramid style, like a release A succinct ending, not containing anything newsworthy A couple of sources for reporters to call The promise to help set up an interview No pretense that below the fold news should be above the fold Bullets, where they can promote succinctness rather than repetition An awareness that it may take news -- later on -- to get the reporter fired up

COMM E-150

Robert E. Brown, PhD Harvard University Session 5 Assignment

[Note: Only if Letter is to an industry analyst (that is, financial communications): Pretty much the same bullets as for reporters A good story, though not necessarily always a growth story But the genres are different, following investment styles Value investing Turn around Growth investment Target fundamentalist pitch to fundamentalist analysts, quant pitch to quants SEE EXAMPLES OF PITCH LETTERS (Lecture Notes Folder)

COMM E-150

Robert E. Brown, PhD Harvard University Session 5 Assignment

You might also like