The 2 questions you must answer with every media pitch

When pitching a story to the media, you need to answer the first two questions that every reporter, editor and producer will ask:

  1. Why should I care? Why should our readers, listeners and viewers care about the story you’re pitching? What problem are you solving? What opportunity are  you creating? How you are making our lives easier and our community a better place to call home?
  2. Why now? Why are you pitching this story now? And why should we cover it now? Do you have an upcoming event, announcement, product launch? Are you responding to something that’s already in the news and top of mind with our audience?

The better your answers to WSIC and why now, the less likely the reporter will ask WTF.  Serve up answers that are clear, compelling and concise. Don’t make reporters dig, wait or wonder. If that happens, odds are good they’ll take a pass on your pitch and move on to the next story idea.

Published by

Jay Robb

I've reviewed more than 500 business books for the Hamilton Spectator since 1999 and worked in public relations since 1993.

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