Still, developing and sending pitches takes effort and unpaid time, and can feel increasingly exasperating. So when I learned the Deadline Club<\/a> (the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists) and the Asian American Journalists Association<\/a> were co-hosting a live panel about pitching in January, I RSVP\u2019d.\u00a0<\/p>\n From left to right: Althea Chang-Cook, Tina Wong, Manisha Krishnan and Vivian Toy stand with the Deadline Club\u2019s Brennan LaBrie and a representative from Weber Shandwick, which held the panel at its offices. Photo courtesy of Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n The event, a spinoff of the Deadline Club\u2019s \u201cPitch Posse\u201d series, attracted a near overflow crowd. Photo courtesy of Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n The event, \u201cHow to Pitch Stories that Land an Assignment,\u201d featured Vivian Toy<\/a>, senior editor of newsroom culture and careers at the New York Times; Althea Chang-Cook<\/a>, a content specialist and home and kitchen writer at Consumer Reports; and Manisha Krishnan<\/a>, senior culture editor of Wired. Tina Wong<\/a>, the president of AAJA\u2019s New York chapter, moderated. <\/p>\n The organizers agreed I could paraphrase the speakers\u2019 key takeaways, but not quote them, for AHCJ\u2019s audience. Here\u2019s what I learned:<\/p>\n Perfect your subject line\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, a great subject line is a universal must-have for a strong pitch. Otherwise, editors are unlikely to open your email.. What makes a great subject line is a little more subjective, but think of it like a headline that you\u2019d be eager to click. Drilling down your idea into a must-open email subject is a good exercise for you as a writer, Krishnan said, since it forces you to get really clear on what you want the story to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n Timing matters\u00a0<\/p>\n While I like to believe a great pitch will catch an editor\u2019s eye no matter when it\u2019s sent, Chang-Cook encouraged freelancers to send pitches in the morning, before her day and inbox get swallowed up with other tasks. If you\u2019re tempted to send one in the afternoon or evening, schedule-send it for 8 a.m. the next morning instead, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Panelists also agreed that Mondays, which are full of unread emails, and Fridays, which involve more wrapping up than green-lighting new assignments, aren\u2019t ideal for pitches. And it should go without saying: Don\u2019t pitch on weekends on holidays.\u00a0<\/p>\n Research the publication thoroughly\u00a0<\/p>\n If, while reading a pitch, Toy catches a whiff that the freelancer isn\u2019t caught up on the Times\u2019 coverage, she\u2019ll stop reading \u2014 and avoid opening an email from that journalist again.<\/p>\n Researching a publication before pitching it doesn\u2019t just mean double-checking that your exact idea hasn\u2019t been covered or scanning the last few days of headlines. Panelists said it also means fully understanding the types of stories the outlet covers, how they\u2019re typically framed and whether freelancers are used for that type of project at all. For instance, most news organizations don\u2019t use freelancers for breaking news, but may use them for less-urgent culture, lifestyle and travel stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, don\u2019t rely on your perception or memory of an outlet as \u201cresearch,\u201d either. Chang-Cook noted that while Consumer Reports is 90 years old, it\u2019s evolved to speak to younger generations and to include first-person, voicey reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just pose questions \u2014 pose some answers, too<\/p>\n A strong pitch doesn\u2019t simply propose an idea that the writer wants to explore, it shows that the writer has already started exploring it, Krishnan said. That may mean conducting a short pre-interview or two with a proposed source, or digging up other research. You want to prove to yourself, and then your editor, that your story is more than a hypothesis that may or may not work once it\u2019s reported out.\u00a0<\/p>\n Think of it this way: Instead of only including big questions you\u2019re curious about (\u201cWhat does this trend illustrate about our current health care system?\u201d), provide evidence that you already have a sense of the answer (\u201cThis trend illustrates XYZ about our health care system, based on my conversations with XYZ and data from XYZ.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n Keep it to three paragraphs\u00a0<\/p>\n Three succinct paragraphs is a good rule of thumb when wondering how long your pitch should be, the editors agreed. Think of it like the story itself: A paragraph or two to draw the reader in, and a nut graf to convey the larger point and to tease at what\u2019s to come. A few exceptions: A longer story, like a deep investigation or in-depth feature, may necessitate a longer pitch. But if you\u2019ve already written for the editor, often just a paragraph will do.\u00a0<\/p>\n One to two follow-ups is enough\u00a0<\/p>\n Most editors don\u2019t respond to all pitches. Following up once or twice is fine, but leave it at that, the panelists said. Avoid simultaneous pitching. Instead, if something is time-sensitive, give the editor a deadline to respond before moving along.\u00a0<\/p>\n Do your own reporting to find the email address\u00a0<\/p>\n Sometimes, figuring out the right editor to pitch to and finding their email address requires some legwork. If these answers aren\u2019t publicly available on a masthead, through AHCJ\u2019s Market Guide<\/a> or via LinkedIn, for example, your best bet is to get the inside scoop from someone you know at the company \u2014\u00a0even if they aren\u2019t on the editorial side. And if you have to use your reporting skills to deduce your way to a likely email address, go for it \u2014 the worst case scenario is that the email will bounce back. The best? Your pitch will get a \u201cyes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brennan LaBrie hosts a regular \u201cPitch Posse\u201d meetup for early career journalists in New York looking to workshop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64438,64439,9,11,10,16304,64440],"class_list":["post-155699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-asian-american-journalists-association","tag-freelancing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pitching","tag-the-deadline-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/group-photo-2.jpg\")
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