Pitches Not Hitting the Mark? Think Like a Journalist

You’re respected throughout the philanthropic world. You have smart advice that your peers value. You have data and insights and a savvy team to help fine-tune your ideas. 

But your thought leadership pitches fall flat.

There are countless reasons why, but many stem from a common challenge: You’re not thinking like an editor.

You’re focused on what you and your organization want to promote. An editor is thinking about what readers need to know. And no matter how carefully you disguise your intent, a good editor keeps a finger on the delete button and can instantly spot the difference between a marketing pitch and insightful thought leadership.

If you want to learn how to think like an editor, go to the source. We drew from our own experience working in and with newsrooms and gathered advice from past and present editors at mainstream publications — The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Forbes, The Washington Post, The New York Times — on how to get editors to pay attention to your thought leadership pitches.

1. Speak with authority and integrity: Even when pitching op-eds, offer analysis grounded in your expertise as opposed to empty opinions. Noting that the proposed Head Start deregulation could be devastating doesn't advance the discussion. Explaining how removing caps on student-teacher ratios and eliminating bilingual instruction could affect entire communities or examining how similar program cuts have played out helps readers understand what's at stake.

Support your insights with data from reliable sources. Include references to past articles on the topic from the publication you’re pitching and other respected news outlets. 

2. Know your audience: Before you begin crafting your pitch, research the publication. Who are its readers? What is its focus? Check the masthead to figure out which editor oversees the section or beat you’re pitching. Don’t just email everyone. A good pitch becomes an annoying one when eight colleagues forward it to the same busy editor.

Fortunately, most publications have online editorial submission guidelines that specify the types of pitches they accept, which editors to contact, and what to include. Some publications want writers to send drafts, others don’t. Many require clips (writing samples).

A targeted pitch that explains why a certain story would appeal to an editor’s readers is far more likely to succeed than a generic press release sent to 50 editors that details an organization’s strategy, accomplishments, or services. Journalists’ email trash bins are stuffed with the latter.

3. Make it timely: Editors are under constant pressure to find original angles to trending topics. Help them out with a timely hook, even if the broader theme is evergreen (meaning it could run at any time).

A story about nonprofits helping residents cope with rising costs is more likely to get an editor’s attention if it’s tied to an upcoming round of SNAP cuts. A piece on disaster planning has a better chance if you send it before the start of hurricane season.

Editors at mainstream media outlets scan breaking news, Google Trends, and sites like AnswerThePublic for story ideas. You should, too. Not to rehash trends, but to add fresh perspectives to the conversation.

Recent legislation, studies, holidays, and major events are timely hooks. You can also check publications’ sites for editorial calendars, which list themed issues and coverage plans. 

4. Give readers something they can use: Timely topics are crowded topics. Tell editors what’s new and valuable about your pitch — a unique or unexpected perspective, practical advice readers can apply to their work, new data that changes how people think about the issue.

Test your pitch with one question: What will readers learn after reading this article that they didn’t know before? If the answer is not clear, the pitch isn’t ready.

5. Get to the point — quickly — and keep moving: Journalists have seconds to grab readers’ attention. You have less time to grab theirs. Editors get hundreds of emails a day, and they’re natural skeptics — they assume your pitch will be weak because most are. Convince them otherwise in the first sentence. Better yet, start with a sharp subject line that matches the publication's headline style.

Learn journalists’ language. Hook them with a fascinating intro (the lede), then boil the pitch down to one big idea: This is what the story is about, and this is why your readers should care about it now (what editors call the nut graf). Then add a couple of short paragraphs with additional details — what angles you would explore, what sources you’d cite, what makes you the best expert to write authoritatively on the topic. Leave out jargon, redundancies, and marketing-speak. 

6. Follow the rules: Accuracy is critical in journalism, and one sloppy detail — a misspelled name, a misinterpreted stat, an unsupported claim — can sink an otherwise strong pitch and put you in the auto-delete list for good. Check facts through primary sources or as close as you can get to them, and carefully copyedit draft pitches. 

Understand and follow publications’ ethical standards around AI-generated content (many prohibit it or require disclosures), conflicts of interest, sourcing, and more. Journalists guard their publications’ integrity and resent thinly veiled marketing pitches. 

Getting published in The New York Times or The Chronicle of Philanthropy can certainly raise your organization’s profile. To earn that exposure, stop thinking solely about the messages you want to get out and start thinking about the ideas readers need to know.