Why journalists ignore your pitch, and what to change

When a pitch gets no reply, the cause is often in the pitch. Three things are worth checking before you send: whether it fits the reporter, how it sounds, and when it arrives.

1. Relevance

A pitch lands badly when the topic, audience, or angle does not match what that reporter covers. The fix is research. Read their recent pieces, note what they write about, and mention one of those pieces in your first lines so they can see why you picked them. The student writer above also says she researched at least one recent story by each journalist so she could relate it to her pitch, and found journalists more receptive when she did.

2. Tone

A pitch written for a list reads differently from one written for a person. Superlatives, exclamation marks, and a greeting that could go to anyone all suggest the first. State the news plainly: what happened, who it affects, and why now.

3. Timing

Timing is partly out of your hands, so keep expectations modest. The same student writer, citing a Cision article, reports that most reporters and editors check email actively from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and that she found Tuesday through Thursday the best days to pitch. Treat that as one person's experience and test it with your own contacts. Whatever you send, a short follow-up after about a week is reasonable, and after that it is usually better to move on.

Check before you send

• Does the first line contain the news, with a date or a number?
• Can you name the reporter's recent piece that this connects to?
• Would the email still make sense if the adjectives were removed?
• Is there one clear ask?

If you want a second read, paste the draft into Writing Review, which flags promotional language and a buried lead. For a worked example, see a first pitch, annotated.