Pitching your Stories

COURSE CONTENT

The Changing Media Landscape

How the print and broadcast media have had to adapt to the

digital world. How the media are organising to deal with the

interaction of their traditional print or broadcast with their

websites and social media presence.

The time pressures that this places on journalists and, as a

result, the pitch process.

Preparing for the Pitch

How to prepare a story. Identifying an angle. Recognising

the attention catcher. Working out the memory that your

pitch should leave.

Identifying current trends that your story can be part of, or a

contrast to.

Building your target list of outlets. Adapting your pitch to

the needs and time pressures of the various outlets.

Identifying your Contacts

How the media plan which stories they are going to use. The

limitations on and aspirations of the journalists involved.

The business needs of the media.

The Process of the Pitch

How to control your nerves. How to make contact. How to

open your pitch. How to use persuasive language. Knowing

when to stop. Deploying a “killer close”.

And coping with the inevitable rejections without losing your

confidence or enthusiasm.

Aims of the course

PR people distribute millions of stories to

the media daily. The barrier to coverage is

increasing. A conservative estimate is that 8

out of 10 media pitches are rejected.

Delegates to this workshop are shown how

to develop their pitch strategy, the strongest

news or feature angle and an approach

which will maximise their coverage.

The workshop includes practical exercises

and intense, and fun, interactive sessions

based on the experiences of successful

PR practitioners who pitch into the media every day of their working life.

Delegates learn how to:

• prepare a story – what angle to take and

how to “top and tail” their story for maximum

impact.

• use current media trends to leverage the

opportunity for their pitch.

• target the media for effective use of their

time (and the journalists’).

• use persuasive language. How to open a

pitch and the killer close.

• cope with nerves, and rejection.

• build their knowledge of the media and

what goes on at their planning meetings.

• adapt their pitching for broadcast; print;

long lead time magazines; and instant website news platforms.