Pitches That Worked: Newsday
Welcome to Pitches That Worked, a new feature for AG members that takes an actual query letter that landed its writer an assignment, and breaks down just what made it successful. If you’ve got a pitch you’d like to see featured here, email Rebecca AT mediabistro DOT com.
In our second installment, we illustrate (with numbered, hyperlinked comments) how freelancer Alan Krawitz’s laser-sharp pitch led to a string of 70+ Newsday assignments over five years, even though the story he proposed in the original query shown here had already been assigned!
Top five key components of the pitch:
(1) Right off the bat, the pitch’s writer makes clear that what he’s addressing is an ongoing issue, creating a need for his story.
(2) Naming the multiple locations where graffiti shows up in Queens shows the problem is widespread, also helping to establish the need for his story.
(3) Writer brings his idea into the present, describing newly introduced and cutting-edge efforts to thwart the problem he’s identified.
(4) Citing a specific example by name puts a face on the story for an editor, also showing the writer’s done some research to back his idea.
(5) Emphasizing the story’s local provenance, as well as the crime aspect, is a hook sure to resonate with a city-centric paper like Newsday.
Read more (and the pitch itself) here.
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