St. John Frizell's success story:

I was in James Sturz's "Intro to Travel Writing" class at the time, and this pitch was a class assignment: Pitch a travel-style article to a local magazine or newspaper. For some time, I had been doing my own research on New York's German restaurants, and I had just discovered Zum Schneider and Hallo Berlin. October was six weeks away, and an Oktoberfest roundup seemed like a no-brainer. Jean Tang, a fellow student, liked the pitch and told me I should send it to her friend Maile Carpenter, then food editor at Time Out New York. It seemed like a perfect fit for Time Out, where easily digestible food/entertainment roundups are king.

I made sure to include Jean's name in the letter, and I wrote it as much in "Time Out-style" as possible. It was sent via email, but I don't remember the subject line. I also said that I was a Bon Appetit staffer, which was true -- though I was a copywriter at the time, not an editor. I was never asked to clarify.

The editor bit on the pitch right away, because it was perfectly pegged -- I sent the pitch in mid-August, just when they were finalizing their content for late September and early October.

More on what he did right--and the pitch itself--here.