“Unique ideas often start with pitches, and many are surprising”, according to Breanne Heldman, New York bureau chief at Yahoo! Entertainment. She was speaking on a PRSA NY panel on Tuesday about placing entertainment stories.

Other panelists included::
• Lauren Brown, Site Director, Ok! Magazine.com
• James Chairman, New York Bureau Producer, E! News
• Erin Clements, Celebrity News Editor, The Huffington Post
• Paola Leva, News Director, In Touch Weekly
• Benjamin Wagner, Senior Vice President, MTV News

Below are their tips for breaking through the clutter with original, creative pitches leading to mutually productive relationships. Some appear self-evident, but may be worth repeating.

1.Celebrities promoting brands: These types of stories provide access, Clements said. The outlets will touch upon the brand tie-in, then cover the celebrity’s work. As Heldman added, sometimes it’s even funny, as when they interviewed a pregnant celebrity plugging a rum brand on St. Patrick’s day. All she could do was mention what she’d like to be drinking.

2.Exclusive content is highly desirable, or at least most media outlets prefer to receive it first. As Brown observed, “nothing is really exclusive online anymore, because once it goes online it’s fair game”. But if her site posts an item early on, their readers will share it and build the outlet’s own social media following.

3.Story extension ideas: Sending pitches to extend a big story running for several days is advisable. For example, it may be an expert who can speak about Angelina Jolie’s recent medical news, Heldman said.

4.Finding unique angles is critical, Clements noted. Brown wants the flexibility to add first person spin and avoid a cookie-cutter approach. As Wagner added, for MTV News, merely an announcement of a new album release is a non-starter. (Image at left courtesy of MTV News’ story, “Cannes Film Festival 2013: Our Must-See Movies”)

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Even Rodin, the French sculptor who created iconic images like The Thinker, (left) might have a hard time getting his opinions published in some media outlets today. That is, unless the artist also possessed a writing style with a strong viewpoint that was provocative or counterintuitive with a catchy, conversational tone.

Those were some of the pointers from the editorial panelists at a recent PCNY event on pitching opinion pieces, bylined and contributed content. Other desirable criteria include articles with compelling angles that are well sourced and grounded in facts. Self-serving or promotional pieces don’t make the cut. So if a sculptor like Rodin was intent on seeing his name in print or online, he’d be well advised to write about the fine arts category, not focus exclusively on his own masterpieces.

The panelists represented a broad array of digital and print outlets with varying degrees of difficulty for outside submissions to break through. These included: CNN Digital, Bloomberg View, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Ad Age and The Muse. Of course the industries these media brands cover aren’t targeted or limited to art. They encompass categories ranging from politics and economics to technology, marketing, media, careers and lifestyle.

Each editor painted a brief picture of their outlet and provided tips for prospective guest contributors.

CNN Digital: The Opinion section of the site “hosts a wide range of views across the spectrum of politics, religion, arts and other areas”, explained Richard Galant, senior opinion editor. They only publish one or two outside submissions per day, and they want original, exclusive hooks to ongoing news stories.

Bloomberg View: Editorial board member Frank Wilkinson described the two-year old site as “a startup within a large news organization”. He said their op-ed page only takes selected outside contributors since they now produce more opinion related content in-house. Their core focus is the intersection of economics, finance, government and cultural issues, and they look for densely researched pieces.

Business Insider: The site has evolved, according to managing editor Jessica Liebman. There are now 15 sections, like technology, finance, retail, politics, sports, lifestyle, military and defense, with plans to add energy and healthcare. Their current focus is having quality contributors and selected bloggers post about newsy or fun topics.

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Although the primary goal of Mariner is help generate buzz for Holland America Line cruises, the magazine also aims to provide material on par with other consumer travel publications.

“Mariner engages Holland America Line’s premium and returning passengers with a mix of cruise line service information, alongside literate travel narrative, world-class photography and high-level design and production,” said editor-in-chief Chuck Thompson.

And, lucky for you, the magazine is open to pitches from any publicist involved with tourist hot spots, as well as those with celebrity clients that have a strong connection to certain locales. For the whole story, including editors’ contact info, read How To Pitch: Mariner.

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Journey is AAA’s bimonthly magazine that covers travel destinations  both between states and internationally in a manner that appeals to residents of Washington and other Northwestern states. “We’re more of an experiential market than a luxury, high-end shopping audience,” explained editor-in-chief Rob Bhatt. 

He also stressed that his team is interested in travel-related PR pitches, especially about local destinations reachable by car, as well as chefs, restaurants and resorts in the Northwest. But, as always, publicists must show familiarity with the publication’s reader base. “There are certain angles that make sense for a Northwestern audience and others that don’t.”

Get more details on PR pitching do’s and don’ts, plus contact info for all editors accepting pitches in How To Pitch: Journey.

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to over 150 ”How To Pitch” articles, hundreds of articles on journalism and media jobs, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Launched in the spring of 2002, Cure aims to present cancer research and information in a patient-friendly format. The magazine is distributed freely to cancer patients and healthcare professionals, and the vast majority of its contributors have a background in health writing or are medical professionals themselves, such as editor-in-chief, Debu Tripathy, a well-known oncologist who specializes in breast cancer.

Publicists are encouraged to pitch Cure editors on anything related to the disease, including book reviews. The magazine’s editor-at-large typically pens one review for each issue, and the book almost always was pitched by a publicist.

Get more details, plus a full list of all editors accepting pitches in How to Pitch: Cure [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required].

– Nicholas Braun

If you have tech or startup clients, your dream score would be a feature in Fast Company, the magazine of choice for those obsessed with the tech biz. The mag’s Chris Dannen, editor of the software-focused Co.Labs, recently published a “how to pitch us” article that every tech-oriented PR pro should read, like, yesterday.

In summary, Dannen emphasizes that the magazine strongly prefers pitches framed as stories designed to help others in the field succeed — a sort of “look how we did it and how excited we are about it” model. He writes that email pitches should be extremely short and focus on enthusiasm for the lessons learned during the journey rather than the details (which can and will be fleshed out later, warts and all). He follows by elaborating on the components of a compelling story for those who love the product/initiative but aren’t as clear on the underlying narrative behind it.

In other words, you need to avoid making your story sound like another press release or dull product roll-out announcement — this is not a sales pitch.

We would go into greater detail, but all PR pros (especially those with a tech focus) should really just read the full article.

Editors at Inc., a monthly publication tailored to the entrepreneurial community, are currently accepting publicist pitches for all sections. ”We are a magazine about people who are incredibly passionate and have the will to start a business from scratch,” managing editor Alexandra Brez  told Mediabistro.

But hold off on those mass email blasts. Brez stressed that Inc. ins’t looking for generic press releases. Instead, editors want compelling subjects relevant to their target audience as opposed to general success stories.  She added, “Short is good. Specific to Inc. is better.”

Get more details plus contact info for editors accepting PR pitches in How to Pitch: Inc. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Well here’s a highly fraught debate: to what degree should PR pros manage the message in content created by the journalists they pitch? When does “making helpful suggestions” turn into “telling journalists how to do their jobs?”

This week journalist Jim Romenesko (who everyone in media should follow on Twitter and Facebook) brings us a couple of cases in which he and some of his colleagues believe that PR pros went too far.

In the first instance, a reader who is also a newspaper editor received an unusually bold pitch from a man who claims to transcend the traditional role of the flack:

“I would like to propose engaging in a relationship where once in a while I supply you with fully developed stories (completed articles) that you can publish under your byline, with or without editing, at no fee.”

That’s right, this guy will write full articles (for a real physical paper, no less) and the writer will get credit for them. No real work necessary. Oh, and also:

“I placed a few expert quotes by some of my clients into the piece, so I am not looking for compensation or acknowledgement.”

Ah yes — there we go.

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The queen of media’s eponymous mag boasts 14 million readers and has numerous accolades to its credit.  After launching in 2000 through a partnership with Hearst, the pub has earned a dozen ASME nods and has become the go-to resource encouraging “confident, intelligent women to reach for their dreams and make choices that will lead to happier and more fulfilling lives.”

We’ve said it before with other mags, and, it remains the same with O: Know thy market. Start by picking up a couple (or 10) past issues to get a feel for the magazine and the types of stories that typically run. According to the editors we spoke with, they do accept PR pitches — but they must be on target.

For editors contact info and more specifics, read How To Pitch: O, The Oprah Magazine. [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

Today’s guest post comes to you courtesy of our friends at PressDoc, the (social) media-friendly press release distribution, tracking and measurement service. To celebrate the release of PressList, a new service designed to help users pitch stories to journalists, the PressDoc team conducted a series of Q&As with experts in the field.

Their first interview subject is Kevin Dugan, a veteran of both the journalism and PR disciplines. He is the co-author of the Bad Pitch Blog, winner of an Award of Commendation in the Blog category from the Public Relations Society of America and a listed member of the AdAge “Power 150“. He tweets under the @prblog handle. 

From your experience, which email pitches do journalists pay attention to, and what makes them read the press release?

Pitching success boils down to relevance. In fact, the list is more important than the pitch. If it’s relevant? It can be long. It can have large attachments. I don’t care because I’m focused on the relevant content and not how it was packaged.

How often is it relevant? Rarely.

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