Zable Fisher

How to Pitch an Associated Press Reporter

Posted September 19, 2008 by Margie Zable Fisher

At the September meeting of the Gold Coast P.R. Council last week, Associated Press Reporter Brian Skoloff shared tips on how to successfully pitch an AP reporter.

 

Here they are:

 

  1. Do your research first, and offer this information to the reporter.  We are usually very time-crunched, and providing this information may save enough time that we can do the story.
  2. Don’t offer a single expert or business, unless it ties into a broader national trend, and you can use the expert or business to speak to that trend.
  3. Give us exclusives.  We’ll be more interested.
  4. Provide your source’s contact information.  If it takes too much time to go through the P.R. person, we might pass on the story.
  5. Find out what we cover.  There are many AP writers.  If we cover a specific beat, and your story fits, that will help.  Also, if we just wrote a story on a certain subject, don’t send us another source for that same story idea.  We’ve already written the story.
  6. Don’t say to us, “If you pass on this story, you’ll be sorry.”
  7. Think multimedia.  If you can provide photos and/or video, that helps.

 

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One comment...What do you think?

  1. Posted by Marvin Glassman 22nd September, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Hi Margie,
    Thanks for summarizing the AP writer’s tips which are helpful.
    However, don’t follow his third comment- give the reporter an exclusive only to him. I am surprised he made that comment in a public forum because it could cost him his job. Publicists are in the business to build on media relationships, not to play one against the other- and most ethical reporters understand that a PR professional can’t favor one reporter over another for story ideas..
    All media are entitled to have information for articles- don’t play favorites. If a competiting reporter will call you as the PR contact for the story and you tell him that you did not send the story idea to you because AP wanted an excusive, the reporter won’t appreciate that you considered the AP more important than his outlet- and he/she may not take you seriously because you played favorites. Marvin Glassman

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