At an industry breakfast hosted by Businesswire a reporter from Assosciated Press handed out a Do's and Don't list for pitched the Assosicated Press. It has some really great insight...
1) DO some research and figure out the right AP reporter before you pitch a story. AP reporters have beats and AP also has national writers who specialize in certain areas, including business, entertainment, medicine, health, sports and lifestyles.
2) DO make sure your story pitch is national in interest and sharply focused. AP is for national and international news. Stories about 5K runs, bake sales and a new product developed by a local company aren’t AP stories — but they might be a better fit at another publication.
3) DO write succinct press releases, preferably with bullet points noting the time, place and date of the event and a FEW sentences explaining the “what” and “why” of the story. AP’s Orange County bureau receives hundreds of press releases each day by fax and email. Long winded pitches fall through the cracks.
4) DON’T shop your story around to multiple AP reporters at once. If one AP reporter turns down your pitch, its likely all AP reporters will turn it down. If a reporter can’t handle your pitch or it isn’t in their beat area but he or she thinks it has interest, the reporter will pass it along to the appropriate person. Please keep in mind, we talk to each other and pass along pitches all the time.
5) DO tell reporters that if (despite no. 4)you’re sending a pitch to multiple people within the AP. We are a huge organization and I have had many experiences where I begin a story based on a pitch, only to find out one or two other reporters in other bureaus have done the same thing. That will make reporters more cautious the next time you pitch something.
6) DON’T call to follow up on a pitch. If we are interested, we will call to let you know.
7) DON’T call about getting on AP’s daybook. All 13 Western states now have one daybook, which is compiled by our new regional headquarters in Phoenix. The daybook is dedicated to news events, such as government press conferences, court hearings, and other hard news events — not corporate releases.
DO take no for an answer. Nothing drives a reporter crazier than getting multiple pitches for the same story from the same person aftyer we’ve said no once, twice or even three times or having a spokesperson argue on the phone over a “no” response. If you accept a no this time, maybe the next time we work together. If you drive me nuts when I’m on deadline, that won’t happen.
9) If you really have a great story, DON’T wait until the day before, or even two days before, to pitch it. The best stories may require a week or more of planning and reporting. Too often, we receive pitches that could have been a good story for AP, but we are first notified of them the day of the event or the day before. That’s just enough time to turn around a story, alert all the editors, coordinate any video or photo coverage and edit the piece.
On this small list, there is definetly some things that we have learned about however, we have not discussed pitches. For my groups PR Plan one of our tactics is pitches. This information would be very helpful if we were to actually be sending out the pitches for our first time.
http://www.sportsinfo101.com/businesstips-topics/what-journalists-want-from-us
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