How to write a pitch an editor finishes

An editor on a national desk gets somewhere between two and four hundred pitches a week. They read the subject line of all of them, the first sentence of maybe a third, and the whole thing of a handful. Everything we teach new press officers is about getting into that handful.

Write to one person

A pitch that could go to anyone goes to no one. Before we write a word, we read the last six weeks of the person we are writing to and find the piece our story would sit next to. The first line names it. Not to flatter, but to show we know what they actually run.

Lead with the story, not the brand

Editors do not cover brands, they cover stories that happen to involve one. “Porto roaster launches first retail blend” is a press release. “The roaster who has tasted every bag he has sold for six years” is a story. Find the sentence a reader would repeat to a friend and put it first.

Keep it under two hundred words

If the story needs more than that, it is not clear yet. We cut every pitch twice: once for length, once for anything that sounds like marketing. Adjectives go first, then the founder quote, then the paragraph about the brand’s mission.

Say what you can offer

An interview, a visit, a sample, an image that has not run anywhere. Be specific about when and how. “Teodoro is in Lisbon on Thursday and can bring the notebook” gets a reply. “Happy to arrange an interview” does not.

Then pick up the phone

We follow up every pitch by phone within two days. Not to ask if they got the email, but to tell them one thing that was not in it. Half our coverage starts with that call.