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5 creative ways to pitch print magazines

Guest post by: Bonnie Harris

Article Overview: Try to get a magazine editor to read your pitch can be a struggle sometimes. These are some creative ways that may help guide you to a placement in that magazine you've been trying to land for the past year.

5 creative ways to pitch print magazines

It’s clear that today’s media environment has made placements in print magazines more and more challenging for the Average Josephine. Although the blood loss may have slowed, magazines have reduced editorial pages significantly over the past few years. Of the pages that remain, many are forced to promise coverage to advertisers in order to stay afloat. Add to that the fact that most editors are doing 3x the job they used to because of staff cuts, and it’s a tough challenge.

Yet print magazines still remain (in my opinion, certainly not everyone’s) an important part of many media campaigns. Getting an editor’s attention can be key to promoting your product, book or service. I’d like to share some of the creative ways we get an editor’s attention.

1. Find them on Twitter and introduce yourself. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have…for some reason editors, writers and producers are much more willing to “make friends” on Twitter. Even when I don’t know someone, a simple tweet or email that says “saw that you often cover XXXX when I was on Twitter…would it be okay if I sent you a pitch on my product?” That casual approach, with permission to pitch, has worked tremendously well for us. Most journalists have been told to increase their Twitter presence as well. If you can make introductions and help them do that, go for it. (Note: this approach works well for bloggers too. But keep your first email short. Don’t try to sneak in a pitch or they’ll ignore you)

2. Read the publication and find out if they use custom content. Many magazines are bootstrapped and it’s expensive to pay freelance writers. If you’re a good writer or already a published author, offer to write a piece for free that fits within their editorial and provides exposure for your expertise. I got a placement for a business magazine recently where I had my client, an advertising executive, interview HIS client, a car dealer, about how they’d survived over the last couple years. The resulting piece showed my client’s strong relationship with his client and provided some great survival tips from the car dealer. Magazines like Success Magazine regularly consider custom content and it’s becoming much more common everywhere.

Remember however, if you provide content it has to be real content, not a thinly veiled advertisement. Look at your local print magazines first, and offer to write for them. Then use those clips to gain the attention of the national magazines. Your bio will be your “ad” and if you like to write, this will be quite fun.

3. You are probably reading HARO, but sign up for ReporterConnection.com as well…I’ve seen some GREAT queries there. If you’ve got some budget, I strongly advise getting the Profnet feeds. (For more on HARO and Profnet, visit my post on those ) I may get a nasty Peter Shankman comment on this, but Profnet is where traditional media send most of their serious queries. On HARO, you’ll see a lot of fantastic online opportunities and some TV/print ones, but national journalists repeatedly tell me they get their best sources from Profnet and regard it as a much stronger resource than HARO, probably because companies and publicists pay for the subscription.

4. If you’d like to go the expert source route, then send your profile to editors and update them regularly on things you’re doing and current events on which you can comment. You may never hear anything, but get a call a year later for a fast quote. This happened to me with SELF Magazine…my environmental client was called for a story a year after I started pitching the editor…never once hearing back until then. But remember if they call or email get back to them with lightning speed and make yourself immediately available. They’re on a deadline and you need to be at their disposal, not the other way around. I have clients who will drop what they’re doing to get an interview done…believe me those writers and editors are immensely grateful and pay them back in spades. I can’t say this enough…have a sense of urgency or you’re dead.

5. Go to New York or LA and meet them. I’ve met the talent booker for Letterman, editors from most of the major magazines and many other journalists from attending get togethers for PR’s in those cities. For example, the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society hosts frequent “meet the press” events in LA and NY – and you can attend even if you’re not a publicist or marketer. The information is always really helpful and at the end of the panel or presentation, wait your turn in line to meet the journalists. Give them your card and ask them if you might send them some story ideas. They will almost always read your pitches (unless they’re dreadful) after meeting you face to face.

You can also call and let them know you’ll be in town and try to get an appointment for a “deskside briefing” to talk about your book or product. These are really hard to get nowadays, but if you’re persistent they might give you five minutes.

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Article Tags: finding editors, HARO, pitching magazine editors, pitching magazines, ProfNet, Public Relations, reporterconnection, twitter, twitter magazine editors



Related Forum Posts
Re: Poll: Print News vs. Internet News - One thing I will continue to do from time to time is to take out subscriptions to the print versions of magazines such as the English weekly, The Spectator. I find that I do not read the online version so regularly, or when I visit the site it is just to read one or two articles. With the print version I read the whole lot, cover to cover. Also, magazines are good for those of us who use public transport. Most of the time I read a book on the tram or train, sometimes listen to audio downloads on iPod, and sometimes read magazines. The only time I read newspapers on the trains is in England!
Finding creativity - Great topic Andy! For me it's: - Going for a walk (I always try to get out at least once during the day) - Taking a shower - Reading business magazines (especially Inc and Business 2.0) - Late at night (I'm more productive / creative at night than during the day) - Relaxing with a drink at the bookstore
Men and women working together - Go for the mix Julie. The guy will be able to bring a different perspective and can help connect with your customers in a different way. I would often tag team with my female partner and if it's a male customer she does the pitch, if it's a female I do the pitch and it's worked out well for us.
How are you creative? - We often hear entrepreneurs say that they're "creative", but that could mean multiple things. For instance, if you say you're creative, does that refer to your drawing ability, musical talent or ability to think outside the box? How are you creative?
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


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