By Michael Simonson, The Media Whisperer Founder

December 2020

I’ve convinced journalists from The New York Times (three times), The Washington Post (three times), The Los Angles Times (twice) and many other well known newspapers, magazines and online publications to write about my clients.

I’ve also persuaded producers from MSNBC, CNN, Fox Business Network, NBC Nightly News and a number of other cable channels, streaming platforms, radio stations and podcasts to interview my clients on the air.

This is the process I used, and continue to use, to get my clients into the news (click here to jump straight to the case studies).

The Interview

The first step I take after signing up a client is to conduct a phone interview. By the end of the call, I want to be so proficient in the client’s business that I could write an article about it.

During the interview, I often ask clients to reveal sensitive information, including how much money their business generates. Though I won’t share this information with journalists (without the client’s explicit permission), it helps me frame the pitch I’ll be sending out.

As I interview clients, I type-up/transcribe what they say, which allows me to insert their most compelling and insightful insights into my pitches. Some of my most successful campaigns were the result of quotes transcribed from interviews (see examples in the case studies at the bottom).

Transcribing an interview can be challenging if you haven’t done it before. You need to be able to ask questions, pay attention to the answers, and engage in a back-and-forth conversation while typing or writing almost everything the client says. My transcriptions are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, but I can usually decipher the notes when I write my pitches.

Anatomy of a Media Campaign, part 1 of 3: A screenshot of part of the transcription of my interview with Heidi Jo Markel, the founder of Stop Poaching Now! (pinch or click to zoom):

It’s ok if you aren’t able to type or write fast enough to transcribe your client interviews. For various reasons, I’m occasionally unable transcribe my interviews, which is why I also record the calls (with my clients’ permission) using Uberconference. You can use a cheaper tool like the Tape-a-Call app or a free recording device. Uberconference and Tape-a-Call will transcribe your recording, respectively, for free or for a very low price. If you record the interview another way, you can transcribe it with Rev (for a fee) or Otter (for free).

The Pitch

After conducting the phone interview with a client (or multiple interviews depending on how much ground there is to cover), I begin writing the pitches that I will eventually email to journalists.

The subject line

I begin the pitch writing process by coming up with approximately five to ten email subject lines. Subject line development is a vital part of the pitch writing process. While I do not know this for a fact, I presume many journalists’ inboxes are overflowing with pitches, email newsletters and spam. If they do not find your subject line compelling, they will ignore your email.

Almost all my subject lines start with “Pitch:”, so the reporter knows I am being transparent about the reason for my email (that is, to get them to write an article about my client).

Most people check emails on their phone, where they can only read the first few words of a subject line. Thus, I make sure that the first few words of my subject line are as descriptive and intriguing as possible. In total, my subject lines are usually no more than 10 to 20 words.

Another tip for writing compelling subject lines is personalization. You can personalize subject lines by doing a mail merge. A mail merge is when you upload a spreadsheet into an email platform (Mailshake is the platform I use) populated with different categories of information you want to include in your email. In my mail merge spreadsheets, I categorize journalists’ email addresses, first names, last names, full names and the outlets they write for. After uploading the spreadsheet into Mailshake, I’m able to plug each journalist’s name and outlet into my subject lines. For example, I can craft the following subject line exclusively for the (made-up) CNN producer Mike Smith:“Pitch for Mike: Bestselling author can talk to CNN about psychedelic medicine book.”

Anatomy of a Media Campaign, part 2 of 3: A screenshot of pitch subject lines I developed for for Heidi Jo Markel, the founder of Stop Poaching Now! (pinch or click to zoom):

The body

Just like with subject lines, I keep the bodies of my pitches short, since I believe journalists are too busy to spend more than a portion of a minute reading an email. I usually begin the pitch with the “Hi [First Name]” salutation, using a mail merge to tailor it to each journalist I’m pitching.

After the salutation, the first sentence of my email contains the name of my client and why they are worth writing about.

In the first or second sentence of the pitch, I extend an invitation for the journalist to interview my client. I typically personalize the offer by writing that my client is available to talk to the name of the publication or outlet the journalist works for.

For example, in the below pitches for Stop Poaching Now!, I offered journalists the opportunity to interview celebrities associated with the charity. This incentivized the journalists to conduct the interviews and to write about the charity, since celebrities tend to generate page views (and people like to talk to celebrities).

The final part of my pitch is usually one to four quotes that I pull from the transcript of the initial phone interview. This can be structured by writing “[Client]’s Talking Points:” and then listing a few bulleted quotes.

Alternatively, I start some of my pitches with an attention-grabbing quote transcribed from my phone interview with the client.

Anatomy of a Media Campaign, part 3 of 3: A screenshot of three pitches I developed for Heidi Jo Markel, the founder of Stop Poaching Now! (hit the arrow buttons to see the resulting placement in The Hollywood Reporter):

Building a contact list of journalists

I use the Muck Rack platform to build email lists of journalists (I rarely call journalists, since their cell phones are not public), which I then download to an Excel spreadsheet. Muck Rack lists email addresses for hundreds of thousands of print, broadcast, digital and audio journalists, sortable by outlet, beat, location, and a number of other categories. Whether you need to contact a New York Times politics reporter or an anchor from a small-town NBC News affiliate, there’s a decent chance Muck Rack has their contact information. The Muck Rack staff regularly updates journalists’ contact information if they switch outlets.

Muck Rack charges thousands of dollars a year to access their database. If you cannot afford to pay that much, you can hire a freelancer on Upwork to build a list for you. If you want to save even more money, you can build a contact list yourself using tools like Hunter.io (download emails of a publication’s journalists), RocketReach (download emails from LinkedIn), and Wiza (bulk download emails from LinkedIn).

HARO

With HARO, you can get your client in the news without building a contact list of journalists. HARO is a free email newsletter that gets delivered to subscribers’ inboxes three times a day, Monday through Friday. It features lists of journalists, some of whom identify themselves and some who post anonymously, seeking sources for stories they are working on. So if a HuffPost writer is working on a story about the flu, and needs to speak to a doctor who treats flu patients, the writer can post a request to speak to doctors who treat flu patients.

If you see a journalist request that your client would be perfect for, all you need to do is send an email to the address in the listing. I have gotten my clients in the news many times this way. Qwoted also lists journalist requests.

Sending the pitch

I use Mailshake to email pitches to journalists. Mailshake is an email service platform that allows you to send thousands of emails at the push of a button; seamlessly personalize subject lines and email messages; create variations of subject lines and email messages; track email open, click and response rates; and send automated follow-ups.

One of the reasons I use Mailshake is that it’s very easy to operate. The downside is that it’s relatively expensive, at $59/month. If you have a smaller budget, there are more affordable options, including Gmass and Yet Another Mail Merge.

Another benefit of Mailshake is that it allows users to send up to five email variations within one campaign. For example, if you upload a list of 100 journalists into your Mailshake email campaign, the campaign can be subdivided into five segments of twenty journalists. Each segment of twenty journalists will receive a different email with a unique subject line. This is helpful if, like me, you write multiple subject lines and pitches for your clients.

Mailshake also allows you to schedule follow-up emails within your campaigns. For my campaigns, I often schedule one to two follow-up emails a week after the previous email. Sometimes journalists ignore your original pitch, but open your follow-up. On more than one occasion, it was my follow-up email that got a journalists’ attention, and led to a placement for my client.

You need to be careful to not send too many emails at once, or else you risk having your email account marked as suspicious by Gmail and other email providers, which happens to me quite frequently. Mailshake and Gmass provide advice for scheduling your email blasts so you do not set off spam filters.

It’s also important to write your emails in a way that avoids spam filters. For example, spam filters are sensitive to emails written in all caps, that contain words and phrases like “free” and “one time offer”, and that include embedded pictures and excessive URL’s.

Unfortunately, my open rates frequently dip into the low double digits and single digits. In those cases, I create new domains and email addresses to send my pitches, a laborious and somewhat costly process that you want to avoid.

The media interview

After you email your pitches, most of the hard work is done. If a journalist is interested your pitch, he or she will email or call you, typically, to interview your client. If that’s the case, all you need to do is schedule the phone interview. Normally, I join the interview to facilitate the delivery of anything the journalist needs after the interview is over (pictures, video, documents).

After that, cross your fingers that the journalist will write about your client (or interview them on the air if it’s for broadcast).

Case Studies

Case Study 1: A New York City dentist describes the challenges of re-opening during the pandemic

In June 2020, I was assigned by the agency AMWPR to generate publicity for New York City dentist Dr. Todd Bertman. In the phone interview I subsequently scheduled, Dr. Bertman explained to me how his Greenwich Village office was coping with the Coronavirus pandemic. His office was at twenty-five percent capacity, he said, and would be at reduced capacity for another year. Bertman described how some patients were “scared to death” to come in, and detailed strategies to keep the office sterile and safe. He also talked about the struggle to secure adequate amounts of PPE for his patients and staff.

I used what I learned from our interview to write four pitches. Each pitch contained four to five of Dr. Bertman’s quotes. I sent the pitch to about 1,200 journalists from major publications and outlets. Maria Cramer, a New York Times reporter, emailed me back, inquiring about interviewing Dr. Bertman and his patients.

Cramer’s New York Times story ran a week later. In the print edition, it took up nearly a full-page, and included multiple photographs of Dr. Bertman’s office.

Case Study 2: A real estate broker’s pandemic stories echo across the world

In March 2020, AMWPR asked me to secure media coverage for Eddie Shapiro, the CEO of real estate agency Nest Seekers International. During our interview, Shapiro said that Nest Seekers’ broker Dylan Eckardt could offer better insight into rental trends during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Shapiro was right. Eckardt shared with me multiple stories of wealthy New Yorkers calling him to ask for Hamptons’ mansion rentals. They wanted to escape New York City, the pandemic epicenter, he told me.

Eckardt said in the past few weeks Nest Seekers had processed millions of dollars in transactions. He detailed stories of “CEO's and major Fortune 500 business people” calling about expensive Hamptons homes that could be sterilized before arrival. “I'm on my way to the Hamptons,” Eckardt recalled the son of a diplomat telling him. “I've got a tractor-trailer. I need a house with 9 bedrooms. I've got a blank check. Make it happen. I'm on my way.”

I typed everything Eckardt told me, quickly turned it into a pitch, and emailed Amy Gamerman, a Wall Street Journal reporter I had contacted earlier that week.

Gamerman asked to interview Eckardt. A week later, she wrote about Eckardt’s tales in an article titled “Diplomats, CEOs’ Flee to the Hamptons as Coronavirus Cases Surge in NYC”. You can read the article here.

The stories Eckardt told me got picked up by other outlets too, including Crain’s, MarketWatch, Business Insider (twice), Daily Mail (twice) and The Real Deal.

Case Study 3: An ex-cop analyzes police brutality on cable and network TV in the wake of George Floyd’s murder

After Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin brutally murdered George Floyd in late May 2020, my boss at AMWPR asked me to pitch Joe Ested, an ex-police officer client who had written a book about police brutality, to the media. Ested texted me his analysis of the Floyd’s killing, which I turned into a pitch that I emailed to reporters and cable TV producers.

My initial pitch was ignored, but a follow-up email got the attention of an MSNBC producer, who booked Ested for three segments in one June weekend; he was booked on MSNBC again a short time later.

Over the next couple months, I interviewed Ested about other topics related to police violence, which I turned into more pitches that I distributed to the media. As a result of those pitches, I was able to repeatedly book Joe on CNN and OAN, as well as on NBC Nightly News and Cheddar. After Ested appeared on MSNBC, my boss booked him on Fox News Channel; his Fox interviews, in which he debated former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik, were covered by Talking Points Memo and Media Matters. I also booked an interview for Ested with a Washington Post writer, who quoted him in an article.