Here’s Where More Journalists Are Hanging Out

In the last 48 hours I’ve had at least four alerts of journalists doing the same thing. Ping. Another has joined. And another one has joined. What is it, you might ask? The answer is Substack, the newsletter publishing platform.

Writing newsletters ain’t anything new but there appears to be a new breed of journalists choosing to go down this route. Many writers are jumping into this field because the traditional publishing model isn’t working for them anymore. Maybe there’s fewer opportunities to cover what they’d like to be writing about. Perhaps they view publishing a newsletter as an additional revenue stream, with some asking subscribers for a reasonable £5 a month to read their words. It may well be early days for some of them but they might turn into a strong side hustle or equate to a decent salary.

It’s another place you can get a glimpse into a journalist’s life (if you want to). You might gain more of an affinity or glimpse into their lifestyle which might make them easier to pitch to. Maybe they might cover what they’re working on at the moment (like moi, sometimes), or there could be an opportunity for you or your client’s brand to be featured in the newsletter as some may be landing in the inbox of your exact target audience. It might be impossible to subscribe to all of them (time-wise or money-wise), but perhaps there’s certain writers in your sector, or some you feel more naturally associated with, that you may wish to follow.

Also, it’s always another great way to build relationships with journalists. “Oh, I read your newsletter on and xxxx” etc might catch their attention and make them feel slightly more inclined to respond.

Here’s a few journalists on Substack that have caught my eye recently:

• Kate Spicer

• Tiffanie Darke

• Caroline Criado Perez (starts from £5 a month)

• Flic Bowden-Smith

• Farrah Storr (from £6 a month)

Stop Before You Set Up This Kind Of Call With A Journalist

Photo by Nick Fewings

Hi everyone

How are you all muddling through January?

So another week, another Zoom invite. I'm rather fortunate that I've pretty fallen through the online video call cracks and unless I'm running a Power Hour, there's really no need for me to be jumping on Zoom. Phew. I can carry on conducting interviews by phone. Like we did pre-coronavirus.

However, I'm noticing that instead of just organising a phone interview, many PRs and business owners want to dive straight in for a Zoom call, often flinging it in the diary before confirming with the journalist.

One word: don't. (Ok, maybe that was two.)

Unless perhaps it's a celebrity interview, or the journalist would usually conduct the interview in person, it feels rather unnecessary to set up a Zoom call. Just because Zoom is now kind of ubiquitous with the pandemic, doesn't mean we need to be turning on the camera for every chat we have. Even for very short interviews, where I'm interviewing say one person for an article featuring seven others, I'll have founders and PRs throwing a Zoom invite in the calendar. 

I'm not the only journalist aghast when this happens; many other hacks have recoiled in horror when they see the meeting code spring up in their email. A phone call means we don't need to worry about scrubbing up or our underwear being on display in the background; we can focus on the interview instead.

When interviewing a founder recently, she started the call saying that she was so relieved I'd switched the proposed Zoom interview to a phone call. "It meant I didn't need to get out of this hammock," she laughed, speaking to me from somewhere far more tropical than the UK. 

So set up a phone call if that's what you would have done pre-pandemic. But otherwise stick to calls or just ask the journalist for their preferred format. 
 

Have a lovely rest of the week.

Thanks

Susie

Why you need to research which journalists you're pitching

Photo by Charisse Kenion

When you have a story you want to sell into the press, you'll need to work out which journalists to contact.

Don't just send it to anyone. I receive so many emails and DMs on LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram from founders and PRs who think that because I'm a journalist I'll write about them. This happens to pretty much every journalist. 📺 📻 🗞

You need to research which journalists your story might suit.

A journalist who specialises in tech? Women's issues? Education? Is your story one for the news or features desk?

Research who is writing about your/your client's competitors. Look on Google News. Buy magazines and newspapers, check out the various sections and look at the bylines to see who's writing about your industry. Pay for access to a media database.

But don't send a release off to - or contact - any journalist "just in case". Our inboxes are already bulging and it's not a great way to build relationships. It's also like contacting an electrician about a plumbing job.

If you're feeling a bit stuck on targeting and pitching journalists, my in-depth course Lessons from a Journalist: How to Secure Press Coverage covers this in more detail.