Perfect Pitch - How to Score Earned Media Interviews

A former CNN Anchor describes how to capture an assignment desk's attention

by Anna Hovind

Any good pro baseball pitcher will tell you that you need more than one weapon in your arsenal – a knuckle ball, a curve ball, a fast ball – you get the idea. The same goes for pitching the media.  A few new, exciting and different pitches get better results than just throwing out the same thing time after time. 

The same old pitch that worked great last year won’t fly this year, because stations are always looking for something new. To help you get to first base, here are a few things to consider for that perfect pitch.

Hot or Not? 

Is this brand new, never-heard-before information that’s hot off the presses? If so, the media will LOVE you. But try to re-package a 6-month old study and call it “new” and you’ll get nothing but crickets. In the world of news, something that happened yesterday is already getting old, and if it happened last week, it’s downright ancient.  So make sure your story is timely.

Old or New?

Living with diabetes is a story that appears year after year, and the media will pass if you pitch them the exact same story, one year later.  But what if you have a brand spanking new approach?  Let’s say you have an expert who can discuss the coolest new apps that put a high-tech spin on disease management, or awesome new technology that will revolutionize blood glucose monitoring or insulin delivery? Now that’s a new angle, and a bookable story!

News or Commercial?

There are commercials, and there is news. Know the difference. Outlets are always interested in an interview with genuine news value. But if your expert mentions your product or the sponsor in every answer, that, my friends, has crossed the line into the land of the commercial. Stations won’t give their precious air time away for free to promote your product --that’s why they sell commercials. If you are lucky enough to get the media to cover your story, once they realize you’re trying to get a free commercial, they will either cut the interview short, choose not to run it at all, or else edit out all commercial references and run your story without your talking points.  In each case, you get zero ROI. Even worse, you’ve seriously damaged your credibility, and along with it, your chances of booking future interviews with that same outlet.

So remember, a pitch is more than tossing out just anything and expecting the media to bite. It’s what you put into that pitch that makes the difference between striking out or hitting a home run.

Anna Hovind is an Executive Producer with Firstline Creative & Media in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to Firstline, Anna worked as an anchor at CNN, appearing on Headline News, CNN International, CNN Airport Network and CNN Radio. She can be found on LinkedIn.