The JK stuff was REALLY glitchy with my comments so I changed back. Now Disqus won't import that comments from the other system. **Sigh**
Essentially I said this: there is no "template" for writing pitches. As an editor, though, I would never hire someone who couldn't boil their story into one sentence with a paragraph, maybe two. There's not really an excuse for a writer to *not* do that as it is our craft :)
Pablo
· 5 months ago
True. True. So would this be a decent pitch?--
Sentence: The fiscal collapses in the American news industry can be reduced to the worship of news-making over the financial incentives of fine American storytelling.
Pitch: This story begins in the Washington D.C. Scripps-Howard newsroom during Barack Obama's inauguration and proceeds through my hiring and firing at the St. Louis Beacon; exodus in the blogosphere; and arrival in the Google News search via The Huffington Post. It will be written in the tradition of fine American storytelling, offering historical & procedural analyses of news-making & storytelling en route to the conclusion that great storytellers create followings that in 2009 have and can finance news-making.
?
Brad_King
· 5 months ago
I would suggest that you define "fine American storytelling" means. I don't really know what the specific thesis is - IOW, what is it about YOU that offers a template for the greater story (which you just suggest). You haven't given anything here that suggests you've done the research which will allow you to say: this is the path that many others have experienced (e.g. numbers or qualitative research).
That's what I would do to fix it up. Add some concrete details to the pitch graf that allow you to make the broader argument (which is the last sentence in that pitch)
Pablo
· 5 months ago
Right on. Thank you, sir. I've certainly done the research. Now, I pitch a the heavy story. Cheers again!
All Comments
Essentially I said this: there is no "template" for writing pitches. As an editor, though, I would never hire someone who couldn't boil their story into one sentence with a paragraph, maybe two. There's not really an excuse for a writer to *not* do that as it is our craft :)
Sentence: The fiscal collapses in the American news industry can be reduced to the worship of news-making over the financial incentives of fine American storytelling.
Pitch: This story begins in the Washington D.C. Scripps-Howard newsroom during Barack Obama's inauguration and proceeds through my hiring and firing at the St. Louis Beacon; exodus in the blogosphere; and arrival in the Google News search via The Huffington Post. It will be written in the tradition of fine American storytelling, offering historical & procedural analyses of news-making & storytelling en route to the conclusion that great storytellers create followings that in 2009 have and can finance news-making.
?
That's what I would do to fix it up. Add some concrete details to the pitch graf that allow you to make the broader argument (which is the last sentence in that pitch)