I had a reporter from a large local news station contact me today, and I was left disappointed.
To maintain my ethical integrity, I will break the message down into its two parts instead of actually sharing what the message said.
“(1) This is what we think we know, (2) we would like to do a story on that. (3) You can reach me here.
(4)Thanks…”
There are many reasons I am sharing this. All are important.
1. (1) This is what we think we know
He was completely off! He knew nothing. It showed that he had done absolutely no research. If you’re not going to do the research, don’t state that you know something. Be blunt and say that you know nothing and want to be informed.
If, however, the information you think you know can’t be found online at all, then at least say that you have looked (and you better have looked hard!) and couldn’t find the information.
2. There was no introduction. Just because you’re a reporter doesn’t mean that someone is going to respond to you. If anything, it makes you seem like a robot, just working the grind of news writing. I can’t imagine what sort of story this reporter will write.
3. (2) we would like to do a story on that
Is that a question? Because if it is, I’m going to opt out. Say you are writing a story on that, not that you want to.
Lastly, there was no call for action in his email. In my head I thought, “Well, great, mr.reporter (purposely in lowercase), I’m glad to hear you have a sense of something false and would like to do a story on it.”
Pitch your writing topic to your editor or boss, not to who is supposed to be your story.
If I was actually able to respond to this reporter (I wasn’t able to, it went to my supervisor), I would have emailed him back with two words.
Good luck.
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