You have a story idea. Now what?

There is a story you want to tell. But how do you convince an editor to green light it? That’s the art of the pitch.

The article below is adapted from material created as part of News Decoder’s EYES project — Empowering Youth through Environmental Storytelling — in collaboration with The Environment and Human Rights Academy (formerly The Climate Academy) and the Young Educators European Association, co-funded by the European Union. It is part of News Decoder’s open access learning resources. You can find more of our learning resources here. Learn how you can incorporate our resources and services into your classroom or educational program.

When I was a young reporter I wrote for a weekly newspaper and once a week I had to pitch four story ideas to three editors who sat in a semicircle staring at me. 

It was an intimidating process, especially when one would invariably say: “What else have you got?”

Basically, that meant they hated my ideas. 

All journalists go through the process of pitching their stories, whether they are staff writers for a news organization or freelancers who work independently. Nowadays, most pitches are sent by text or email. You know when an editor doesn’t like it when they don’t reply back or email you: What else have you got?

So how do you get an editor to greenlight a story? At News Decoder professional journalists pitch us stories all the time. So do high school students. We’d love to publish them all but we can’t. So let’s walk you through how we determine a pitch to be strong. 

Paint a picture of the story you will tell.

A pitch is a short summary of what story you’re going to tell, what question you’re going to answer and why it’s important for your audience. It should convince an editor that this story fits their publication and that their audience will want to listen to it, read it or watch it. 

If you have already eaten a lot of cake another piece will make you sick. Maybe you are trying to stay healthy and sugary foods aren’t healthy. But maybe you have eaten healthy all week and deserve a treat. Or it is a new cake recipe your friend came up with. Or it’s your birthday. All those are great reasons to have that piece of cake now.

Identify a “news angle”

The achievement of your healthy diet, or the new recipe or your birthday are like news angles. They are the reason you will eat cake now. They also answer the question: What’s so special about this piece of cake?

If you think of a story topic like this cake, the angle will define which direction the topic will take.

You could tell your editor that your angle is that the carbon tax is new and experts think it might not be as effective in cutting emissions as politicians promise. Or the carbon tax is the latest in a series of taxes imposed by the government and people are so sick of taxes, they might vote in an anti-tax political party in the next election. Or maybe next week is a big anniversary for the environmental group that pushed for the tax in the first place — it’s kind of like their birthday.

If your pitch was basically, “I think the carbon tax would make a great story,” your editors would likely pass on it. But maybe these pitches would catch their attention: 

• A carbon tax just passed in Denmark marks a new way of lowering carbon emissions and other governments and political parties are watching to see if it works. If it doesn’t, it could set back the push for clean energy not only in Denmark, but across Europe.
• The carbon tax in Denmark is a gamble on the part of the country’s environmental advocates. Increasing numbers of voters believe they are already overtaxed. If it isn’t as effective as promised it could push people to vote for conservative, anti-tax politicians.
• Next month is the twentieth anniversary of Denmark’s Green Party. But amid the celebrations is some real concern. The environmental movement has placed a big bet on the new carbon tax — which has garnered significant opposition. 

If it’s difficult to find an angle for your topic, start telling people around you about your topic and about what you’ve discovered through your research. What kinds of questions do they ask about it? What do they seem to be interested in? Do they ask you something that makes you think, hmm, that’s a good question! If so, then you’ve found your angle. 

Narrow your focus

There might be so many angles you end up all over the place. Editors won’t okay a story that they think will come in as a confusing mess. So it is also important to narrow your focus. In telling stories we are often tempted to tell people everything, but listeners and readers have short attention spans and limited appetites. How much cake can you eat in one sitting? 

So think about what you want the focus of your story to be. It’s about a carbon tax. But is your focus on the effectiveness of it in lowering emissions? In that case you want to interview climate scientists. Is the focus about the politics of the tax? Then you want to talk to political experts. Maybe the story is about the cost of the tax on the economy. Then you will want to talk to economists and everyday taxpayers. 

Before pitching the story, consider the one thing the story will be about, how you will focus on it and why that is important or interesting or relevant to the audience of the publication or show.

Don’t worry that your focus is too narrow. You can use something small happening in a small place to tell a big story.

What happens in Denmark could be emblematic of what is happening elsewhere or will likely happen elsewhere. The effects of one tax in one place could help explain the challenges of funding climate solutions in general. 

Identify the problem and who it affects.

The smaller the story, the easier it is for people to consume it and understand it and that is what your editors will look for in a pitch. 

It is important to identify what is at stake and who will be affected by the problem at the heart of your story – the “stakeholders”. In a story about a carbon tax, are the people most affect the companies who pollute? Is it the taxpayers? Is it the environmentalists frustrated by the lack of action on climate change? Is it the politicians who risk losing the next election or the opposition candidates who might win office?

Finally, do some initial research so you can present to the editors some information that shows the importance of the story and come up with a plan for how you will report it. Before an editor okays a story they want to be confident you can actually do it. 

Here is how to construct a strong pitch:

1. State what the problem is and why this is an important story now.: Remember to narrow your focus. Editors won’t likely okay pitches that are too vague or broad. 
2. State how you plan to find a possible solution
3. State the main data and the important context – What it is that makes this story important or particularly interesting or relevant to the audience.
4. Who the problem affects.
5. The news angle: Why is it relevant now
6. How you plan to go about reporting the story– the data or reports you will seek the people you plan to interview.
7. The big question your story will answer.

Be concise

Here is the real challenge: You have to keep it all short. Your pitch needs to show your editor that you don’t waste words and that you won’t turn in a story that’s a long, tedious, confusing read. Try to keep it to less than 300 words. 

Be clear. Say only what you need to say. Don’t make your pitch flowery or use exclamation points. Keep to facts and keep out assumptions or biases. Don’t try too hard to convince. If the story idea is a good one it should convince on its own. 

Finally, let’s give you an example. Imagine you are my editor and I am pitching a story about how to pitch a story. Here is my pitch. It is 194 words. 

Young people around the world are itching to tell stories about the problems they see around them. But they find the pitching process intimidating. They’ve got big ideas but don’t know how to come up with an idea out of those big ideas that would grab the attention of an editor. Their story pitches end up too broad, vague and with too many angles.

The result is that important stories don’t get told. I plan to talk to editors about the pitching process and identify the elements that make a strong pitch and the common problems they see in weak pitches. I will also rely on information put together by News Decoder’s Engaging Youth in Environmental Storytelling (EYES) project. 

The story is timely because 19 October is World Mental Health Day and reporting and telling non-fiction stories is a great way for young people to think through the big problems they face and that they see in the world around them and to talk to experts who can help them put it all into context. 

Ultimately, my story will answer this question: Why do some stories get published but other, equally important stories don’t?