Episode 140 | Media Pitching with Avis Jones DeWeever

Maureen Werrbach

All right, so today, I am on to share another clip from an Exchange Membership training that was done with Dr. Avis Jones DeWeever who’s an expert on media contributions, how to get into the media. So I’m really excited to share this this piece of the training, she brings up some really great points. We all know what our strengths are. And if we’re thinking about contributing in the media, whether it’s through news outlets, or through blogs, or large podcasts, she gets some really helpful tips as to how to make sure that we are outreaching to them in the right sort of way so that we increase our likelihood of actually getting a yes to that pitch.

One of the things that she talks about in this episode, or in this training, I should say is the idea of knowing those news outlets or those media outlets, and doing research on them before you reach out to them with your picture your topic or what you want to talk about, and really doing your homework on that specific source itself.

You know, just as an example, there are like Wall Street Journal will write lengthy articles. They don’t tend to write, you know, one to two minute reads. And so if you wanted to contribute to Wall Street Journal, if you’re sending them a short clip of some sort or short, couple paragraph, piece of information, you’re less likely to get it because that’s not their style. So she talks about learning and doing your research on that media outlet, so that when you’re pitching, you’re keeping that in mind so that you and that outlet are aligned. And that increases the likelihood of them accepting your pitch, how important that really is. And so I want you to take a listen, and I want you to give me your feedback afterwards, about what you think about this.

Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever 

Determine the right topic to pitch.

This is very important to get because I think sometimes we are so excited about something that we’re studying, or we’re so excited about our particular passion or what we’re working on at the moment that we don’t think about it from the standpoint of that decision maker on the other end of that pitch, right? That person that has the opportunity to either open up that velvet rope or keep it closed, right? So what I want you to do is when you’re making those decisions, I want you to focus on pitching topics that are what I call mediagenic.

Okay. So what do I mean by that? That means they need to be newsworthy.

You know, sometimes, especially, it’s very true for a lot of us who love what we do. We’re very passionate about what we do. We’re great at what we do. We’re like a gazillion miles deep in what we do. And so, we sometimes assume that of course, everybody would want to know this. And they might want to know some aspect of it, but you’re the expert. So what you need to figure out is how can I take some aspect of what I am immersed in as expert in, you know, have all sorts of ability to talk about, you know, how can I take some sliver of that, some aspect of that, and connect it to a newsworthy event, or pitch it in a way that it can then be something that can be, you know, interesting to other people who have no idea, have no background in this subject area whatsoever, and can be breaking in some way you like can really can really attract attention. So it needs to be newsworthy, not just interesting, I guess that’s a short way of saying that.

You also need to align with the media platform that you are pitching (with the G), you need to align with the media platform that you in fact, are pitching.

And what do I mean by that? Take some time to do some due diligence to actually look at the platforms that you are looking to pitch before you pitch them. I had a client the other day who, you know, really wanted to get a piece published on the oprah.com website, so not the O, at the Oprah Magazine that you see in the store, but their website, they have a virtual version of it. And she sent me her article as you sent the pitch like I normally suggest, if you’re pitching for publication. And especially in a situation like that, you not only send the pitch, you actually should cut and paste what you want them to publish in the actual email, and that can like speed up the process. So she sent me all of that. But what she wanted to publish there, it was like four pages single space. And I mean, my feedback was her with her was, you know, they’re not even gonna look. As soon as they open that email, they’re not even going to read the pitch. Because if you go to their website, and this is the it’s not just them.

This is true with any magazine, particularly in the non-academic space, I will say, let me just make that caveat. And the non-academic space, if there is a web version of that publication, the contributions, they are a lot shorter than they are and the print version of that publication. So for example, if you’re looking to publish to Forbes, the articles that they accept for their web version are ton shorter than what you will typically find in the traditional Forbes magazine.

So in other words, what she provided was not appropriate for that platform.

And I want you to think about that when you are pitching as well. Make sure that there’s congruence between what you are pitching and the platform that you are pitching it to. And that was a very stark example, because it’s a, you know, print publication platform. So you can easily look at things like about what the word count is, right? But even when I’m talking about like a podcast, or a television show, or something like that, take some time to consume that platform a little bit, listen to the podcast before you pitch it, watch the television show before you pitch it. So you can get a sense of the type of stories that they like to have on those shows. And if what you are pitching is in fact in alignment with what they normally have.

Now, I’m not saying that you need to just pitch what they’ve already done, because that’s not a great idea, either. You know, like if they’ve just had a particular show on a topic that you want to pitch, they’re not going to do the very same topic in short order. So you definitely want to reach, you want to approach it from a different angle. But definitely don’t pitch something that’s a gazillion miles away from everything that they typically cover, because that should be a clue to you, that that’s not the right fit, they’re not interested in that type of topic for their audience. And when we send their producer a pitch like that, the first thing it screams out to them is that you don’t read our stuff, you don’t watch our show you don’t listen to our podcasts. And to be honest with you, that’s rather offensive to them.

So you know, you have to make sure that what you are pitching aligns with the type of content that they have on that platform in order for you to even be given a serious consideration as to whether or not they will actually accept that pitch.

This last point I want to make is, is about making sure that what you’re pitching serves the interests of the producer or the editor.

And so basically, those are the decision makers depending upon what type of platform you’re pitching, a print platform or a video audio platform. What I mean by serving the interests of the producer or the editor is at the end of the day, their job is to produce content that their customers, the people who, for example, watch their show or listen to their podcast or buy their newspapers. They want to produce content, they want to have content on their platforms that those people will want.

Okay, so the people who they are serving is in essence, their customer. The people who watch the show, listen to the podcast, read their content. You know, that’s who they’re serving. And this is why it’s so important that you consume those places before you pitch because it’ll give you a sense of the types of things that their customers like. And so you want to make sure that when you’re pitching, you have that in mind that this is not just about you, you know? And it’s definitely not you trying to, in essence, have an ad–cause that’s like, noticeable from a bazillion miles away.

It’s not like trying to get an ad for free, okay?

So it’s about providing information that will be useful to the people who consume that platform. That is what that is what’s going to get a yes. And that’s going to create a great relationship with that producer or the editor so that they will, likely say yes to you time and time again, because you’re making their job easier. And their job is to make sure that they have more eyeballs on whatever it is that they produce, if they are in television, or if they are in the publication space, or more ears to what they’re doing if they’re in podcasts, and/or radio. So if you can help them do that you will be their best friend. And you’ll not only get your pitch accepted, you’ll be invited back again and again.

Maureen Werrbach 

Okay, so what do you guys think? You can find Dr. Avis Jones DeWeever online. She’s done a podcast episode with me before, a few months back on media pitching that you can listen to as well. And if you’re interested, you can listen to this full training on media pitching on you can listen to the full training on the Exchange membership site at members dot the group practice exchange dot com. She drops knowledge bombs and has amazing courses out there for people who are interested in upping their media pitching game and getting into the media. So if you’re a group practice owner looking to get out there in a different sort of way through media outlets, I highly suggest looking into the things that Dr. Jones DeWeever is putting out there because it’s a ton of useful information. So I hope you enjoyed this and I’ll see you next week and the Group Practice Exchange Podcast. Thanks for listening!