An announcement states something happened. A pitch explains something that can happen. A pitch is intended for the person who sells said pitch to the editor by lunchtime. He or she also happens to be the person who deleted forty unopened emails. Shelley rejected the use of the term “pitch” prior to her seminar, claiming that pitches were announcements. This was understandable, as she was unfamiliar with the nuance involved with the difference between pitches and announcements.
The writer first reads the outlet. The way the reporter covers a story, how the last article was published, the form the piece takes, etc. A pitch that omits all these things is a press release with a greeting, and as you can imagine, desks do the same.
Whether or not your news is good is irrelevant to the reporter. They are assessing if your news is a story their editor will publish this week. That is a completely separate evaluation. The best way to persuade reporters to run your story is to provide evidence that you have, a unique angle, and an idea of what that publication typically prints.
Some pitch recipients are now journalists, and many have Tweeted about the same person writing pitches. These pitches have colon-based subject lines along with opening adjective complements and three bullet points — usually that company’s boilerplate. Some pitch filters don’t even read letters with that format.
The writer does not write until they have read the outlet. They see the tempo and pattern of the pitches that have been running, and more importantly, which writers just filed stories. News that would be of interest to a trade weekly and to a national business desk may be identical, but what one would see as a pitch would be entirely different for the other. Once the ‘pitch’ is filed as the ‘headline’ the reporter may reasonably be expected to file, the true work of reporting may begin.
When the sample is small, and volume is large, coverage is the only metric. Statistics are beat by the judgment call. We often write two angles for the same story and send each to an identical group of outlets. If neither gets published, the focus should not be on the subject lines, because the issue is likely to be the story, and the sensible solution is to cover a different story.
One rate, whatever the format: $10 per 100 words. You are paying for the writer’s time and judgement, so the price scales with the words rather than with a package tier.
| Typical PR outreach | Words | Writing | Fee (1%) | You pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single pitch | 250 | $25 | $0.25 | $25.25 |
| Pitch plus press note | 600 | $60 | $0.60 | $60.60 |
| Campaign kit of four angles | 1,100 | $110 | $1.10 | $111.10 |
The writer receives 100% of the writing price. Our 1% fee is added on top of it, and 0.5% is donated to tree planting. Full pricing breakdown.
We match the brief to a writer who has already worked in that subject area. If you have worked with an Articled writer before and want them again, name them and we will check their availability first.
Up to 3 days. The writer has to read around the subject before writing it, so we quote honestly rather than promising an hour. If your deadline is tighter, say so in the brief and we will tell you before you pay whether we can meet it.
A release is a different type of order in reports and editorials, and there are many stories that contain no orders. A release can be combined with a brief. If a brief combined with a release is pitched, reporters aren’t likely to be irritated by reordering paragraphs as the release is the thing reporters complain about most.
We do not sell media lists. We do sell a validation service wherein one of our writers will review your Media List for the story you are pitching. In a given week, a good pitch resonates with fewer than forty people. More targeted, less volume is the most effective method for pitching. Most good stories with little to no buzz are the result of mismatched lists.
Completely. Copyright transfers to you on delivery, with no attribution requirement and no licence back to us. Nothing written for you is resold, repurposed or republished.
Reviews from completed, paid orders in this category.
Email subject lines, which clear security quickly and interchangeably, are the most expensive opportunistic part of the email. That’s why I’ve asked for a second set. The replacements were an improvement, but I still wrote two of the twelve myself. The bodies, where there was the most potential to improve the email, were worth the money.
Six hundred words with nothing in them that exists purely to reach six hundred words. Our newsletter has a hard scroll limit and every writer before this one padded the middle to hit the count. This one just stopped when it was done. J L
12 members responded to the first newsletter and actually had something to say about the framing workshop. Our newsletter had never received a response, so that’s the benchmark I’m using. The half a percent that goes to tree planting is a nice line for our members even though it wasn’t the purpose of our order.
We do not ask you to take the no-AI promise on trust. Each draft is run through these platforms and the reports are attached to your delivery email.
Originality.aiAI detection + plagiarism
GPTZeroAI detection
TurnitinAI detection + similarity
CopyleaksAI detection + plagiarism
Winston AIAI detection
ZeroGPTAI detection
SaplingAI detection
Content at ScaleAI detection
Send the brief, get a human draft back within 3 days. No account, no subscription, no AI.
$10 per 100 words · all of it to the writer · 0.5% to trees