#general

I'll chime in from the agency side (have done lots of work w/ pubs) -- I have no idea what that means lol.

Sure, asking for some pitches isn't that unusual

Can you say what the pub is?

adding the magical throat clearing that we're not trying to light anyone up, but, facilitate a learning experience

I have pitched articles and stories to loads of publications (with some success) and have never seen or heard of a request for a deck. Like a pitch deck? For your story?

I’m as confused as you are.

maybe the person requesting this has a PPT fetish

WAIT I got it! .

Basically the subheading. I’ve never heard it called that but it seems like an old newspaper phrase. Like a nut graf basically.

TIL

Former journalist here. This is correct. Basically they're saying they want you to frame your pitch in a way that cuts out all the flowery PR bullshit that tends to appear in press releases/pitches, and demonstrates you understand their publication and audience. They care less about your pitch and more about how the story fits into their editorial lineup, especially if they need to pitch/assign it to editors above them.

The fact that they replied at all is a good sign though.

correction: I sent it off without the ‘deck’ or subheading. But my pitch was super tight and contained 0 PR bullshit. So I guess I now wait and see

Got it! It's kind of weird/annoying they wouldn't specify the format they want in the call for stories though.

Thanks for the intel though!

dek

hek