Feature journalists on how to pitch a feature
Your story idea has to
stand out, be different and - don’t pitch on topics the newspaper has
already covered – these are just some of the tips from Roisin Ingle, daily
features writer with the Irish Times in this very interesting podcast from
MediaHQ. Roisin also advises that you
read the features in the Irish Times regularly so you’re familiar with the kind
of stuff they do. CAPS and exclamation
marks are a complete no-no, she advises – I have to say I’m 1000% guilty of
overuse of the latter.
To get John Meagher’s attention – he’s a feature writer
with the Irish Independent – make sure there is a strong human interest element
and that it’s a long read. He also likes
to meet the subject of the feature in their own environment. He finds the use of text speak in emails
“offensive” and talked about the trend for much longer features (100k+ words) in
both Irish and UK newspapers.
Henry McKean of Newstalk urges pitch-ees (my word, not
his) to get to the point quickly when phoning him. In an hour, he’d average about 40 story ideas
via email, most of which won’t make it to air, including his own ideas, he says. Henry has to sell the better ideas on to his
producer or an editor.
This podcast is 30 minutes long but well worth a listen.
The Best 5 Ads?
This Guardian ‘Ad Break’ features 5 TV ads – for cancer
research, the Danish ballet, a Barclay’s soccer promotion, Fairtrade and German
sex toys. The latter is the most
entertaining and is funny – wonder when these kind of ads will air here?! The Barclays ad, “Alan Shearer’s first game”
is a lovely story, well told which harks back to his first game. Same applied to the Fairtrade “Tea Farmer”
which uses a real farmer to tell how his life and that of his community has
changed for the better. I don’t like the
Danish ballet ad at all, it’s grim and joyless and I’m not sure at all about
the Cancer Research “Race for Life” ad which renacts an old battle scene – but perhaps
people who have cancer find it motivating – I’m sure some or many cancer
sufferers were researched in advance of this being produced and that they
related to it – take a look…….
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