You don’t need to look at this checklist every time you make a pitch, but it provides guidelines for making a good news pitch that will grow viewership. We are a podcast, so we rarely "break" news or expose something bad unless our News section is doing something very wrong. But, you should be able to answer the questions “who cares” and “why now” no matter what you’re pitching.
Please make sure to think about the timeline when making a podcast pitch, how long will this episode be relevant?
Audience - Who cares or who should?
If you can answer yes to any of these questions, please move to the mission/impact portion.
- Is this a big enough group to make the idea worth pursuing?
- Is there a way to extend/expand interest in this subject enough to make it worth pursuing?
- If the group is small, is it influential enough to allow the story to have a significant impact? Might it save a life, change a law, or free an innocent person?
Mission/Impact- Why cover this now?
You should be able to answer “yes” to at least one of the following questions:
- Will this episode break news that holds leaders or institutions accountable?
- E.g. Does it expose discriminatory hiring practices?
- Will the episode break news that makes a concrete difference in the community?
- E.g. Does it get a beloved landmark saved? Get the city to fix a dangerous intersection?
- Will the episode tell listeners how something will directly affect their lives or the lives of their families or friends?
- E.g. What new Taxi rules mean for passengers. What emergencies your local urgent care clinic can and can’t handle
- Will the episode use extraordinary storytelling to help readers understand a consequential societal issue in new ways?
- Pod example: Fentanyl is Bad. ‘Tranq’ might be worse
- Narcain vending machines
- Written example: An American Void
- Will this episode attract an extraordinary amount of readership/engagement because it is of great interest and/or value to our readers for other reasons?
- E.g. Episodes like this have gotten great viewership in the past. Taylor Swift is visiting Umich.