Pitching a story By JOE GRIMM

Pitching a story
By JOE GRIMM
Detroit Free Press
Recruiting and development editor

Even after 25 years of newspapering, I pitch ideas that never make it to the plate. When that happens, I have to try someone else, or go back, re-evaluate what I'm pitching and try again. Sometimes I have forgotten my own advice for pitching a story. It is:

• Pitch ideas, not topics. While the maxim is "if you can't write your idea on the back of a business card, you don't have one," editors need more than that. "Rave parties" is not a story idea. "Garage sales" is not a story idea. These are topics. A fully fleshed story idea has a news peg and answers the question, "Why are we doing this now?" The answer "because we never did it before" is lame. A story idea has news elements -- currency, importance, conflict or resolution. Editors do not deal in three-word ideas. They deal in budget lines. Get a look at the news budgets used at the newspaper for story meetings. See how the stories sound on there. Develop a budget line for your story idea.

• Prepare your pitch with a little reporting. Talk to some people. Search the newspaper's library. Is this really a new idea? You don't want to be pitching a story that was written six months ago. Do some reporting to flesh out the idea. Who is behind the story? What make it news? How is it developing? Why does it matter to our readers?

• Make the case. You want to pitch a story about a quirky little diner that is shutting after a short but successful run. It doesn't sound like much of a story -- unless you can say that the diner attracted a large clientele from the city's legal community. Or was the only place where homeless people and business people ate, side by side. Or was the only place in the city that served gazpatcho, and now people will have to drive a hundred miles to find it. Or the owner is closing shop because she is going to take the profits and sail around the world. Do enough reporting so that the editor can take this story into a news meeting and talk it up to other editors. Don't blurt out a story idea on your hunch alone. Poke around. Chances are your instincts are good, but you need to deliver some specifics.

• Understand what the newspaper is looking for. If you come up with a story that connects to one of the newspaper's key initiatives, you have something. They say they care about the well-being of children and you have a story about children having no safe place to play. You're onto something. Find a child who exemplifies that and who could be the lead for your story.

• Look at it from the editor's point of view. This is not selling out or "playing the game," this is framing your idea in a way that will strike the right chords with the newspaper and get your story into print.

• Try another angle. You've sharpened, focused and retooled. No dice. There may be another avenue. Sometimes you're pitching the wrong editor. If the metro editor won't take it, will the features editor? Could it be a photo story? There's more than one way to get an idea into print.

• Finally, explain why you think the story is important. You and the editor may have different perspectives, but you're not from different planets. Listen to the editor's questions. Find out what it will take to move your idea to the story stage. Be willing to explain, negotiate and sharpen the idea.
If your pitch falls flat, it's easy to blame it on an editor. Too easy. If your story matters to you, find a way to recast it and pitch it again so that the editors can see what you have. Don't drop the idea at the first obstacle. If you really have a good idea, it deserves more than a half-hearted pitch.
And, remember. Even I, after 25 years in the newsroom, many as an assigning editor and news editor, sometimes can't get my ideas into the paper. But I don't stop trying.