As someone who spent more than 10 years in television news, I know that pitching a story to the media is as much of an art as it is a science. Gone are the days of blast-faxing your information to every media outlet in the free world! Today, it is all about contacts. If you don’t have contacts, your chances of gaining coverage for your story drop considerably. Clients hire TVG every day because we have those contacts. We know the art involved; the best times to pitch stories and the reporters, producers and editors who would be most interested. Without contacts and inside information (this isn’t the stock exchange, insider information is allowed) your story may never see the light of day.

We also have a good idea of the kinds of stories that will grab the media’s attention. We help you put your message together and work with you so you can be heard. And, you must pick what you pitch and to whom, carefully. Send too many duds and your emails will be start to be deleted without as much as a glance beyond the subject line.

Success is measured daily. The media must do a newscast, print another paper or upload a new story to their Web site 24 hours a day. In 2007, news departments are not expanding. Media outlets are consolidating, just like the rest of corporate America; they are forced to do more with less. The easier you can make the media’s job, the better. If they can shoot photos or video and do interviews in one location, you’ve saved them time and money.

As I said, media pitching is as much of an art, as it is a science. It’s all about who you know. And, you know TVG!

Contact us at tvg@vandivergroup.com or send comments to blog@vandivergroup.com.