Comment by Mystalic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Mystalic | Hacker News Reader

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Actually, this is pretty much in line with the advice I give to entrepreneurs when they're pitching me for a story on Mashable.

The big things to remember:

- We get hundreds of emails per day. I can barely keep up, so I need to use personal filters to weed out stories I'm going to follow up on. That means I trash long emails, emails that don't get to the point, and anything with buzzwords.

- Best thing is always an intro from somebody I know about the company/product. Cold pitches have a much lower chance of working.

- Short, pithy emails. Get to the point in less than a paragraph and then ask if I want to learn more.

- Know the audience. Mashable is a consumer-centric publication -- we don't cover a lot of enterprise news or startups. Our readers DEVOUR great consumer products that help them manage their digital lives though.

- Know the reporter. Mashable has two reporters that focus on startups. Most of my time is spent editing, which means I have less time than I'd like to write about startups. Some reporters focus on entertainment, others on mobile. Know which one focuses on what and try to get the appropriate person to pitch.

- Don't pitch via Facebook, Twitter or anything but email or in-person if you're at an event and find me. Even then though, I'll ask you to email me in case I want to forward it to another reporter.

~ Ben

Wow I did not expect to hear from the Editor-At-Large at Mashable. Thanks so much for the comment - really valuable to stuff :) Interesting point about not pitching via Facebook. Maybe I should remove that. Do you think that it goes over the line, or is it just annoying?

Use Facebook to figure out who our mutual connections are, but don't send the pitch in a Facebook Message. Facebook is my personal space and I like managing my pitches in one central location.

Other journalists may have different feelings, but I think most of us prefer email.

Now that I think about it I wonder if there's an opening for an app that helps journalists manage and keep track of pitches.

Does something like that exist? I feel like email isn't necessarily the most efficient system for it.

It's a potentially neat idea, but keep in mind that many people already use their email for such a purpose. Rather than a specialized app for managing and tracking pitches, consider building something that integrates into mail clients ala Rapportive?

I've been trying this form to try to avoid email chains. It doesn't always work but at least gets some basic information.

http://tomio.wufoo.com/forms/pitch-a-story-to-tomio/

I've thought about it -- I know one or two make Google Docs for pitches. Problem is getting the people who email me to change their behavior.

What about being able to copy paste code that would hook the submit a story form on your site into the CRM?

I have been told catchy image or quick video would make it than short text. Also heard that money plays a role (You won't be covered unless you get funded enough ). Thanks for the pointers.

Having a quick video explanation makes it easier for me to explain your product to my audience, so yes, that sometimes works.

As for funding, I sometimes use that as a barometer of how "legitimate" you are. So yeah, if I see Sequoia is investing in you, I will perk up a bit, because I trust their judgement in picking good startups. But it isn't a deal-breaker by any means.

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