Ben Nicholls: What the Newsroom Actually Wants
Most PR pitches die on arrival in a newsroom, and the reason they die is the same reason the machines cannot use the coverage that survives.
So this chapter opens.
What does this chapter argue?
He writes from both chairs: picture desks at The Sun and the Daily Mail and creative direction at Metro.co.uk, then co-founding Jam Press and founding JamPrime. The deadline is the whole job, he says. In the first ten seconds a desk needs a story, a specific, real names with titles, a picture or number that carries the piece, and company facts that drop straight into the copy.
The paragraph a machine can lift is the paragraph a sub-editor would write anyway, and brands that do not supply it leave journalists to guess. His advice is to pitch the story, attach copy-ready facts that never change between pitches, offer a named person with a real title, and respect the deadline.
SOURCE
Summarised from the text of this chapter. Every sentence on this page traces to the chapter's own lines; the facts behind the site are on the record.
How does the chapter open and close?
It opens with the line quoted at the top of this page, and runs to two printed subheadings before it closes.
CLOSING LINE
Give the desk the story and the facts. The desk will give the machines the paragraph.
What are the chapter's sections?
The chapter has two printed subheadings, in this order:
- What a desk needs in the first ten seconds
- Why the machines and the newsroom want the same thing
Which terms and people does the chapter name?
The chapter uses none of the glossary terms.
PEOPLE NAMED
Jam Press, JamPrime, The Sun, Metro.co.uk and Daily Mail.
Where does it sit in the book?
- Before it: Paul Truscott: Reading a Campaign Like a Chart
- After it: Take Action
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