Tania Gomez has had 10 years of experience in the magazine publishing industry. Before being appointed the deputy editor of CLEO she was the deputy editor on Girlfriend, and previously worked on youth titles such Total Girl and K-Zone. She has also written for the Sun Herald and Famous magazine and holds a masters degree in journalism from UTS.
Q1: What makes a good media release pitch?
It’s creative, succinct and gives the journalist a straightforward idea of the event/product being presented to them.
Q2: How do you go about finding media contacts?
I think it’s something that builds up as you go along. You meet people along the way. I have been known to make media contacts after initially being sent a media release, but I’ve also sought out contacts as the need arises.
Q3: During your time as journalist, what is the best pitch you have seen?
I’ve been working in media so long, it’s hard to remember! Generally I find the technology companies such as Sony, Samsung etc always have quite effective pitches.
Q4: What is your pet hate about people submitting press releases?
Follow up phone calls to see if I’ve received said press release and if I wanted to do something with it. A lot of journalists I know find this irritating. I know it’s part of the whole PR process, but generally journalists are trained to follow up a story – if we wanted to follow it up, we would have. And also people who send me completely irrelevant press releases for the title I work for – they obviously haven’t even picked up the magazine!
Q5: For those pitching at the event, how can they impress you?
Creativity is always a big plus. But I’m always really impressed by people who have obviously taken the time to get to know the title I work for and tailor their pitch accordingly.
What did you think of this advice or did you have a question? make a comment below.
Pitch your press release to media, like Tania from CLEO Magazine, at one of our coming events in Sydney.
Pitch to Media
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