How to Pitch Series: NUVO Magazine, Katie Nanton
March 19, 2015 | By: DCI
In this post we ask NUVO Magazine Editor, Katie Nanton what makes a pitch interesting enough for her to run a story.
Katie is a Vancouver-based writer and the managing editor of NUVO Magazine for whom she pens stories about travel, the arts, culture and more. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram @katienanton. So let’s discover what’s going on in Western-Canada.
What makes a story interesting for your outlet?
Generally speaking, we are not on the hunt for trending topics but for stories with substance, longevity, and quality. When it comes to travel, we value atypical, off-the-beaten-path adventures and rare experiences. A story also needs to be the right fit for our editorial calendar make-up as we rarely repeat subject matter.
What elements influence whether or not you read a pitch?
Concise, personalized pitches with accompanying visuals that get to the point early. Still, content is king: it is not how you pitch so much as what you are pitching.
What is an example of the best/worst pitch you have received in the past six months
Best: Short, sweet, tailored, editor’s name spelled correctly—and, with the magic of “perfect timing”, it filled a gap for a specific column that needed filling.
Worst: There are a lot, but generally speaking a pitch frustrates when it is wildly off-target for our publication, then the sender follows up more than twice. After one follow-up, it can be considered a no. Not all pitches can be answered. Not even the best ones. That said, a second “reminder” e-mail is usually appreciated; a third is not. Also, voicemails are not as effective as some think.
Should PR professionals be incorporating social media ready content in their pitches for you? If so, what do you need?
All relevant social media handles, and images, are appreciated, though no editor I know would ever use a “suggested tweet”. Our job is to come up with those words, so no need to include them.
How should PR professionals tailor their pitches to appeal to Canadian media?
This is a difficult question to answer because we at NUVO prefer that pitches are not tailored to “Canadian” audiences. If there is that obvious Canadian link, we’ll notice it, but we consider our readers well-travelled urbanites. We live in a global village and our readers have an understanding and appreciation of that, so overall we want internationally-derived, NUVO-relevant content.
Do you have any advice you would like to share with tourism boards on how to work best with NUVO specifically?
As a quarterly publication, we only have so much real estate in-book. Truth be told, sometimes there is no room for all the great stories (that’s why it’s wonderful to also have our website, NUVOmagazine.com, with additional original content). Also, follow-ups are appreciated, but please have patience. If something is of interest we have not forgotten about it, there are simply a lot of other factors at play that we are juggling—along with the hundreds of daily e-mails that we know you get as well.