Pitch to me! A guide
Everything you need to know about pitching your story to me
I was planning on writing a guide to pitching to me later in the year but one benefit of being a lot more “visible” online since I started this Substack (and banging on about it posting on LinkedIn) is that I’m getting a lot more pitches.
Loads of the pitches I receive are about really great topics - but often I can’t pick up the story because the pitch doesn’t quite work for me and the publications I write for.
So, if you are thinking about pitching to me, here’s everything you need to know about how I work and how best to get in touch:
What do you do?
I’m Rosie Taylor, an award-winning freelance journalist specialising in health and consumer topics, particularly issues which affect women and families.
I write a lot about:
The NHS - especially its policies and what is/isn’t working.
Women’s health, including maternity & postnatal care, fertility and menopause.
Common chronic illnesses (e.g. dementia, heart disease/CVD, obesity and respiratory conditions), especially trends in prevalence rates and potential new treatments.
How health issues and lifestyle factors affect things like our sleep, sex lives, work/life balance, parenting and relationships.
Care costs and difficulties patients have accessing the right treatment & support.
What’s really in our food, especially in products aimed at babies/children.
Maternity rights and women’s workplace experiences.
How the cost of living affects families in the UK.
…And how advances in tech are affecting all of these things.
Who do you write for?
I write news, features and investigations mainly for the UK national press. I tend to write different types of stories for different publications.
Although I’m always open to expanding the types of stories I write, topics I cover and who I write for, as a general rule, I mainly do these types of stories for these publications:
Hard health news - I write health news stories (usually based on new statistics, policy developments, announcements from senior figures and/or very strong case studies) for publications like the Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, Daily Mirror and occasionally for The Guardian and The Observer.
Health features - I write case study and issue-led health features raising awareness of health conditions - or on topics like tech in healthcare, access to care & support, and how the NHS compares with other health systems - for publications like the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, The i and The Sunday Times Magazine.
First-person health features - I write ghosted, first-person features about people’s personal experiences of health conditions and/or access to care - or experts’ personal views on health or the NHS - for publications like The i, Telegraph and Yahoo UK.
Consumer news - I do a mix of serious and light-hearted investigations into what’s really in our food, food trends and shrink/skimpflation for publications like the Daily Mail, The Times, Telegraph and The Sun.
Consumer taste tests - I also do supermarket comparison taste tests for The Sun.
This is not an exhaustive list - I’m always interested in writing for new publications!
How do I tell you about my story?
**If you’re a PR professional or you’re sending me a release about your business, please follow the steps in my guide below!**
But if you are a member of a public with a personal story to tell about any of the above topics, you can always contact me directly via email.
For personal story pitches, just send me a few sentences explaining what has happened to you, as well as your name, age, location and contact details. It’s always really helpful if you can attach your picture too.
After I’ve received your message, I’ll get in touch to let you know if I can help, and we’ll go from there.
Please note that in most cases, I can only report on personal stories if you are willing to be named and pictured. But if your story is extremely sensitive then you may be able to remain anonymous in some cases - please contact me to discuss.
I’m a PR, how should I get in touch?
I work regularly with PRs and some of my best stories have been developed from PR pitches. I welcome great pitches - but unfortunately only about 5 per cent of the PR emails I get are relevant to me.
If you’ve got a press release or story idea you’d like to send me, I’m much more likely to be able to work with you on it, if you can answer these questions before you email:
1. Is the story exclusive to me?
As a freelance journalist, I can’t cover stories the editors I pitch have already seen. That means I can usually only report on stories I have exclusive and/or advance access to.
I don’t mind being sent press releases which are sent out widely, as it helps me keep track of what’s going on in my subject areas, but I won’t reply to these emails as I can’t cover them (and I get too many emails to reply to them all!).
2. Is your pitch aimed at the publication(s) I write for?
The best pitches I receive are from people who know which publications I write for and have tailored the pitch to appeal to their readers.
I’ve listed a whole load of different publications I write for and the types of story I write above - please check this out before pitching.
While nothing is set in stone, as I’ll always try to find the right home for a good story, if the publication you’re aiming at isn’t on my list, I’m probably not the best person for this pitch - as I simply won’t have the right editor contacts.
It’s also worth mentioning that most publications I write for are UK-based and are focused on UK issues and case studies. There are some rare exceptions to that, but if there’s no UK link, I’m unlikely to be able to cover the story.
3. Is it the type of story I would write?
I love writing about a wide range of subjects in different styles - but I don’t cover everything.
For example, you can see from the list above that I do supermarket taste tests, but I don’t usually cover day-to-day announcements about new products on sale in supermarkets (mainly because these are usually sent out widely and covered in-house by staff journalists).
If the type of story doesn’t fit with any of the examples my list, you’re probably better off aiming your pitch at a journalist who regularly writes that sort of thing.
4. Have I recently written about something very similar?
There are some topics I cover time and again (e.g. the crisis in NHS maternity care, the use of tech in medicine, etc) but I always need a new, strong case study and/or some fresh stats to move the story on.
It isn’t enough just to pitch: “We also make a med-tech product that’s similar to the one you recently wrote about”. Unless your story is a really strong case study or a shocking new development on my original story, it’s very unlikely I’ll be able to cover the same exact topic again soon.
Note: You can always snoop on what I've been writing recently by checking out my Muck Rack profile.
5. Is this pitch a story or an idea?
I know, I know, I go on about this a lot - but the single biggest thing you can do to make your pitch stand out in a journalist’s crowded inbox is to offer a concrete story rather than a broad idea.
For example, most of the pitches I receive go along the lines of:
I see you write about women’s health - would you be interested in writing about how millions of women are struggling with [fibroids/ endometriosis/ adenomyosis/ etc] because of a lack of appropriate treatments?
The pitches I actually say yes to, go along the lines of:
I see you write health features for Good Health at the Mail - would you be interested in a story about how thousands of women with [fibroids/ endometriosis/ adenomyosis/ etc] are undergoing unnecessary hysterectomies because there is a postcode lottery in which hospitals are able to provide modern, less invasive treatments? We have stats and a case study.
The second pitch offers a story about a specific problem - the first is more of an amorphous idea.
NB: You can find out more in these links about how to turn your idea into a story and how to refine it into a pitch.
Can I send a follow-up email?
Yes! I get hundreds of emails a week and things can get lost, so I don’t mind if you send a follow-up to remind me about your pitch.
I’ll always try to reply to a follow-up if you’ve offered me an exclusive story, relevant to the topics I cover.
But I don’t reply to follow-ups if:
The original pitch was wildly unsuitable for me.
It’s less than a day since the first email.
I have an Out of Office on saying I’m away.
It’s a generic follow-up email sent to everyone on a mailing list.
But if you’re reading this post I know you won’t be doing any of those things. 🙂
Inspired to pitch? Check out these Get Featured guides to coming up with story ideas and developing them into a pitch:
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