The real reasons I'll turn down a good pitch

All the things you can - and can't - control when pitching

I turned down a perfectly good pitch last week.

The email was tailored to me, it was a story about a subject area I write about and was targeted at a publication I regularly write for. So why turn it down?

Photo by Lily Suter on Unsplash

Because I know the news desk at that particular publication has a restricted budget for commissioning freelancers at the moment, so they were never going to commission me to write the story exclusively. I suggested the PR try pitching direct to staff journalists at the publication instead - it wasn’t a bad story, it just wasn’t going to be one I’d write.

It got me thinking about all the reasons journalists have to turn down perfectly good pitches - and what you can do to avoid getting caught by these traps.

Here are my top five reasons why good pitches get a “no”: