What makes a great case study
Five things editors really want - and what doesn't matter as much as you'd think
If you pitch media stories regularly, you’ll have inevitably been asked at some point: “Is there a case study to go with this?”
It’s a cliché but a great case study really can make or break a piece. Editors love to put a human face to a story to help readers understand the real-world impact of an issue (and I expect they’ll want this more and more as they seek to position their publications as “human” rather than AI).
Tracking down willing case studies can be time-consuming for journalists, so having one ready to offer the journalist/editor with your pitch can make all the difference between them saying: “I quite like this idea, I’ll have a think about if I can make it work” [cue radio silence for weeks, possibly forever…], and: “Great, I’ll take this”.
Offering up case studies can also be a fantastic way to get brands or entrepreneurs mentioned in the press.
In the UK, for example, the Budget is coming up in a couple of weeks which means that - as you read this - editors will be frantically ordering reporters to find “Budget case studies”. These are individuals, families and businesses who are willing to talk about how the Budget announcements will affect them, in return for a free plug for whatever business or cause they’re promoting. It all comes back to demonstrating the human impact of issues to readers - editors love it.
But what makes a case study good enough to be published in a national news publication?
I’ve been writing and pitching case studies to the nationals for the last 15 years, and this is what I’ve learned about the type of person editors are looking for:
1. They understand what being a case study means
This felt almost too obvious to include, but I had to put this point in because there have been occasions where I’ve been pitched case studies by PRs, only to start the interview and it become immediately apparent that the person I was talking to had no idea what was going on. In some cases, they’ve even been shocked to hear I was a journalist and that they would be featured in a newspaper…
At a bare minimum, your case study needs to understand that they will be featured in a news publication and will be quoted discussing how issue XYZ affects them - and be happy to do this.
The far more common scenario is that case studies have agreed on principle but don’t fully appreciate what “talking publicly about your experience” means until they get some way into the process - and then they get cold feet and back out.
To help avoid this, I’ve written a guide for interviewees about the process of sharing a personal story and how to decide if it’s right for you. Feel free to share this with any potential case studies you think could find it helpful.
2. Their experience doesn’t have to fit the brief exactly
How closely should your case study’s experience align with the story?
