How to Pitch a Story

How to Pitch a Story: A Guide to Getting Media Exposure

Media exposure can be extremely helpful for family and friends of victims of violent crime who are seeking justice. Indeed, having your story receive press coverage can be a crucial, necessary tool if you feel law enforcement is not paying enough attention to your case or not pursuing justice to the full extent of the law. The following is a guide on how to ensure journalists pay attention to your situation and help you raise awareness as you push for information, accountability, and ultimately closure.

Get Your Ducks in a Row

Before reaching out to any media outlets, you need to make certain preparations to increase the chances that a journalist will take an interest in your story and be willing to invest the time to report on it.

Step one: Make sure that you have documented all the relevant information for your loved one’s case. Names, dates, specifics of the crime, your meetings with law enforcement — all of these details should be documented in real time to keep a running record of what has transpired. If you have not done this in real time, we recommend going back and doing what you can to record/document to the best of your ability what happened, from the violent crime itself to law enforcement’s investigation into the matter.

Step two: Organize this information into a single document that can be shared with a journalist. Include your contact information in there. The Caldwell Institute’s staff has worked extensively with the media and knows having the relevant facts in a single, centralized location will greatly increase the chances of a reporter taking on the story. The goal here is to highlight the facts in a way that’s easy for somebody previously unfamiliar with the case to follow.

Step three: Write a compelling press release that includes:

A headline summarizing the key point
A brief introduction to the victim and the crime
A brief account of the current situation and the need for public support or attention
Contact information for follow-up

To clarify, step two is a way to organize the facts and details to be given to a small number of targeted people; the press release is designed for mass distribution and to offer a brief but compelling account of what happened to appeal to the broader public. What happened? Why should the average person (including reporters) care about this story? How can someone contact you? The press release should answer these three questions.

With few exceptions, a press release should be no more than one page.

Step four: Designate a family spokesperson to handle all media interactions to ensure consistent messaging.

All of the above probably seems like a lot of work. It is. But your loved one is worth the effort. It will also make your life easier down the road by doing the legwork ahead of time. And, critically, taking the time to make these preparations will significantly increase the chances that the media will pick up your story. Reporters tend to scan for stories on a surface level, so the easier you make it for them by “putting the story in their lap,” the more likely they will be to write about it.

Remember, the goal here is to increase as much as possible your chances of garnering widespread media attention, which can be greatly beneficial in pressuring law enforcement to prioritize your loved one’s case.

Contacting the Media

Now that you’re all organized, it’s time to contact the media. Start by looking up and contacting both local and national media outlets that cover crime stories. Here it’s worth emphasizing that it’s important to seek coverage from both big-name national outlets that you think will be sympathetic to your case and local outlets, whose journalists will be more likely to be familiar with the key players in your community.

Seek contact info: Search on Google for contact information — many outlets have “tip lines” either by phone or email, or both, where you can pitch stories. You should also try and identify specific journalists at these outlets who cover similar stories. Seek out their email addresses and/or phone numbers. Journalists tend to make their contact information easily available, but not always.

If finding contact information is proving difficult, you can try to send them a message on LinkedIn or a direct message through social media (X/Twitter is probably best, but another platform can work too).

Send a pitch: Send personalized emails to journalists with your press release attached. Also note in your message that you have all the relevant facts and details in a single document and can provide it if they are interested in the story. This will hopefully make them more curious. And be sure to add that you are open to being interviewed and providing on-the-record quotes for a news story.

Reporters will be intrigued by a compelling story, especially when you combine both the facts of the crime and ensuing investigation with the “human element” — the raw emotion of the tragedy and your desire for justice.

Tip: When pitching an idea to a journalist at a national outlet, try and frame your specific situation as part of a broader story or trend. For example, if your loved one was tragically killed in Chicago and you feel law enforcement is dragging its feet to arrest and prosecute a suspect, be sure to note to the journalist that your situation is part of not only a larger crime wave in the city but also a pattern of local prosecutors pushing soft-on-crime policies.

National outlets will sometimes refrain from covering something if they believe it is “too local of a story.” By framing your case as part of a broader trend, you are showing them that this is a national story that needs attention.

Follow-up is key: Follow up with emails and phone calls to ensure the journalist received your information and is pursuing the story. Don’t bombard them daily with messages — they need space to work and have other job duties. But if you don’t hear from them in a few days, send an email or give them a call and ask for an update. Hold the journalist accountable in a fair, friendly manner — remember, all of the above is fruitless unless the reporter actually writes the story and the outlet publishes it.

Social Media

In today’s world, social media is one of the most efficient ways of spreading information quickly. For your purposes, utilizing social platforms such as Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram, among others, is invaluable.

Create Awareness: Use social media platforms to share your story and any updates. Use your own personal accounts, but you might also consider creating a new account just for spreading information about this specific case. If you get the attention of your friends, family, and community, along with a couple people with large followings, your new account could go viral.

Engage with Followers: Respond to comments and messages to keep the community engaged.

Hashtags: Use relevant, viral hashtags to increase visibility.

One Final Note to Consider

If you are having trouble raising awareness about your story, consider reaching out to local elected officials about the situation. If that doesn’t work, you could reach out to the office of your representatives in the US Congress — both the House and Senate — as well as other lawmakers who may be sympathetic to your situation. They may pressure law enforcement to do more, but they also may post about your case on social media or be willing to provide a quote to a news outlet about your story. Journalists will be all the more likely to write a story if they can get a quote from a politician.