A billion-dollar goal is not a story. A number is not a story. A person is.
Start a conversationMost campaigns are built and then pitched. By then the answer is already fixed, because the thing that makes a story run was decided months earlier, when someone chose what the campaign would be about.
I come in before that. I tell you what a Toronto assignment editor will take, what they'll pass on, and what has to change for the answer to flip. Not a plan for how to talk about it. A judgment about whether anyone will listen.
I read the campaign material the way an editor reads it, which is quickly and looking for a reason to stop.
Usually it's already in the building. Someone in your organization has the story and nobody has asked them for it.
Who to pitch, when, and in what order. And, when it's the honest answer, what not to pitch at all.
An agency builds and distributes. That's a different job from judging. Most agencies will not tell you that the campaign you spent nine months on is not a story, because they were hired to promote it. I'm not, so I will. Think of it as the read you'd get from a friend in a newsroom, if you had one.
No, and be careful with anyone who does. What I can tell you is whether coverage is likely before you build the whole campaign around the assumption. Almost nobody will give you that answer honestly, because the honest answer is sometimes no.
Earlier than feels natural. Once the campaign is built and the launch date is set, most of the useful decisions have already been made. The best time to find out that your story isn't a story is while it's still cheap to change it.
Let's talk
Send me the campaign, the concept, or the one-pager. I'll tell you what a newsroom would do with it.
Start a conversationor email me