How to Pitch to a Journalist with Melanie Gerlis
By Amy Cope
Melanie Gerlis started out her professional career in comms as a financial PR. She is uniquely qualified to talk to us about being pitched to, as an art-market columnist for the Financial Times, as well as being the person doing the pitching. Melanie also launched her book “The Art Fair Story: A Rollercoaster Ride” in December 2021.
Melanie begins the talk acknowledging that the hardest part of being a journalist is choosing what to write. There is a lot of information and the challenge is working out how to pick the best story. She has condensed her advice into 5 top tips in how to pitch to a journalist.
1. Know what news is
Melanie admits this may sound basic and fundamental, but it is rare finding hard news. She gives an example of hard news when David Zwirner opened in Paris due to Brexit in 2019, or when Frieze announced it will be launching in Seoul in 2022.
What, unfortunately, is not news is “my gallery is opening an exhibition.” Therefore, Melanie suggests ways to make this news for journalists by including famous people or making it humorous. Melanie also recommends turning a story into a trend like with a Bloomsbury Group article she wrote in September 2021. There was a Bloomsbury Group exhibition at Philip Mould Gallery, which while not news in itself, there was also an auction of Bloomsbury Group work at a regional gallery and an exhibition in Charleston where the Bloomsbury Group stayed.
2. Tip offs can be better then exclusives
Exclusives are great but they are challenging. “A tip off is something you’ve heard, a bit of gossip - I won’t quote you and its my story to chase… but you then have become my friend.” Therefore when you have “news-ish” news, Melanie says she will more likely listen to you next time.
3. Have a good image
“If you can convince me in a picture, then I want to convince other people.”
Melanie explains if you can include an image no one else has seen, a funny image or a good quality image, it might help in your story being chosen.
Also in a more practical sense, Melanie says she will often write four or five items to be published online and the Financial Times like to illustrate each one.
4. Have good timing
Melanie emphasises the importance of knowing a journalist’s deadline, which you can find out by asking them. For Melanie, her deadline is on a Tuesday so the best times to contact her are Thursday, Friday or Monday.
Also being aware of the busy and quiet weeks can help getting your news published. For example, before a major art fair for Melanie, she most likely wouldn’t be able to share pitched stories because she has to respond to what is happening live.
Melanie also recommends finding out how a journalist likes to be contacted as Melanie does not check her text and twitter channels as regularly but emails she will always read.
5. If at first you don’t succeed, stop.
Melanie says, writing “just to get to the top of your inbox” is annoying and unhelpful. “My job is to go through every pitch that is sent to me” so assume I have seen it rather than ignoring you.
Melanie admits there are PR firms she trusts and she will open their emails frequently. If she does not know you, she won’t open until a bit later but ultimately, all journalists want to help the under represented so do not stress about not having a PR firm.
Melanie also gave same advice in how to format a pitch email:
if including a pdf, try and keep it to 1-2 pages
Put the dates and highlights in the body of the email
Imagine the headline of the story and write this in a paragraph (a journalist’s paragraph is 3 sentences). “If I want more, then you know you’ve hooked me and I’ll respond”.
Melanie also notes, that most journalists like new voices and not leaning on the same contacts for quotes. She suggests, sending an email saying “X is an expert in X subject, give her a call.”