Proper Pitch: Story Proposals That Landed Assignments

When you're trying to pitch a magazine on a story assignment, having a good idea isn't enough. In fact, it's barely a beginning. Ideas that are too broad, too grand or lacking specifics or details just don't work, notes Scott Dadich, creative director at Texas Monthly comments in our article, "How to Pitch A Story" (PDN March '05). "It's the difference between a story and a subject," he says.

Any good story pitch ?whether you're making it in writing, over the phone, or at a cocktail reception?has certain parameters. It has to be interesting. It has to convey to people who may have no knowledge of the subject matter what makes it relevant to the magazine's readers. It has to offer a unique angle on the story ?something other magazines haven't covered, at least not in exactly the same way. It should have enough detail to get busy editors curious to learn more--but not so much detail they don't bother reading to the end. Most importantly, a successful pitch has to have a meaty, intriguing news hook or a timely angle that will appeal to the word editors on staff, because they have the ultimate power to approve or nix what goes into the magazine.

Research And Details Make The Pitch

When we called photo editors looking for sample pitches, photo editor Scott Thode at Fortune sang the praises of Teru Kuwayama's proposal to shoot a story on private contractors hired by the Pentagon to work in Iraq. His emailed pitch has it all: solid research, thorough grasp of the subject, good contacts, a unique angle on a timely and important issue, a clear understanding of Fortune's style and stories they've done before, and assurances that he could get access to the subjects he wanted to photograph.

Kuwayama says the idea was one he had been thinking about for years, and had discussed with Thode briefly weeks before. After his second trip to Iraq in March 2004, Kuwayama was recuperating on a beach in Brazil, and decided to follow up with Thode by sending him a related article from The New York Times. His timing was right, and Fortune was ready to give him a month to work on the story.

The following is the email (slightly edited) that Kuwayama sent.

Heya Scott-
Greetings from the beach. Sorry for the long email that follows, but I wanted to pass on this New York Times article...if you remember, I'd mentioned the idea of doing a story about PMCs (private military contractors)...the new generation of "mercenaries". Fortune did a big story called "the business of war," focusing on the Dynastars and Halliburtons in the game, just before the war?what wasn't touched on in that article though, is the other end of the military contracting world--the countless, independent, "start-up" entrepreneurs--many of whom are the special ops veterans that the NYT article mentions. Halliburton and Bechtel don't field standing armies, so basically the multi-million dollar government contracts are subcontracted down a chain of small PMCs (many of which are a single person, or a handful of people).

I've been talking to one of these contractors, a retired NAVY SEAL in his 20s (young by PMC standards, and a prime example of a highly trained operator taking his military skills over to the private sector). From what he's telling me, prior to 9/11 the number of PMCs like him (with elite military backrounds) numbered a couple of hundred worldwide, and today, he estimates there's about 20,000 operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In terms of access to these operators, the primary difficulty is if they are working on government contracts, which have strict confidentiality terms--but there are also many non-governmental contracts being executed where access is possible (more everyday, as the security situation in Iraq is perceived to deteriorate).

John (the SEAL) and friends of his have expressed an interest in cooperating with a story. In that way, Fortune is the perfect magazine to get access to this world. There's a real move for this emerging industry to come out of the closet, and remake their image as "businessmen" as opposed to "mercenaries."

Beyond the immediate situation, there's some really interesting big-picture questions regarding the future of private military contracting, and warfare in general--right now, PMCs handle a tremendous amount of support functions for the official military, which (in theory) conducts the combat operations. Given the unpopularity of current military actions, and the potential for escalation and expansion into other theaters, how long before governments subcontract the actual combat operations, or conceivably, one-day, entire war efforts? Reportedly, the Clinton Administration seriously considered contracting the now disbanded South African PMC to handle the Rwanda conflict -- have to double check on this number, but I think Executive Outcomes' bid to avert the genocide was $150 million.

There is also a tremendous "gray area" in current military operations, where it is getting really fuzzy on who is who, and who is doing what out there-between special operations, OGAs (other governmental agencies like FBI, CIA, DIA etc), and PMCs.

OK-enough for now, tell me if you're interested in pursuing this-- back to tha hammock for me,
Teru

Show As Well As Tell

Another successful pitch to Fortune (this time to former director of photography Michelle McNally) came from photographer Nina Berman. Berman estimates that about 80 percent of the stories she shoots result from her own proposals.

Back in 2000, Berman suggested a photo essay timed to coincide with the anniversary of the invention of email. Fortune assigned her the story, and she shot it in 2001. (After September 11, however, the story was held and eventually killed.)

The story proposal may seem dated today, but back in 2000, it was provocative and newsworthy. And, thanks to Berman's research, it was rich in intriguing details. By listing possible subjects she could photograph, she gave both visual and word editors a clear sense of how the story might look in print.

Age of Email

It's been just over 30 years since Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, created the first email message. Now, billions of emails crisscross cyberspace each day transforming business and communication, forging relationships and creating problems never before imagined.

What is the impact of email on our work, love and lives?

Here are a few examples.

1) Witness the new mailman. He's a twenty-something geek in a climate-controlled room full of servers.

2) Going to a cocktail party? Leave home the business cards. People network by beaming from Palm Pilots.

3) Suburban cops with little to do except investigate property crime, now "police the world" according to one officer who goes on line pretending to be a 14-year-old girl looking to rope in would be sex offenders.

Where is this revolution going? Can there be too much communication so that it becomes meaningless, dangerous, hard to pin down?

A typical Wall Street fund manager receives 200 - 300 emails a day, some with 80 page attachments. Print out three days worth and his office would be drowning in email.

A lone hacker, holed up in a remote corner of the globe, can wreak worldwide havoc by sending virus-infected emails. Who are the hackers and who are their counterparts (ex-hackers) making big bucks tracking them?

Web addicts with multiple email accounts and screen names are living as shut-ins with their entire universe based on email contact.

Love on line can go sour when Mr. Right turns out to be dating 100 women at once as happened to a bunch of women in suburban New York who then started a club and named it in his honor.

In 30 years, no other technology has so captivated and transformed the world. I propose to look at this change by taking the email off the screen.

Show, Don't Tell

No one likes to have to shoot on spec, but when we called on photo editors and agents looking for sample pitches, we heard the same lament over and over. Magazine editors have a Show Me attitude. As Jeffrey Smith at Contact Press Images says, editors are reluctant to commit to a project until they can see it.

That means you're more likely to get published if you've actually done the work, shot the pictures and done a rough edit.

Even then, your presentation still needs to be timely, well researched, and tailored to the magazine you're pitching.

Here's a version of the letter photographer Misty Keasler sent to Texas Monthly with photos she had taken on her own dime at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas:

Dear Scott,
I am writing in regards to some photographs I have taken in Waco, Texas. I have spent some time recently with the Branch Davidians who still live on the property where the government siege took place. The ten-year anniversary of the fire is coming up this spring, and the Branch Davidians think it will be a big event for them.

Enclosed please find ten inkjet prints. I would like to offer these for publication in Texas Monthly. Please let me know if you think it would be a good match for the magazine.

Keasler mailed her photos September 2002, more than six months before the anniversary, just when the magazine's editors were deciding how to cover the story.

When submitting a proposal, always keep a magazine's lead time in mind. Note that most magazines publish their editorial calendar in their media kits for advertisers, and can be found on magazines' web sites. A phone call is sometimes enough to find out which issue editors are working on now.

Just Pitch It

One photographer who recently got his self-assigned project published in a national magazine says he finds that when he pitches ideas to magazines, they end up giving him assignments to shoot different stories the editors have in mind. The moral of this story may be, if you have what you think are solid story ideas, pitch them. You'll be demonstrating to magazine editors that you have journalistic enterprise, that you understand their editorial concerns and their readers' needs. Even if your own suggestion never gets out of the magazine's slush pile, you'll be keeping your name and your talents in front of the editors with the power to give you work.