On Season 2, Episode 37 of Coffee with a Journalist we spoke with Erin Griffith from The New York Times’ San Francisco Bureau.
As a journalist/writer/correspondent, Erin reports on technology start-ups and venture capital. She’s previously written for Fortune Magazine and Wired as well as Adweek. During the recording of the podcast, Erin was most covering DoorDash and AirBnB, and most recently Erin has been covering the criminal trial of Theranos Founder, Elizabeth Holmes.
Read below for a list of 5 tips you can implement to connect with Erin Giffith of NYT:
At The Times, Erin covers consumer tech, startups, and venture capital, however, when she regularly writes it often tends to be around news stories and not featured pieces.
“And so I have generally been focused on consumer tech and start-ups and VC at the Times, and I'm not writing on a regular basis. And when I do, it's often on the news. So, I would say, it's a lot more manageable than in the past.”
She also mentions she doesn’t cover much funding news anymore and rarely writes stories based on a press release she receives.
Erin mentions the types of subject lines that catch her interest often have notable companies mentioned or large funding amounts provided within them. But, that doesn’t mean she’s going to cover that story exclusively. Often times she is looking for market trends that can paint a clear picture of what’s going on in the industry and why it’s important for readers to know this.
“And so when I'm working on a story like that, and those pitches come in, I'm always thinking like, "Okay, would this company be willing? Will they fit into what I'm working on, and would they be willing to talk to me?" Not necessarily just about whatever is in their press release, but about certain aspects of their funding.”
For her and NYT, it’s about going beyond the press release and really understanding why and how.
An interesting point she makes is that recruiters can be good sources of information. So good that she keeps a folder of emails from them because they “know” what’s happening within a company especially during hectic times.
“They often know when a company has to raise money because they're hiring, and they know if there's a bunch of layoffs, or if a bunch of high-profile people are starting to flee a start-up.”
Erin has two types of stories she works on which involve her own research and reporting, and news. For the example she provided about All Raise, the story was surrounding an important cause and had already generated a lot of interest from readers.
“I put the categories of stories that I do into two buckets. One is enterprise where it's my own idea, and I've done a bunch of reporting around it. And the other is news, and those are generally shorter, faster, and they wouldn't run on the front of P1.”
When it comes to news stories, she says,”...it's pretty much limited to the really big late-stage unicorn companies, the ones that are going public, and sometimes if they raise a really crazy round of funding,” but because these types of stories are prevalent they tend to not be her focus.
As with most journalists we’ve interviewed on the podcast, Erin says contacts she’s familiar with have a better chance of getting their company and/or clients featured in her stories. If she’s heard of the company, knows an exec, or sees the name in the news then she might be more inclined to consider diving in further.
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If you didn’t have a chance to hear the full recording of Erin’s episode, click here to listen and view notes from the episode about her inbox, pitches, how she creates her stories, and more.
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