We’ve had a ton of stellar journalists join us on Coffee with a Journalist over the last 3 years including Julia Boorstin, senior Media & Technology Reporter at CNBC. During her episode, Julia told us all about the thousands (no joke) of emails in her inbox, pitching embargoes, and the Disrupter 50 list.
While this episode was recorded nearly a year ago, there are still a number of takeaways you can learn from her. Read below for a list of 6 tips you can reference to pitch Julia Boorstin of CNBC:
Pitching Embargoes
We often hear from journalists who want to receive exclusive news from sources well in advance. Julia is absolutely someone who fits into this category. Because of her workload and needing to “break” news stories, she prefers when sources pitch her something valuable and well ahead of schedule. It’s also important to note she works in TV and the news cycle is literally 24/7.
“I love pitches when they're going to alert me of upcoming embargoed news. I hate pitches when they're a week after something has already happened.”
Know what she writes about
Obvious, yet hard to decipher for some, you need to have a deep understanding of what she writes about. Julia says, “I feel like most people who pitch me don't make an effort to understand what it is that I do at CNBC. I think that there's just a lot of people who just send blanket pitches because they have my email in their [database].” She points out that CNBC is a business network and she, specifically, only covers certain types of companies. Hint: click the link in the first sentence to READ her articles!
Tell her why it’s important
A tactic and strategy we firmly believe in at OnePitch is also one Julia feels strongly about. When and if you pitch her, you need to clarify why the information is important to her audience and why the story needs to be told now. Your pitch should also have context surrounding a public business if you’re targeting her beat, otherwise you might be able to reach her about a unique startup for her a unique startup for her work on the Disruptor 50 list.
If not a public company, it needs to be a unique startup
In addition to her beat coverage as senior media & technology reporter, she works with a number of colleagues putting together the annual CNBC Disruptor 50 list. She says:
“The idea is these are to be startups, but not just tech tech startups. We have companies in the enterprise space, in cloud and security companies, but to really understand who's using technology to disrupt the status quo across industries. That's been really fascinating. For that, I'll say, to get those companies, we have an open application process. Any company can nominate themselves and any VC can nominate one of their portfolio companies. That's totally open. We start that process usually in January and then the list comes out in May or June.”
She also mentions the more data you provide, the better her and her team can evaluate it and be considered.
Trends can yield results
Continuing off of the example above, Julia said this about pitches surrounding trends:
“I think for me, a lot of reasons I read pitches is just to understand what the tech trends are, so if I get a pitch on a startup that is similar to a startup that's been on the list, or I think this is a category that might be on the list, I'm always just looking for insight into what the next big thing is, and trying to figure out what I should be looking out for.”
DEI angles can also gain interest
Aside from being a senior media & technology reporter and working on the Disruptor 50 list, Julia also started a franchise called Closing the Gap. The main premise of this series is geared towards identifying gaps in gender and diversity within individuals and organizations.
BONUS: she’s also writing a book on female founders and leadership, which is scheduled for release from Simon & Schuster’s Avid Reader imprint in early fall 2022.
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If you missed our episode with Julia, you can listen to the full recording here and view notes from the episode about her inbox, pitches, how she creates her stories, and more.
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