--- title: "Coffee with a Journalist: Alan Neuhauser, Axios Pro - Blog" description: Gain pitching tips, media relationship strategies, and conference insights from Alan Neuhauser of Axios Pro in this Coffee with a Journalist edition. image: https://blog.onepitch.co/hubfs/Katie%20Atkinson%2c%20Billboard%20(1).png --- [![OnePitch](https://blog.onepitch.co/hubfs/raw_assets/public/OnePitch_May2025/images/onepitch-logo-black.svg "OnePitch")](https://onepitch.co/) - [Product](https://onepitch.co/product-features/overview/) - Media Lists - [MFY Media Lists](https://onepitch.co/media-lists/build) - [DFY Media Lists](https://onepitch.co/media-lists/dfy-media-list-submit/) - Resources - [AI Tools Hub](https://ai-hub.onepitch.co/) - [Contact](https://onepitch.co/contact-us/support) ## Coffee with a Journalist: Alan Neuhauser, Axios Pro ![Coffee with a Journalist: Alan Neuhauser, Axios Pro](https://blog.onepitch.co/hubfs/Katie%20Atkinson%2c%20Billboard%20(1).png) [Media Insights](https://blog.onepitch.co/tag/media-insights) [Coffee with a Journalist](https://blog.onepitch.co/tag/coffee-with-a-journalist) [Alan Neuhauser](https://www.axios.com/authors/aneuhauser) is a Climate Deals Reporter at Axios Pro. In this episode, Alan discusses his preferences for pitches, his approach to networking at conferences, and the importance of building relationships with publicists who manage multiple climate-related clients.   Follow Alan on [LinkedIn](https://www.axios.com/authors/aneuhauser)and [X/Twitter.](https://x.com/alneuhauser)   Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:     [![CWJ View Transcription CTA](https://blog.onepitch.co/hs-fs/hubfs/CWJ%20View%20Transcription%20CTA.png?width=228&height=48&name=CWJ%20View%20Transcription%20CTA.png)](https://blog.onepitch.co/hubfs/CWAJ239%20-%20Alan%20Neuhauser%2c%20Climate%20Deals%20Reporter%20at%20Axios%20Pro.pdf)   ## ***Pitching Must-Dos***   \[0:05:34\] BB: Yeah. Okay. Can you immediately tell from the subject line? \[0:05:37\] AN: Pretty much. Yeah. \[0:05:38\] BB: Yeah. Okay. What's a good subject line for you, for a pitch, for a pitch? \[0:05:44\] AN: There's the obvious answer, right? Which is, if it's an embargo, or it's an exclusive, just putting that right in the subject line. \[0:05:51\] BB: Yup. Put it right there. \[0:05:52\] AN: Things that are short, not too complicated, it helps that climate deals is pretty niche, to an end respect. I mean, climate is getting bigger and bigger, right? The places that we're touching are ever expanding. What we're following again is this, where the money's going, where the investment is happening. I can tell pretty quickly from a subject line, is this about some random peer of a land management announcement that I'm – that yes, personally I care about, but professionally, I don't need to open? Or is this is this TPG announcing something, some private equity firm? Actually, putting the company name in the subject line, especially if it's recognizable, definitely helps. \[0:06:31\] BB: Company name, funding amount as well. You want to see that in there too, or no, you don't really care? \[0:06:36\] AN: I mean, if it's a bananas number, that always helps. \[0:06:38\] BB: What’s bananas now, by the way? 200 million, 500 million? \[0:06:42\] AN: Nine figures these days, let alone 10 or 11. \[0:06:45\] BB: All right. Okay. Approval process. I'm curious about this, especially with Axios and how short it is. We haven't talked about this lately on this show. What is that like for you? Do you have to go pitch your boss, your editors and say, “I want to do these seven stories tomorrow”? Or how does it go? \[0:07:03\] AN: First of all, if I had to do seven stories for tomorrow, I'd have a heart attack. \[0:07:05\] BB: Yeah. Okay. I thought so. Just throwing it out there. I didn't want to downplay your rigor, Alan. \[0:07:11\] AN: I appreciate the confidence, but nonetheless. We used to use Trello. We've gone to a platform called Notion, that's much more – I love Trello. I miss Trello. Oh, but it's similar. \[0:07:20\] BB: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. \[0:07:21\] AN: We'll update that, and then we'll have a check-in call at some point in the afternoon. My colleague, Katie Fehrenbacher, and our editor, Mike Flaherty. That's an opportunity to touch base and say, this is what we're working on. It's not so much pitching our editor, because he trusts us, right? We're supposed to be the subject matter experts. Occasionally, especially if it's a funky – if it's a company with a teeny, tiny, fundraising amount, right, 500k, but it's a compelling technology. That would be a question of, do we write about this? Do we care about this? Is there something more valuable? Mike is commonly deferring to our judgment and be like, “Hey, you tell me. What do you think your readers care about?” \[0:08:02\] BB: Okay. That's nice. That's just an informing, updated meeting. Like, I'm going to be looking at this, writing that, and that type of thing. That is refreshing. \[0:08:12\] AN: Yeah. He'll occasionally veto something, right? He'll say, “Eh.”     ## ***Meeting Journalist's at Conferences***   \[0:09:40\] BB: Simple enough. Simple enough. I like that. Okay. How about relationship building with publicists, Alan? Do you want to ever meet publicists in person ever? Mm. What would you say? You're in Boston area too, just for people to know. \[0:09:56\] AN: Yeah. A lot of it is location dependent, right? I’m down outside Providence. The short answer is yes. Publicists are who I'm talking with most day in and day out, maybe investors, but probably, frankly, publicists. Yeah, I do want to know the person that I'm working with, especially if they specialize in this area. I'd say, especially with remote work and now not being in a city like DC, or New York, or Boston, those meetings most often tend to occur at conferences, which have almost become the time that's set aside to just meet with people. \[0:10:27\] BB: Yeah, that's a good point. Speaking of, and you know what? No one has really commented on that, or said that. That's where now we meet. When you go to a conference, and by the way, we'd love to know which ones you're going to. We'll get to that in a second. Are you then interested in having those set up meetings? Do you want to have the coffee meetings before the big talk, or something like that? Or are you just like, I'll just see on the floor wandering around? \[0:10:48\] AN: I think it's really dependent. It depends. It's tough, right? Because these conferences are often so wall to wall. \[0:10:53\] BB: Yeah. They don’t give much time. Yes. \[0:10:55\] AN: No, but a 15-minute, a 30-minute coffee, especially if it's near where other stuff is happening. If I don't have to walk two blocks to the coffee shop, if it's near there, then that helps. Also, too, is it a publicist who specializes in climate with a lot of venture capital clients, or a lot of startup clients? Then yes, absolutely. Totally makes sense to me. \[0:11:18\] BB: If you got one, meh. \[0:11:19\] AN: Yeah, exactly, exactly. \[0:11:20\] BB: Yeah. You're looking for density of clients. That's a good point for people to realize and see. Okay. Good to know.   ![Line for blog](https://blog.onepitch.co/hs-fs/hubfs/Line%20for%20blog.png?width=5052&height=192&name=Line%20for%20blog.png) ### Want to pitch Alan and other journalists like him?   Click below to sign up for OnePitch and use these insights in your next pitch!   [![Create Account](https://blog.onepitch.co/hs-fs/hubfs/hub_generated/resized/7052357d-9f75-4e56-84e8-25dfef6dcee5.png?width=250&height=52&name=7052357d-9f75-4e56-84e8-25dfef6dcee5.png)](https://onepitch.co/account/create?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=coffee-with-a-journalist) ![Line for blog](https://blog.onepitch.co/hs-fs/hubfs/Line%20for%20blog.png?width=5052&height=192&name=Line%20for%20blog.png)   ## ***Alan's Experience with Publicists***   \[0:16:31\] BB: Yes. Good to know. By the way, do you share those little comments amongst your colleagues? “Hey, guys. Look what I just got today.” \[0:16:39\] AN: No. The only example was, this is going back some years, someone accidentally sent me their vampire – it was a comment about the story, but then they had hit paste by accident. It was vampire-inspired fan fiction that was very, very spicy. \[0:16:58\] BB: No. No. Wait, was it like, your article, Alan, vampire post? \[0:17:04\] AN: Yes. \[0:17:05\] BB: Oh, no. \[0:17:09\] AN: It was, I might have shared that not widely, but with a couple of people who are sitting next to me. \[0:17:14\] BB: But selectively. \[0:17:15\] AN: Yeah. \[0:17:15\] BB: Oh, that's good. This is why, man, email lives forever. Be careful. \[0:17:20\] AN: Be careful. Yeah. \[0:17:23\] BB: Oh, okay. Any way for publicists to make your life easier, Alan, besides just short, good pitches? \[0:17:28\] AN: No. I mean, it's all the stuff we know, right? It's hard, because everyone's busy. It's hard being a publicist. It's hard doing client service. It's hard trying to figure out whatever your reporter wants, and there's a million of us, right? Figuring out what someone at this publication month versus that is a challenge, so I appreciate that. Short and sweet. I guess, that's expected coming from Axios, but, truly. The other thing is data. Data punches above its weight. \[0:17:56\] BB: Okay. Now, what type of data? Because I've seen pitches where you're like, “Oh, yeah. Look at this. Oh, we reviewed this data.” It's national. It's from the Fed. It's very simple to see this. It's not exclusive data in any way, shape or form. Do elaborate. \[0:18:09\] AN: Yeah. If it's not BS, right? We've all seen those Valentine's Day versions of, if you do this, so and so, that kind of thing. Or market research reports, which are not great. If it's counterintuitive, it's great. Obviously, if it needs to be reliable. I got a pitch. Recently from someone citing the pounds of, I keep going back to Offshore Wind, 6,000 pounds or whatever, or 6,000 tons of Offshore Wind blades get recycled every X many years. I forget what it was exactly. That's interesting. If there's a way to get an annual figure for that, that shows an increase in that recycling.   ## ***Rapid Fire Pitching Preferences***   \[0:19:17\] BB: Thank you for elaborating on how publicists can be helpful. I do have my little rapid-fire question set. \[0:19:24\] AN: Yes. \[0:19:25\] BB: Are you ready? \[0:19:26\] AN: I hope so. \[0:19:26\] BB: Okay. You're ready. Video, or phone interview? \[0:19:30\] AN: Oh, that's actually a hard one. It depends. Which I know, is that helpful? \[0:19:33\] BB: Yeah. No, it does depend. A lot of people say it depends. Okay. Depends. \[0:19:36\] AN: Phone. I'll go phone. \[0:19:38\] BB: Okay. I'm sure we know it's bullet points versus paragraphs for pitches. Bullet points, yeah? \[0:19:42\] AN: Bullet points. Yeah. \[0:19:43\] BB: If you could, bullet points. Okay. \[0:19:44\] AN: But if the bullet points are paragraphs, then it becomes moved. \[0:19:46\] BB: Then it's silly. Okay. How about images attached versus a Dropbox zip file? Is that even relevant? \[0:19:53\] AN: It is not. It's not. The only issue is if the attachment gets flagged by a spam filter. \[0:20:00\] BB: Yeah. Okay. Email versus a DM somewhere, Twitter, X, LinkedIn? \[0:20:06\] AN: I do not check my DMs. Email. If it's someone I have a relationship with, then text is fine. Text is great. Yeah. \[0:20:12\] BB: Do you ever get, by the way, cold called? \[0:20:14\] AN: Rarely. I still do occasionally. \[0:20:18\] BB: I missed a very important call myself, because there was a voicemail left and I was like, “Oh, my God. I don't listen to any voicemails.” Yeah. I feel you on that. Okay. Follow ups, one or many? \[0:20:29\] AN: Many. There's no such thing as too many emails. \[0:20:31\] BB: I've never heard this answer before, Alan. Okay. Many. Okay. Good. \[0:20:36\] AN: All the emails. \[0:20:36\] BB: Direct or creative subject lines? \[0:20:38\] AN: Direct. 100%. \[0:20:40\] BB: Direct. Press release, or media kit? \[0:20:42\] AN: Oh, press release. Please. \[0:20:45\] BB: Mm-hmm. Is there a time you read pitches? You said, it was just scrolling all the time. \[0:20:49\] AN: Yeah. Our newsletter goes live at 11.30 in the morning. We're in the heat of production from 7.30-8, until 11.30. And that afternoon slot, I'd say. But honestly, it doesn't matter. I'm constantly checking. \[0:21:02\] BB: Okay. Yeah, you’re good. \[0:21:03\] AN: Send them whenever. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_   You can find more conversations with journalists from leading outlets when you subscribe to the ***[Coffee with a Journalist](https://onepitch.co/podcast)*** podcast to get the latest insights as soon as they drop. 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