Christopher Zara is a senior editor at Fast Co., where he runs the news desk. His memoir, Uneducated (out now!), examines the value of higher education and confronts the stigma of being degreeless in a 21st-century knowledge economy.
During the episode, Chris talks about why he wants to be easily reachable for sources, the reasons he says “no” to pitches, how you need to pitch the news desk at Fast Co., and more.
Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
[00:06:35] BB: Well, since you teed it up, Christopher, let's talk about some of those pitches. What do you like in a pitch from a PR person, not a, let's say, freelancer who wants to write for Fast Co.?
[00:06:59] CZ: Yes, it's got to be direct. And the news value, because we're a news team, the news value has to be really upfront and really prominent. I need to know right away, what is this about? I don't need three paragraphs of throat clearing about some trend that I already knew about, or that Twitter is turning into X today and people are mad at Elon Musk and blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on.
It's like, yeah, “I know all this, we're covering this stuff.” So it's like, “Tell me what it is you're offering and try to make that clear.” Start with the subject line. There are no tricks with subject lines. There are tricks to get me to open something for sure. I'll open it. And then, if it's not something for us, the subject line is not going to get us to say yes to a story. I really love subject lines. It just tells what it is.
Millennials are the biggest liars per generation. Research reveals that was actually when I said yes to and then I ended up not doing it because I didn't feel the survey delivered on the promise, but the subject was right there. It's like, “Here's a new study about millennial behavior in a workplace.” I want to read this, and I want to see what it's about. So that one worked.
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[00:08:07] BB: Okay. Great. Anything else on the opposite that you never want to see in a pitch or is it a complete like, “Bye?”
[00:08:15] CZ: The thing that really gets me, probably the most upset, is when I feel that the pitch promises a piece of information that is not delivered in the story. Usually, this happens with surveys or data that a company wants to share with us. A lot of companies have proprietary data. They want to share it with us to get their name out there. It's a great arrangement because we'll write about it if the data is, if there's a real news value, and the companies get mentioned. And I think everyone likes that arrangement, but sometimes the PR people will say, “We have data that can say this or this or this,” and I get excited because I'm a data person, and I'm like, “Yeah, let me see that,” and then they don't produce it or they produce a study that doesn't really say what they said in the opening. So that would probably be my biggest pet peeve.
[00:08:57] BB: Yeah. So don't be tricky in your subject lines and then fail to deliver. Yes. Okay.
[00:12:05] BB: So yeah. Smart. Okay. Christopher, I have a rapid fire little question series here. Are you ready?
[00:12:11] CZ: Yes, I am.
[00:12:12] BB: Okay. First, video or phone interview?
[00:12:15] CZ: I prefer the phone. I usually sound better than I look.
[00:12:18] BB: Okay. Bullet points or paragraphs?
[00:12:21] CZ: Bullet points can be effective.
[00:12:22] BB: Good. Short or long pitches?
[00:12:25] CZ: Short.
[00:12:26] BB: I always hear short. But on a rare occasion, we'll hear someone say, “No, I want it spelled out.” Anyway. Okay. Well, actually, how short?
[00:12:33] CZ: So short enough to where I can get context and make an informed decision, but not too long that I'm going to not read the whole thing.
[00:12:41] BB: Images attached or Dropbox zip file?
[00:12:44] CZ: I usually don't want images unless I ask for them. And our software often filters them out anyway. So if you send the images, we usually don't even see them if we don't know you.
[00:12:52] BB: Oh, email or Twitter DM.
[00:12:55] CZ: Email, please. I try to use Twitter very little these days with all that’s going on.
[00:12:59] BB: Me too, or X or whatever we're now calling it. Okay.
[00:13:01] CZ: I use it to find news. I have to be on there and use it, but I don't necessarily communicate on there.
[00:13:08] CZ: Okay. One follow up or multiple?
[00:13:10] CZ: Usually, you know, one or two follow ups is fine. We do get busy and there's times when a good idea slips by and it's, it is something you've meant to respond to, but didn't. So they can be effective to follow up. I'd say if you're following up more than like twice on the same idea, yeah, it's probably no.
[00:13:27] BB: Okay. Good to know. Direct or creative subject lines?
[00:13:31] CZ: Direct.
[00:13:32] BB: We covered that a bit. Yes. Direct. Tell them what you got. All right. Press release or media kit?
[00:13:37] CZ: Press release, paste it into the email can be very effective. It gives me the context I need. If the press release is already drafted and you can just paste it in and it's text. Yeah. That really helps.
[00:13:47] BB: Then you don't have to click to another thing. It's right there. Yes. All right. Time you usually read pitches or is it all the time?
[00:13:54] CZ: I try to keep it to daytime hours and weekdays. I have to do things for work all the time after hours, deal with emergencies. You're a journalist so stuff comes up. But pitches is a workflow thing and I like to keep it during business hours. I rarely look at a pitch on a weekend.
[00:14:14] BB: There you go. Who sends one on a weekend?
[00:14:17] CZ: People do. People do. And the thing is, I am looking at my inbox because I have to.
[00:14:23] BB: But also, there's tools to not have this happen these days. So I wonder, publicists.
[00:14:28] CZ: Yeah, you can schedule them. Yeah.
[00:14:30] BB: Yes. Okay. What type of sources do you look for? This is a very broad question, but some people are like, “Academics and chemistry.”
[00:14:40] CZ: Yeah, that is a broad question. I mean, if we're still talking about the PR world, there's nothing wrong with a PR person who wants to spill, I can't believe I'm going to say this, spill a little tea.
[00:14:51] BB: Spill it, everybody. You heard it here.
[00:14:54] CZ: I can't believe I just said that. I really want to jump out of the window now, but I said it because I couldn't think of any other way.
[00:15:01] BB: Yes. Give me a scoop, right? Give me something.
[00:15:04] CZ: The scoops are great. Even if you just want to say something off the record that you know you wouldn't, that you don't want printed, it shows trust when you do that. When you're that kind of, I mean, so there's nothing wrong with that. I think that I like people who know what's happening. You know, we're news people.
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