Hannah Orenstein is the Deputy Editor of Lifestyle and Wellness at Bustle. Hannah leads coverage on a wide range of subjects, including dating, relationships, sex, fitness, mental health, self-care, food, home, travel, viral culture, technology, astrology, and lots more. 

During the episode, Hannah explains why she never deletes emails, what it's like fielding pitches from writers, her recommendation for outlining your pitch, and more. 

Follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:

Hannah's Inbox and Organization

[00:03:18] BB: Yes. Okay. So organizationally, you mentioned you kind of have the folder for, all
right, pitches I want to follow up with. Do you do some mass deleting and cleansing, how
wellness appropriate? I don't know. How do you manage the pit if there is any management?

[00:03:34] HO: I actually never delete anything, and the reason why, even if something – a
writer isn't pitching the right story at the right time or a publicist. We don't have a place for their
clients at the current moment. I always keep it on file because couple months down the road,
years down the road, sometimes the perfect opportunity comes up. I think about it, and I'm able
to search my inbox and find that person and get back to them. So I keep everything.

[00:03:58] BB: You just mentioned years.

[00:04:00] HO: Yes.

[00:04:00] BB: What's the oldest pitch you responded to?

[00:04:03] HO: Oh, my God. Probably like two years.

[00:04:05] BB: Oh, wow. Did the publicist respond?

[00:04:08] HO: Yes, yes. [inaudible 00:04:09] they've moved on, or the company is no longer
in existence or whatever. But, no, I mean, so I spent many years as the Dating Editor at Elite
Daily.

[00:04:18] BB: You were. Yes. We could talk about that for a long time. I'm sure. Wow.

[00:04:22] HO: Yes. I was covering dating and relationships and sex. So we would get pitched a
lot of experts like therapists, sex therapists, couples therapists, psychologists, dating coaches,
matchmakers, and so on. So I remembered once that somebody who had the perfect
credentials was in my inbox, and I just needed to search and find who they were. 

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Hannah's Favorite Pitches

[00:06:52] BB: Wow. Oh, I am loving this. We have not had a editor or any reporter, frankly,
anyone in media who's also a romance novel writer. So, my goodness, you get the trophy for
this. This is great. Okay, back to the inbox. Now, I know you came with a couple of pitches that
you want to share. Do you have some that you absolutely love that you would like to offer or
paraphrase?

[00:07:16] HO: Yes. I mean, I brought a couple. I would say – should I just go through them?

[00:07:21] BB: Yes, yes. We love the real examples.

[00:07:23] HO: Okay, great. So I have four examples.

[00:07:26] BB: Four. Look how prepared you are. Yay. Go ahead.

[00:07:29] HO: Thank you. First, all caps, it says, “PITCH:,” and then in regular text, “The
sanctity of the morning debrief, TM.” That intrigued me because I wanted to know what that was.

[00:07:41] BB: Yes. Well, me too. Now, I want to know.

[00:07:43] HO: Yes. I opened it and I really appreciated how the writer started the email. She
introduced herself. She said where she lives, where she's written before, her website. She says,
“We've connected in the past, but sending you my website if you want a deep dive.” I
appreciated that because, to be frank, I don't recall where we connected in the first place. But
it's nice that she's established that we do have this connection, and she's also given me sort of
like a sneaky out because I get to look at her portfolio and refresh my memory.

[00:08:10] BB: Yes, very good. Excellent job, publicist. Okay.

[00:08:13] HO: This is from a freelance writer, actually.

[00:08:14] BB: Yes. Okay. That one freelance. Yes.

[00:08:16] HO: Yes.

[00:08:17] BB: We're all pitching something. So, yes, ma’am.

[00:08:19] HO: Yes. These are all from freelance writers, but I think there's a lot in here –

[00:08:21] BB: Oh, okay. We can all learn.

[00:08:24] HO: Well. So the head, she spells out exactly what she wants the headline to be,
which is the subject, the sanctity of the morning debrief. Then she actually explains what it is,
which is that moment, especially when you're in college or your early 20s, where you connect
with all of your friends the morning after a big party, and you talk about all the drama and gossip
that's gone on. You're at a diner, and there's omelets and coffee and drama and gossip and like
the stories. Like, “Oh my God. Can you believe that so-and-so did what?”
So I left that because, number one, it's a great concept for Bustle. She talks about how this
practice changes throughout your 20s. Friendship is something [inaudible 00:08:59]. What's
special about this is that the way that she describes the concept is so lyrically written. It's almost
poetic. So I got a taste of her writing, and I got a sense of, oh, like I can put together some really
beautiful sentences. So I thought that was just perfectly done, and I commissioned the piece.
This, honestly, doesn't happen that often. But the headline on the site is almost identical to what
she pitched it with.

[00:09:23] BB: Oh, that's great. By the way, do you recommend that as a pitch strategy? Pitch
the actual headline, whether you're a freelance writer or a publicist.

[00:09:33] HO: A hundred percent.

[00:09:34] BB: A hundred percent. That's good.

[00:09:35] HO: Yes. Because just two things. Number one, it makes it really easy for me to
understand what you're talking about, and it gives me sort of like a shortcut of like, okay, do you
understand sort of like what headlines look like on our site and what a story should look like.
But, also, it helps ensure that publicists or the writer are on the same page about how this is
going to be framed or what we really want to highlight with this.

[00:09:59] BB: Then you know what else? It's the efficiency of I don't need to tell you in a dang
sentence. I know what you write about. I like that you're writing it. No, no, no. You can clearly
see that because I'm writing the headline that showcases my knowledge.

[00:10:09] HO: Yes. I will always go above and beyond with the writers that I work with. I mean,
I hope. I always try to. But I want them to also be committed to giving exactly what I need for a
story. So they've already had that thoughtful moment of like, okay, let's sit down and find a great
headline. That's just another sign to me that there's somebody who's probably going to be easy
to work with.

[00:10:30] BB: Yes. Oh, a sign of how you – oh, that's also sneaky tidbit there.
[BREAK]
[00:10:37] ANNOUNCER: Today's interview will continue after this brief message brought to
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Rapid Fire Pitching Preferences

[00:18:40] BB: There you go. Then we're good. Note to publicist, note to publicist. Okay,
Hannah. I have a quick-fire list of questions for you to quickly give your answers on, and we can
take it from here. First, video or phone interview?

[00:18:54] HO: Phone.

[00:18:55] BB: Old school phone. Is there a reason for that?

[00:18:59] HO: I really like the opportunity to just like have my questions in front of me and be
taking notes and to be – I can make a weird face, and I just get to do my own thing, and there
isn't that of sort of like awkward eye contact with somebody that you don’t know.

[00:19:11] BB: Yes. Bullet points or paragraphs in pitches?

[00:19:15] HO: Bullet points for data, paragraphs for anything more substantial than that.
[00:19:20] BB: Long or short pitches/how would you define either?

[00:19:24] HO: I want three short paragraphs.

[00:19:26] BB: Three. Oh, you are precise. Okay. Images attached or Dropbox zip file?

[00:19:33] HO: I think either is fine. Images attached is maybe a little bit easier, but I think either
is fine.

[00:19:38] BB: Okay. Twitter/X DM or email?

[00:19:41] HO: Oh, always the email. Any platform do not DM me. I don't want to hear it. That’s
–
[00:19:45] BB: I guess, yes. Yes. You should collectively decide on that, please.

[00:19:49] HO: Yes. It’s going to get lost. I'm not going to see it. If I do see it, it's like a Sunday
night. I'm not going to remember this on Monday morning.

[00:19:55] BB: That's right.

[00:19:56] HO: So it's going to get lost, and it's annoying, to be frank.

[00:19:59] BB: Okay. We're not doing that. Press release or media kit?

[00:20:02] HO: Either.

[00:20:02] BB: Creative or direct subject lines?

[00:20:05] HO: Creative.

[00:20:06] BB: One follow-up or multiple? You alluded to this before because your inbox is
shenanigans but –

[00:20:12] HO: Just one follow-up.

[00:20:13] BB: One.

[00:20:14] HO: And I'm going to say like be really judicious with your follow-ups. If you really
don't think you're the strongest possible fit, like don't follow up because we passed for a reason.
We wish we could get back to every single person, but we can't.

[00:20:25] BB: Okay. What time, if there is one, that you usually read pitches?

[00:20:31] HO: Usually morning like 900 to 10:00 or 5:00 to 6:00. Like sort of the middle of the
day, it's hard to keep on top of everything because I'm editing, but morning and end of day. 

________

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