Miranda Nazzaro is a technology reporter for The Hill
Miranda Nazzaro is a technology reporter at The Hill, covering AI, misinformation, antitrust law, data privacy, and tech-politics. She also co-authors The Hill's Technology newsletter. In this episode, Miranda discusses her journey as a tech reporter in D.C., from breaking news to covering topics like Elon Musk and AI policy. Tune in for a behind-the-scenes look at her organized, yet chaotic, inbox and what she looks for in a pitch.
Linkedin: Miranda Nazzaro - Technology Reporter - The Hill | LinkedIn
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Author Page: Miranda Nazzaro - Author at The Hill
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
[0:06:44] MN: Even when I delete messages from the inbox, I rarely ever actually completely trash them because you really never know when you're going to need some sort of email, phone number. Also, when it comes to politics, we're constantly seeing people go from the private sector into government or vice versa. When that happens, it's like you got to have some sort of contact. Even if in the moment, to be honest, you're not doing anything with them, it could serve reviews later.
My inbox is pretty full. I will say part of how I've kind of countered a bit of that is when I joined the tech beat, I was like, “It's time to create folders.” I actually have folders. One is for other tech newsletters. The other – we have a newsletter ourselves but for the other outlets. That's kind of like a good resource for me. I have one that's literally just called tech resources, and that's anybody sending me things that are like, “Hey, here's this new project we're working on.” Not necessarily a story in itself. It might be something as part of something bigger.
Then I have a tech pitch sources, which sounds weird, but it was the best title I could come up with. That's basically any time publicists, PR companies reach out and say, "Hey, we have an expert available.” Maybe it's a very specific story or maybe a bigger topic. I never delete those. Iwill admit, I don't always respond to them, just given the sheer amount that we get, which I assume we'll get into more. But I don't delete them, which hopefully relieves some publicists. Your emails are not going into a void. A lot of times, it's just I'm not covering that anytime soon. Again, I never delete those. Usually, those goes into that folder.
Then once I start corresponding with other publicists or coms people from certain companies, I have a separate folder that's like source messages. Trying to have some sense of organization, it's somewhat helped. It's somewhat helped. I will say we're still, for example, in the time that probably you and I are speaking today, and I haven't looked at my Outlook in 20 minutes. I'll come back to 20 new random emails and stuff. It’s just easy to get behind.
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[0:11:29] BB: Okay. Do you have some examples of pitches that you particularly like?
[0:11:35] MN: Yes, one second. I would say in general, I am somebody – all caps catches my eyes very quickly. I mean, at least all caps in the beginning. For example, I wrote down a few, and this is one that I actually ended up using. I was –
[0:11:52] BB: Oh, we like proof of this actually helps. Yes.
[0:11:55] MN: Yes, yes. It was around the time where Bitcoin was flirting with 100K, and a lot of that was correlated with President Trump. Somebody from a PR company had reached out with all caps like just experts, which I get a lot that start that way. I will admit that. But for me, it was the next part also that really caught my eye where it wasn't some long title trying to form the story for me. It was more so it's experts and it's a Trump crypto boom, as Bitcoin hits 92K.
That was a very straightforward subject line, in my opinion. Not trying to over complicate it. I quickly was able to figure out, okay, we're talking about crypto. We're talking about Bitcoin and Trump. Those are also the keywords that I look up.
[0:12:43] BB: All the things. Yes.
[0:12:45] MN: That's another thing is looking up keywords in my Outlook to try to find some of these. In that case, I don't think I had immediately responded. It wasn't until a few days later that I did, and part of that was, “Oh, I remember somebody saying crypto boom.” That was just an example that caught my eye, and I ended up talking with the person that they had pitched to me, and it worked out great. Yes. All caps, I will say, is something that does catch my eye, whereas I had another one that – granted I don't cover this in general.
[0:20:30] BB: Miranda, we have a little hot list of hot take questions here. Are you ready to answer them?
[0:20:39] MN: Oh, boy. I guess so. I'm scared.
[0:20:41] BB: Yes. You know all the answers. Don't worry. Don't worry. Okay. Video or phone interview?
[0:20:46] MN: In general, I'd say phone interview. Yes.
[0:20:49] BB: Okay. Bullet points or paragraphs in the pitch?
[0:20:53] MN: Bullet points.
[0:20:54] BB: Okay. Short or long pitches?
[0:20:57] MN: Short.
[0:20:59] BB: Hell, yes. It's very rare I hear long but you know it happens. Images attached or zipped Dropbox file?
[0:21:07] MN: Images attached.
[0:21:09] BB: Email or a DM of some sort?
[0:21:12] MN: I guess email I would say. Then I think if I know you further, then DM follow-up.
[0:21:19] BB: Okay, okay, okay. One follow-up or multiple?
[0:21:23] MN: Yes. One follow-up. Again, there's exceptions, but –
[0:21:27] BB: Direct or creative subject lines?
[0:21:29] MN: Direct.
[0:21:30] BB: Press release or media kit?
[0:21:33] MN: Press release.
[0:21:34] BB: Press release. Anytime that you particularly read pitches? I know it's like all the time, it sounds like.
[0:21:41] MN: Oftentimes, mornings are my busiest when it comes to writing. It's usually from the hours of like 3pm Eastern to six is when I catch up on the ones that I didn't see throughout the day.
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