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Maxwell Millington is an Entertainment Reporter at Axios.
During the episode, Max explains his role at Axios, how he prioritizes emails based on their importance in streaming, entertainment, and sports, and his tips for PR pose to best determine what news to pitch and what sources to provide.
Follow Maxwell on LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
How Maxwell Prioritizes Reviewing Pitches
[0:04:03] MM: Yeah. I look through everything. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to focus
on and what emails could, I can just bookmark and move on or delete right away. I also
sometimes, I do this little trick, this is just how my brain works, instead of like making a bunch of
folders, what I'll do is if I read an email and I know I need to pay attention to it or I need to come
back to later, I'll actually just go ahead and press mark as unread, so that way I can make sure I
come back to it later and in addition to bookmarking to make sure that I see it.
[0:04:38] BB: Oh, you have a double system, a failed system. Oh, I have not heard that before
on here. Okay. Then you did say you know what you're looking for. Do you just via subject line
and alone know like, okay, that's just clearly not for me?
[0:04:52] MM: Yeah. I’ve got to know what's a prioritize. For my role, a lot of the things that I do
involve TV and movies on streaming and being of course, sports, so just taking the streaming
example, if I get a release from a Netflix, or a Peacock, or Hulu and they’re – you know, letting
me know about a new show that's coming out, I know to sort of, like prioritize that in my inbox
and make sure, you know, is it like a show that everyone's talking about that I need to let local
reporters know about right away, or I need to write something about right away, or is it just like
something I can come back to and write about later. Another good example is like concert
announcements. We do, if it's a Taylor Swift is going on tour, like that's sort of like, okay, put
everything down, read that.
[0:05:44] BB: I love it. Put everything down.
[0:05:48] MM: Yeah. That kind of – I'll put everything down, like –
[0:05:52] BB: That's right. That’s right.
[0:05:55] MM: We got to get the news out about that right away. That's how it works.
The Importance of Understanding A Journalist's Coverage Areas
[0:07:53] MM: Yeah. I would say the number one thing is just to really understand what it is that
I as a journalist cover. I think there's instances, so for example, one of the interesting parts of
my job right now is I write what's called the weekender for two cities, Axios Chicago and Axios
Denver. I write about what events are coming up on the weekend. It's like six items. A lot of the
events are large scale, hundreds of people, concerts, festivals, sporting events, really big
events. Sometimes bar crawls. It depends on the weekend.
If for example, that's something that you're pitching me for like an event that is 50 people are
going to be able to come to or something that's like, “Hey, this restaurant is doing a drink special
on Wednesday.” Like that's not really on the same like level as I normally have the weekender,
which is a concert or a Bear’s game or a Cub’s, whatever. Just paying close attention to if you're
pitching for like a weekly series, paying close attention to the things that are in this series to
make sure that whatever you're pitching fits in with that, or if you're just pitching me on like
something that you think might be relevant, but you haven't really done –
[0:09:22] BB: You haven’t done a work.
[0:09:24] MM: If it is like that, I would say just really getting an understanding of what the
journalists or it might be what I do like would help a lot. It would save us both a lot of time.
[0:09:32] BB: It would save everybody the time. Please, everybody. Please.
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Insight Into The Story Approval Process
[0:14:55] BB: Okay. Flexible, flexible, Max would like it. Do you want to get a little bit into before
we go to our, like quick-fire questions into the story approval process? Because for many
publicists perhaps, even at the editor level, it's a bit murky. It's like, well, how does a pitch get
the okay to then become the story? We all have a boss somewhere. Someone has to say, yes,
this is a go. No, don't do that or whatnot. Is there a way in which you pitch the stories you wish
to do or how does that look?
[0:15:28] MM: Yes. For a lot of things, I – thankfully, I worked on a really great team. A lot of
things, I'm at the point now where my editor trusts me to do a lot of things. I don't have to get
everything I write about approved, but for a pitch to get approved, to go back to that point, a lot
of times for me, specifically, I look for stories that touch as many of our local markets as
possible, because at the end of the day like I said earlier, that's my job is to provide
entertainment and sports stories for our 30 local markets.
© 2024 Coffee With A Journalist 8
CWAJ 236 Transcript
If there's something that touches even three out of the 30, that's a good place to be able to you
know, okay, I can go ahead and write about this. Depending on what it is. If it's really right in the
middle of my coverage area that's something I can just write and no approval really needed, but
if it's something that's a little bit more obscure, a little bit outside, so like for example the video
game thing. If it's like something like that, it's like, “Okay, I might have to check with my editor to
see if this is okay.” But really at the core for myself, it all goes back to a story that's relevant in
as many of our 30 cities as possible.
Rapid Fire Pitching Preferences
[0:16:53] BB: Okay. Noted on that front. Shall we get into the quick-fire portion?
[0:16:57] MM: I'd love to.
[0:16:58] BB: Max, let's do it. Okay. First off. Video or phone interview?
[0:17:03] MM: Video.
[0:17:04] BB: Video. Now, we're hearing interesting answers for this one. What makes you say
video?
[0:17:09] BB: Just being able to have a conversation like face-to-face is great and this virtual
world. I think seeing a face is always, you know, I like it. It feels so good.
[0:17:19] BB: Okay. Okay. I mean, I agree too with that. Bullet points are paragraphs in a pitch?
[0:17:24] MM: Bullet points. I haven't got many enough. I get a lot of paragraphs.
[0:17:29] BB: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:17:30] MM: Send the bullets at me, please.
[0:17:32] BB: I assume short versus long pitches?
[0:17:34] MM: Yes, short pitches.
[0:17:35] BB: Okay. How about images attached or a Dropbox zip file?
[0:17:39] MM: That is a great question. I think Dropbox, for me, just because, depending on
what it is, like it's easier just to share a link. If it’s a Dropbox with other reporters or I can just go
and look, but yeah, Dropbox links are cool.
[0:17:56] BB: We like a Dropbox. Okay. Then email or a DM of any kind for a pitch?
[0:18:03] MM: Email just because it's really easy. It's about, it's right there in my work stuff. DMs
are fine, but email just –
[0:18:13] BB: Okay. Okay. We like it. Direct or creative subject lines. We talked a little bit about
this.
[0:18:18] MM: Yeah. Direct.
[0:18:19] BB: Direct it. Done. Okay. How about follow-ups? Multiple or?
[0:18:25] MM: This is a good question. One follow-up is usually enough. I will say that just
depending on the time out of like whatever the news is, like I'm not responding in – I don't mind
multiple follow-ups, but usually I can get back after one.
[0:18:47] BB: Okay. This is good. Press release or media kit?
[0:18:51] MM: Oh, man. What a great question. I think I'm more likely to like look through a
media kit. The media kit's great, because it's a one-stop shop, right? But if you got, a lot of
times, personally, in it with photos and all the stuff I need. I love a media kit.
[0:19:08] BB: Is there a time? We talked about a little bit from you being in LA. A time, though,
in which you're looking at pitches. Any time we should know?
[0:19:15] MM: No. I look at stuff all day. I would say, I don't normally start my day at around 8
Pacific. I mean, you can email me before that, but if you want like a quicker response, then later
in the day is better.
[0:19:31] BB: By the way, do you ever feel like you're behind being on the West Coast from
your New York peers or East Coast peers?
[0:19:39] MM: No, not really. The only time I feel behind is when like some major news comes
up before I wake up.
[0:19:46] BB: Oh, I know.
[0:19:47] MM: But on a day-to-day basis, no, I love being on the West Coast.
[0:19:54] BB: Oh, me too. For the life, hell yeah. But sometimes on the news front, you're like,
yeah, man. Which is why I love being in New York City. That's my favorite place where I'm like,
oh, and I'm an early bird, so I’m like, it's 5:30 AM. No one's up. Not even anyone in New York
except the trash people. I'm telling you. I love it when you can have a East Coast vibe.
________
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