Our guest on the show today is Michelle Lewis, writer & editor for 9to5Group including 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Electrek, and DroneDJ. Michelle covers a wide range of topics including Apple, Google, Tesla, EVs and drones, and writes news articles about green energy, climate change, and electric vehicles.

During the episode, Michelle talks more specifically about her varying beat, elements in a pitch that catch her attention, her process for diving into the WHY behind stories, and more.

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

Her Work Inbox 

[00:03:10] BB: Yeah, tech futurist, got it. If we may go into your inbox for a moment, are you getting pitches that are all over the place for all things that could be for 9to5? Or are you getting good pitches, tell us about it.

[00:03:25] ML: I specifically write about clean energy and also about electric vehicles. So basically, I have built my audience that myself over the last two and a half years. And so, in my inbox, there is currently an email about GAFF energy who just launched a brand-new solar tiles, that are available that is unprecedented. They were launched yesterday at CES in Las Vegas.

[00:03:56] BB: Oh wait, you can get a panel through the mail now? 

[00:03:58] ML: Yes, exactly.

“The subject line, it's usually pretty – it’s important, but it's not vital.”

[00:04:01] BB: Wow. Does Amazon ship it?

[00:04:04] ML: Okay, you’re solar.

[00:04:07] BB: Okay, we’ve arrived. That’s a good deal. 

[00:04:13] ML: I've got an email in here about electric trucks, something about, 20% of the US is trucks are now committed to net zero. Going to read a month later. I'm interested in that. I have an email from a net zero, high net worth development in California. We got tips about the new F150 Lightning.

Her Thoughts on Pitches

[00:05:06] BB: Wow. So, let me ask, so all those pitches you just mentioned seem very on point. Are you getting stuff that though is ever off point? And what do you do with those pitches? 

[00:05:17] ML: I put them in the little trash can.

[00:05:20] BB: And immediately like, you don't even open them. You just like, “Well, trashed.”

[00:05:24] ML: I actually do open everything. I'll do a quick skim and when it is so completely off point, it's like not even remotely what we do. We have these new flowers, like, that's really lovely. But that is not what we do, then I just delete it. I do very much believe in treating old pitches and the PRs who are pitching them with great respect. I have worked in PR, it is a hard job.

“Yeah, I'm good with the nudge. I'm good with that. Because sometimes what happens is it gives me a chance to look again, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not interested, it just means that it kind of got lost in the scrub.”

[00:05:48] BB: You've been on the other side? 

[00:05:50] ML: I think people deserve a response. I don't like to be ignored myself. I don't like to do that to other people. That saying, if it gets so full in that inbox, and someone is pitch me, like bananas, then I'll just delete it because I just don't have time.

[00:06:06] BB: So, it does sound like you do a good job curating making sure stuffs deleted, you don't let it ride. So, I know some people are like, let it ride. But just go and go and go.

“But if there are certain keywords that grab my interest, I mean, if it's keywords in a kind of common noun sense, like solar, wind, or like Tesla or Ford, then I'll open it. But usually I will open most things to kind of give it a quick look.”

[00:06:19] ML: Yeah, I generally do. What sometimes happens is that someone will send me like, and this is perfectly reasonable for other outlets, like an embargoed story, and it's two to three weeks out. I like to make note of that if it's important if it's something I want to cover, but sometimes in the scrum, if it gets lost, and I'll lose it. And so, if I'm prompted on that, I appreciate that.

Her Thoughts on Exclusives & Embargoes 

[00:08:53] BB: Okay, where do you fall with exclusives versus embargoes? And what's your preference for these? I know you're in a fast churn news breaking cycle for what you cover, what would you say?

[00:09:06] ML: Yeah, I think everybody loves it a good exclusive. I appreciate it when an exclusive is offered to me. And I recognize having worked in PR myself, that it's good manners to get back to that person because if I don't take the exclusive, they need to pitch it somewhere else. 

[00:09:22] BB: Yes, yes. Oh, that's a good next question, though. How quickly do you get back to that exclusive? Like if you see it in the subject line, is that the first email you'll open?

[00:09:31] ML: Yes.

[00:09:32] BB: Got it. Okay.

“And I recognize having worked in PR myself, that it's good manners to get back to that person because if I don't take the exclusive, they need to pitch it somewhere else.”

[00:09:33] ML: I think that comes from experience on the PR side. I just reckon that that person is under pressure.

[00:09:42] BB: Got it. Good to know. And then for you, let's say it is an exclusive and it's one that you really want, you had said when we did an earlier video a few hours, what's the lead time for you in the range for an exclusive? 

[00:10:02] ML: Generally, if someone's got something that's just landed, okay, the Danish offshore wind company Ørsted. It's one of my favorite companies to follow, I believe – they’ve got the muscles. They're the ones bringing the clean energy off of our shores in the US. So, if Ørsted emails, something breaking, they tend to do it first thing in the morning, and I get that soon as possible. So, PRs have actually done quite well with me when they send something that's brand new. It's sufficiently something tangible, as in, we cover like this happened, this is about to happen. Quite a simple, it's not complex. It's not an analysis.

How She Writes Stories

[00:11:45] BB: Now, Michelle, you in the last couple years, have been digging deep on the EV space, sustainability, the technology that's making climate change, not the reality that we're facing. What does a story that's meaty and deep take to do? Does it take you hours and hours multiple interviews? Is it something you think about in the shower? And you're like, “I'm going to do that story.” Or is it just coming right from your inbox where you're like, “That's a great pitch, let me post that.”

[00:12:18] ML: The way that we write, I mean, we tend not to do a lot of like deep features. So, Canary Media, for example, they're excellent and they will write longer forum pieces where they travel somewhere. I know that one of their writers recently went to Hawaii and checked out what Hawaii are doing in terms of renewables. And that is a great respect for that outlet.

We are more like the kind of we're going to give you the latest on what's going on. Usually, if there's something that I feel quite passionate about, or I feel like it's important, then I'll devote more time to it and I absolutely end up thinking about that kind of stuff in the shower. A little bit unique about our group is that particularly Electric, is that we are not neutral the way that Associated Press or Reuters is. We are advocates of clean energy, advocates of electric cars and we make that very clear. We make that clear to people that pitch us and we are not unbiased. We make very clear in our writing.

“We are more like the kind of we're going to give you the latest on what's going on. Usually, if there's something that I feel quite passionate about, or I feel like it's important, then I'll devote more time to it and I absolutely end up thinking about that kind of stuff in the shower. “

So, I had quite a lot to say about the latest build back better build being stuck because of mansions unwillingness to support it. So, that means that I build on knowledge of watching, for example, a long interview between himself and the head of the United coworkers union, digging into his finances, which is on open secrets. Trying to figure out what the background is I find West Virginia as a state quite fascinating. So, that leads me into a more kind of interest in desire to figure out the why. Because it's so impactful. This one man is is literally impacting the whole planet.

That's where I say, we're not neutral on this at all, and I make that very clear. Actually, what we do is we split the opinion from the facts so that it's super easy for folks to realize what is fact and what is opinion. I once gave a talk at a college and that was what the feedback came. The feedback from the delegates was basically we have trouble discerning what's real and what's not, which is very useful because it was about media and how to separate out fact opinion. And so, I'm really glad that we split out so it's called an Electric’s Take or 9to5Mac’s Take. And that way they know, we are now switching into opinion. Obviously, no one's reading print anymore and there's no little op-ed eyebrow on top of that print.

________

Michelle opens many of the emails (and pitches) she receives and she usually takes about 10-15 seconds to determine if they’re relevant. She has worked in PR and knows the value of time as well as responding whether she’s interested or not to cover the information more in detail.

Hear more about Michelle’s preferences for pitches, relationship building, and more by watching her journalist spotlight videos!

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