Adding video, pics could make the difference in your next pitch

MSU Campus Archaeology Program crewmember Morgan Manuszak, Arts and Humanities senior, works on drawing a soil profile, a process archaeologists use to record changes in soil composition, texture, color, etc. of the excavation unit. (Photo credit: Nick Schrader, Michigan State University)

Many newsrooms across the United States are producing more TV than ever. WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, for instance, has five and a half hours of local coverage in the morning, two and a half hours in the afternoon and 30-minute shows at both noon and late-night.

All that coverage time means there’s ample need for content. But assignment editors and producers are also overwhelmed by emails and phone calls requesting coverage, according to Doug Lillibridge, an executive producer at WKRC, a CBS affiliate. The fact many newsrooms are working with smaller staff sizes doesn’t help either.

Lillibridge noted that receiving b-roll, audio clips and still images in the pitch process can be helpful to newsrooms in their programming decision-making.

“We all get tons of pitches every day. Get to the point clearly and succinctly  … and show us why your pitch is important for our audience,” he said.

Rules to follow

Lillibridge said his team is open – even grateful – when a pitch comes with video. Even if the content doesn’t end up on the newscast, it may still end up on the station’s social media or other platforms.

“Every newsroom is far more sensitive today to digital needs than at any previous time,” said Lillibridge, who also teaches broadcast news writing and production at the University of Cincinnati.

Lillibridge’s focus is hard news. His station will run features, things like restaurant openings and groundbreakings, but it rarely assigns those stories to reporters over hard news. Including photos or videos increases the likelihood of landing coverage for a softer story, he said.

Every newsroom has its own rules about submitted content, but if Lillibridge uses provided b-roll, it’s typically for a 15- to 20-voiceover, or vo, a brief news story where the audience may or may not see the anchor read the lead.

Canned sound will almost never get used, Lillibridge said, except in the most desperate situations.

“PR folk should not think it (pre-recorded video) is a substitute for an interview,” he said.

Helping reporters see the full picture

The media relations team at Michigan State University have found success using the let’s-help-them-out approach, said Alex Tekip, public relations manager. It’s even helped them develop stronger relationships with reporters by showing them they “can trust you to go above and beyond.”

“Newsrooms are understaffed and reporters have a lot on their plate,” Tekip said.

“If we can provide photos, audio, video, b-roll it makes their job easier,” she added. “If you’re alleviating some of the work, it can be a quicker turn to get a story up.”

Tekip’s pitches typically focus on faculty research. In those cases, she’ll usually offer footage of campus or a short video interview with a professor to make it easier for newsroom staff to visualize the potential story.

This tactic can work well on exclusives, too, Tekip said. She gave the example of an MSU-led workshop for staging intimate scenes in theater that went on to become a feature in the Detroit Free Press.

By giving the reporter video or photo “access to places they normally can’t go,” Tekip said “it may encourage them to visit when they can.”

Arguably Tekip’s biggest placement success at MSU was coverage of the unearthing of the foundation of the school’s 1881 observatory.

It was a good story, Tekip said, and one she thought would have interested local media in the school’s backyard of East Lansing, Michigan. But because MSU was able to provide compelling video of the excavation, coupled with archival photos of the old observatory, it made the sales job that much easier to national outlets as well.

The story appeared in People magazine, NPR, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Popular Science, Guardian USA and Smithsonian Magazine. The foundation of the unearthed observatory ended up being one of the Smithsonian’s “Fascinating Finds” that year .

MSU considers a range of factors to determine the success of a pitch. That includes tangible outcomes, such as a researcher  speaking at a conference, as well as earned media placements. Tekip and her team use Cision to track media mentions but they’re not only concerned with reach volume or landing in national media. Tekip said she believes a placement in a prominent trade publication or a key statewide outlet can be just as valuable.

“We had to act quick and get footage, get video, get photos… to kind of be able to tell that full story,” Tekip said. “We were able to really put together an integrated campaign, essentially, that won a regional PRSA award.”

Be ready for when the call or email comes

Lillibridge emphasized the importance of having potential story elements readily available. If content, in whatever form, isn’t there when the station needs it, the opportunity will likely go away.

“That doesn’t just mean 9-to-5,” Lillibridge said. “This is a deadline business.”

To address that type of concern, the MSU media team has a digital catalog full of school-specific stock photos and videos. When they send those to journalists, they also include full captions and alt-text to give more context.

Having those things ready to go paid off for Tekip when the observatory story started to gain national traction because her team was able to respond to media inquiries with those digital assets while she was out of office.

(Photo credit: Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections)

To those without in-house support, Tekip suggests establishing partnerships with creatives or hiring a freelancer, if there’s room in the budget.

If all else fails, whip out your smartphone and capture a photo or videos of your own, Tekip said.

One point that Lillibridge emphasized is that the FCC requires TV stations to give credit for the videos they use. In your pitch, make sure you list who owns any content you’re submitting and articulate that you’ve given the publication permission to broadcast it.

Ultimately, Lillibridge and Tekip agreed that even a pitch with the best video and images is still just a pitch.

“A great pitch is timely, insightful and/or a great sidebar to something we’re already talking about,” Lillibridge said. “Great video is the mother’s milk of those stories.”

Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. You can follow him on LinkedIn.