Perfect PitchZinch.com lands New York Times podcast by pushing education trends

It wasn’t an easy task to confirm these references, considering their ages: “There was a privacy issue, so we had to ask the parents if it was OK for their kids to talk to the media,” Hagerman says.

With students and admissions officers on board to tell the story of Zinch.com, Hagerman started working on the media list. Instead of focusing solely on education media, Hagerman decided that the business press offered the best exposure for the fledgling site—an upscale readership, probably with college-bound kids or thinking about going back to school themselves.

The pitch: Since Zinch.com was launching in October, it would miss the traditional flurry of stories around back-to-school trends. So, Hagerman knew she couldn’t simply pitch the launch—no matter how trendy social networking is at the moment. She had to make the story fit into other education stories if she wanted to land key placements.