How to pitch
What makes a good Weekly pitch?
There’s no one formula for a good Weekly pitch, but in general, you can consider the following “checklist” when coming up with a pitch.
Is your pitch...
Relevant? Since we are the South Side Weekly, your pitch should be somehow about or related to life on the South Side of Chicago, which we roughly define as south of Roosevelt Rd. (Talk to us if you are unsure about boundaries—we do occasionally cover the West Side and some things elsewhere in the city or state, if they are relevant to a South Side audience.) This includes stories about people who are from or who live on the South Side (for example, covering work by a musician or author from the South Side). This often means looking for local stories that aren’t covered by other publications. It’s also possible to take national, state, or citywide news and find an angle that’s relevant to the South Side. For example, a story about how the Trump presidency is affecting South Side immigrants, or how a state education bill will affect South Side schools or students.
Newsworthy? In general, there should be a reason that you are pitching this story now. If there’s a news item that happened a year ago, we shouldn’t cover it unless there has been more related news recently. Just because something exists doesn’t always mean that you should write a story about it, unless there’s something newsworthy to cover. However, it’s usually easy to find a newsworthy angle. For example, if you find out about a cool arts center that’s been around for a while, you shouldn’t just pitch a story about the center itself. But you can call them up and find out about what new exhibits or programs they have going on, and frame the story around that.
Unique? The pitch shouldn’t be a repeat of a story that another publication has already covered in-depth. If another publication has already written about it, your pitch should find a unique way to approach the topic that adds to what have already been done and asks different questions than the original article. For example, if a daily news outlet, like the Sun-Times, Tribune, or Block Club, publishes a quick news update on planned changes to a bus line, you could pitch a story about how it will affect residents in a certain neighborhood. If another publication briefly mentions an artist’s work in an article, you could pitch an in-depth interview with the artist. In addition, your pitch shouldn’t be something the Weekly has already covered in the same way. You can search through our website to see if there have already been articles about the topic.
How do I find out about things to pitch?
Read the news
Sources like daily newspapers, Block Club, and the city’s myriad other location or topic-specific news outlets often provide news stories that can be developed into longer pitches for the Weekly
Read various Chicago news sources with an eye towards finding an angle appropriate for the South Side Weekly
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are your friends
Following Chicago politicians/artists/organizations/etc. can help you stay up to date with what’s going on in the city and lead to inspiration
If you are interested in pitching around a specific topic, make sure to follow the major players related to that topic. For example, if you want to write for the Education section, you should be following CPS, the CTU, advocacy groups, and local experts to stay up to date on education news.
For Twitter, an app called TweetDeck can help you stay up to date on what the people you follow are doing on Twitter and can help you see what people are talking about when you search certain keywords
Follow neighborhood groups, discussions, and calendars online
Many neighborhoods have Facebook groups you can join
You can also use sites like NextDoor to keep up with neighborhood news and events
You can subscribe to emails for various community groups, like Resident Association of Greater Englewood, and get updates on events
Show up
If you have some time on your hands, go to community meetings and events even if you aren’t covering them for the Weekly! You can meet people and get inspired for future pitches
Move through the world as a journalist
When you’re just walking around the South Side or on public transit, be receptive to people you meet and stories you encounter
Form relationships with people you meet and call them up to see what they’re thinking about these days. Let them know they can always get in touch with you with pitch suggestions. This includes sources for previous stories you’ve written—stay in touch if you can!
A general note
Think broadly about the kind of issues or stories that you think are important, and about creative ways to cover them—don’t get stuck in only thinking about pieces based on the news of the week or events you know are upcoming.
Ways to do that might include setting aside time to consider the Weekly’s coverage in a particular section and what might be missing there, or writing down a few topics that you’d like to read more about or think are important for people to know about (whether that’s public defense, gentrification, urban wildlife, or the DIY scene) and then workshopping ways to approach them.
How do I write up a pitch?
Give the pitch a title and then write a paragraph describing the story and potential angles you’d be interested in exploring. Include suggestions for what kind of story it might be, such as a feature, review, interview, etc. You can include links to articles or information about the subject. Try to list some potential sources as well. It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how the story should be approached, but you should give some suggestions or thoughts to start with. If possible, provide a suggested word count and deadline. A pitch shouldn’t be more than a few paragraphs, and can be as short as one or two. Finally, please include a little information about your background with the topic, area, and/or with writing—whether journalistic or not.
Here are some examples:
eta Magic Box
eta Creative Arts' Magic Box series is returning for a second year, lasting from January 13th to January 29th (http://www.etacreativearts.org/magic_box_2017/). This year has several more events than last year's inaugural series, and seems to bring more interdisciplinary performance and less straight theatre into the fold—a choice that seems to me perhaps part of the director's effort to serve the younger generations of its community, as she noted in a recent Weekly piece about eta. I'm interested in the curation/selection process for this year's series—were the playwrights and performers for this year found through the established eta community, or through new connections? How old are these playwrights/performers, and what do they think eta can do for them? This would be less a review of the series (though that aspect would probably still be necessary), since there are so many events within it, but rather a look into what this year's Magic Box installment says about eta right now, by focusing on a few specific events/artists. (Julia)
Flying Gardens of Maybe
Andrew Yang is an scientist and artist focused on the intersection of art and nature. He's had an ongoing project with the Field Museum since 2012 called Flying Gardens of Maybe focused on collecting the seeds from the bodies of birds who die via colliding with mirrored glass buildings (ie buildings in the International style, ie like Trump Tower, as he says). Renmants of the birds' stomachs are planted in the spring in an act of "eco-engineering." Could be interesting to interview Yang and touch on the role of artists in visualizing the effects of buildings/urban development especially in light of development projects happening across the South Side. And then maybe talk with the Field Museum about their role, beyond education, in impacting the city's relationship to nature. (Corinne)
I have an idea, but I’m not sure how to turn it into a pitch
No problem! We workshop pitches and collaborate all the time. If you have an idea but you don’t know what kind of article it should be or what angle to suggest, feel free to get in touch to talk it out. Email editor@southsideweekly.com and put “Pitch Question” in the subject line.