The Christian Science Monitor
Work & Money and Learning Sections
One Norway St.,Boston, MA 02115
617/450-7034
http://www.csmonitor.com
A 90-plus-year-old international daily, the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor is best known for international news coverage. It won the most recent of its half-
dozen Pulitzer Prizes in 1996 for producing evidence of mass graves in Bosnia. In recent years it has worked hard to broaden its reader demographic beyond academics and
politicians. The paper's circulation hovers between 70,000 and 100,000. Redesigned in recent years, the paper carries five daily feature sections: Work & Money runs on Monday
and Learning on Tuesdays. The other sections are HomeFront (Wednesdays), Ideas (Thursdays) and Arts & Entertainment (Fridays). This spring its Web site will host a
comprehensive online guide for prospective free-lance writers that will discuss the paper's needs, section-by-section, as well as outlining the paper's general mission.
Contents/Contacts
WORK&MONEY
It's not a business section in the traditional sense, so it doesn't hit "business news." Don't bother delivering information about personnel changes at companies. Nor does it
cover much b-to-b. It's all about reader utility. Its main areas of coverage: 1) personal finance -- how to pay for college or eldercare, shop for a mortgage, bank online; 2)
consumer - "big think" trend pieces on issues like "ambient advertising" or "experience marketing," as well as shorter, nuts-and-bolts consumer pieces on, for example, picking a
long-distance calling plan; 3) workplace trends; and 4) investing -- socially responsible mutual funds are a hot topic. Many of its stories are also related to the Internet.
Send targeted pitches via email to department editor Clay Collins, [email protected], and cc it to his deputy editor Vic Roberts
[email protected]. They will read and then route to the right staffer or stringer.
LEARNING
Content runs the gamut, from K-12 to adult learning. What sells here are features with a news edge. For example, after the string of school shootings, a piece on safety in
schools would be acceptable.
Once again, send targeted emails to department editor Amelia Newcomb at [email protected].
Pitch Tips
WORK & MONEY
Email is strongly preferred, though little will be closely looked at on Wednesdays or Thursdays, the editor's heavy deadline days. The phone may not even be picked up on those
days. Faxes are fine (617/450-7682). Short calls are OK on Fridays and Mondays, though the caller will likely be asked to sum up the idea in an email anyway, which the editors
read. If the pitch is off the mark Collins and Roberts usually can tell within a few sentences and will delete them without replying. Releases that don't have immediate relevance
are nevertheless routed to writers to be considered background for later stories.
LEARNING
Email is hands-down the best way to catch Newcomb. She checks it regularly, unlike her fax machine, which, like a lot of other newsrooms, spews forth reams of paper that don't
get looked at. The worst way to contact her is by phone.
Lead Times/Comments
WORK & MONEY
Collins and Roberts plan cover stories three weeks out or more. Shorter pieces can run through the pipeline as quickly as a week and a half. PR pros can score if they serve up
a source for a story they're working on. Also, Collins writes an editor's column on some issue that's peripheral to the week's cover story, in which he can sometimes use a quote
or two. Page two of the section is full of short items like statistics, expert tips and the like. The editors draw heavily on releases (faxes, mail, email) for those items.
LEARNING
The sooner the pitch gets there the better for Newcomb, who usually works four weeks out. Breaking stories have shorter lead times for obvious reasons.
All the editors really appreciate pitches that reflect some familiarity with the section and its regular components and general aims. It's worth tracking the section
online. Again, watch for the contributors' guidelines going up on the Web. Targeted pieces of PR tend to grab the inside track. The folks at Money & Work don't review business
books but they do look them over and consider the authors as sources for stories. For Newcomb, stories offering trends and analysis are especially welcome.Also, keep press
releases jargon-free, unless you are offering the editors a good laugh. The Collins/Roberts team have read some incomprehensible tech-related releases that had them rolling on the
floor.