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The Wind-Up
Kathleen Deveny, assistant managing editor of Newsweek, who oversees "The Tip Sheet" section of the publication, barely has any room left in her office. It's bulging with a
boogey-board, a beach hat, a Hello Kitty Toaster, a skateboard, and a tiny, remote-controlled, submarine that dives into a swimming pool, among other items she's been recently
pitched for "The Tip Sheet." The three-to-five page section, which runs in the back of the book, is devoted to "Smart Strategies for Your Money, Health, Family, Technology,
Design, Real Estate, Travel" and will generally include a front page feature focusing on either money, health, technology or travel, followed by 12-15 stories on all the other
topics in the tag line. The section was launched last May as an editorial bookend to the "Periscope" section, which runs in the front of Newsweek (3.1 million circulation). The
key difference is that "Periscope" runs hard news stories while "The Tip Sheet" carries personal service items or news stories with a personal service spin. "When [NBC News]
reporter David Bloom died in Iraq of a pulmonary embolism we did a piece on detecting or preventing it in yourself, which is an ideal Tip Sheet item," Deveny says. The latest 'Tip
Sheet,' for instance, includes stories on the dietary needs of pregnant women; a new online service designed to meet people through friends; the impact SARS is having on the pearl
trade and a new product on the market to help get rid of varicose veins as an alternative to surgery.
The Pitch
Deveny prefers to be contacted by e-mail, [email protected]. (You can also contact associate editor Kate Stroup, [email protected]). It's good to touch base with Deveny earlier in the week, what with Newsweek closing on Saturday and Deveny
getting squeezed as the week progresses. If you haven't heard back from Deveny -- or a Newsweek reporter -- within a day or so, she probably didn't bite. But Deveny says she and
her staff can sometimes surprise people with what they end up running. "I got a pitch from Dr. Scholl's and I thought, 'We're never going to use Dr. Scholl's.' But it was nice
stuff, I tried them out, gave them to a bunch of people and we liked it," she says. "The trick to editing the section is making sure there's a good mix of items." Deveny, who gets
at least 50-100 e-mails a day, adds that PR pitches should be concise. "If it's confusing or I have to open an attachment, I'll delete it," she says. "If I'm reading down three
paragraphs and can't tell what product or subject is I won't even read the rest." Deadlines are about a week out, but there's usually some leeway since many of the stories that
run in the section are of an evergreen quality.
The Follow-Through
In September, "The Tip Sheet" will run a special "Back to School" section. Next up, in mid-November, is a holiday gift guide that will run about eight pages, perhaps more.
"We've had a lot of interest from both advertisers and companies for the Christmas one already," Deveny says, adding that the section's content is "very seasonally driven."
Periodically, the section will do a feature titled "In the News" in which editors pull a personal service angle out of a news story that's been getting the water-cooler treatment.
"It sounds painfully obvious, but there has to be some relevant piece of advice we need to give people," Deveny says. "We try not do pieces that make us look funny and
postmodern."