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Arlington, VA 22229
703/276-3400
www.usatoday.com
The best way to make friends with the folks at USA Today is to pitch them breaking news that is actually breaking. Take the travel department. A good example of breaking news (and, thus, worthy of a short lead-time) was when the airlines announced their bill of rights to guarantee passenger satisfaction. What constitutes breaking news at the national news desk is a bit more obvious: fire, flood, famine or anything else that would cross a police scanner. For the Life section, lead times are long range since projects skew toward features.
| Sections/Contacts | Main Editor/Lead Time | Pitch Tips |
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Departments under National News Desk:
LEGAL AFFAIRS FBI/JUSTICE DEPT CIVIL LAW/DNA CENSUS BUREAU/GEN ASSIGNMENT INS/BILINGUAL ED SPECIAL PROJECTS |
MANAGING EDITOR Hal Ritter, 703/276-3400 SENIOR NAT'L EDITOR, EASTERN U.S. SENIOR NAT'L EDITOR, WESTERN U.S. Non-news lead times are several days, depending on how long it takes to digest the information. |
No unsolicited pitches. Send a short query by fax first (703/247-3100 reaches all beats under the national news desk). Phone is your second best bet, but don't ever call after 3pm (EST). Emails are often ignored because editors don't have time to give them the attention they deserve.
Get to the point with your pitch. Information is more important than the packaging it comes in. Money editor Anne Willette suggests trolling through online search engines ahead of time to track what the paper has covered in recent weeks. And to get the best play, make USA Today your first phone call, she says. " If it's going to appear in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, we don't want it." The scope of your idea must be national and of interest to 6 million readers. If your call is not returned, assume there's no interest. Don't beat a dead horse. |