Last week I had the task of pitching a very high profile and well respected female reporter, from a network regarded as a "most trusted name in news" - that's about as much as I can say without stating who and which one. The pitch was in regards to a princess-related product line belonging to one of our clients - again, I'm not that comfortable sharing the client's name. As it usually goes, I send an email pitch first, before calling and hashing out my idea over the phone. Despite this order of operations, reporters seldom even see my pitch before I call, either because it was filtered directly to spam, they automatically delete emails from unknown addresses, or they are simply just too busy to read it, all of which I understand because many of the people I pitch to probably receive about 20 new pitches each day.
Well, I sent my email pitch to this reporter last week, only to receive no response. On Friday I send the pitch again. I call to follow-up, but get sent to her voicemail. I leave my message, explaining why I'm calling and the duplicate emails I have sent. And, as usual, I feel a little silly about seemingly harassing them, as it would appear to the untrained eye. Tonight, Monday, I receive this email response from said well known reporter:
"You left a very impressive pitch voicemail. Alas, I’m not doing this type of story these days. I’m doing funny pieces pegged to politics and news events. I especially liked how you chortled a bit as you threatened to follow up. Very entertaining but I’m afraid it’s not my thing at the moment. I’m a princess-free zone."
Despite having been declined on my story idea, I couldn't help but laugh out loud at this response. I then forwarded it to my bosses who got an even bigger kick out of it than I did; they held their stomachs and laughed uncontrollably - and have been doing so intermittently for the past 15 minutes - and told me I need to think of something really witty to respond with... such a task shouldn't be hard. I'm completely kidding ;) god knows I'm going to over-think my response so much that the topic will infiltrate my dreams tonight. I get very easily flattered when I receive responses like this from people in high places, even if they ARE turning me down.
