While pitching an announcement for one our clients recently I ran into an increasingly common problem: The perfect person to pitch was a contributing writer at the publication and I couldn’t track down his contact information. Eventually I found a way to get in touch with him, but it got me thinking about the balance between contributing writers and full-time staff reporters.
As the digital evolution continues to sweep the media industry some outlets are adapting by restructuring their staff to include more contributors, which in turn could have some benefits for PR pros.
Forbes is a prime example of an outlet that is shifting its structure in order to remain relevant. The magazine still has staff reporters, but they are backed by an army of contributors who are topic experts. According to a Forbes article published last August, the company has about 45 staff writers and 1,200 contributors. Here’s how it works: One or two staff writers head up coverage of a certain topic and have anywhere from 10 to 200 contributors helping out. For example, the technology department has more than 100 contributors, each specializing in a certain topic. Using this model, Forbes produces a wider variety of content and reaches a much broader audience.
Forbes isn’t the only outlet with a large contributor list. Sites such as Entrepreneur, Fortune, Business 2 Community, PC World, Thought Catalogue and more rely on contributors to produce the majority of their content. Conversely, many freelancers write for multiple sites. For example, a writer who contributes to Forbes might also contribute to ReadWriteWeb.
The rise in freelancers means PR pros might have to do a bit more digging to uncover the perfect person to pitch, but in the end the extra research could pay off. Since freelancers write for multiple outlets, forming a relationship with one freelance writer could connect you to several publications.
However, forming relationships with freelancers isn’t always easy. PR pro Krystal Tingle offers helpful tips for working with contributors in her post on PR Daily. Most importantly, stay connected to freelancers so you know what outlets they are writing for and what’s in their pipeline, but be careful not to badger them.
Do you have any tips for pitching to contributing writers?