What is Get Known?
For those of you new to Get Known, we interview journalists about their work and what they cover so that companies know better how to engage with the press and get their company covered in the media.
Our big goal is to make sure that companies out there who are reaching out to the press, build the right relationships, pitch the right ideas and understand better what wastes journalists and their time.
We’ve had so many great interviews, so let’s get right into it!
This episode
In this episode, we have the pleasure of talking with Benjamin Bathke a freelance journalist who is spending most of his time working for Deutsche Welle covering technology and startups. Benjamin loves to tell human stories, and in our discussion, he dives deep into what motivates his storytelling and how important the human element is.
Here are a few key takeaways from the interview:
- When companies pitch, they often forget to tell why they started their business when trying to tell others about it.
- Benjamin talks about the “rise of solutions journalism and constructive journalism” due to what he calls “news fatigue”. This phenomenon has made deeper and more meaningful stories all that more important and popular.
- Benjamin says that more and more news organizations are realizing that climate change is the social and political story of our time. Because the media will continue to devote more time to this topic, companies addressing this area are going to increasingly be interesting to cover.
- “Bad pitches are extremely vague.”
- He reminds us that freelancers and anyone working for a publication also have to pitch to their editors. So the pitch any company makes to a journalist needs to help the journalist also sell it to the editor.
- Timing and relationships are critical to making a pitch.
- Do your homework. Try to build a story around a bigger trend.
- Be aware that pitching does not always yield “clean PR” when you are working with a journalist with integrity.
We hope you enjoy the podcast! Please feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions to steve@sanfrancisco.fi or tweet us at @SF_Agency!
