Local Press Pitch Writer
A short, specific pitch to a named local reporter or trade editor, built around a story they'd run with or without you, plus the follow-up and the quote sheet
The problem
A mention in the local paper, the regional business weekly or your trade's magazine still does something a hundred social posts don't: it gets read by people who weren't looking for you, and it stays on Google for years. Most owners never pitch because they assume you need an agency, or they pitch once with "we're excited to announce our new location" and never hear back. Reporters don't run announcements. They run stories, and a story has a reason to exist this week, a person in it, and a number. Your business has three of those a year. This skill finds them and writes the pitch a reporter can use.
The tool
Once installed, this skill works like the one friend who used to be a reporter. It starts by asking what's changed or what you've noticed, because the story is rarely the thing you're proud of. A new location is an announcement. A new location because downtown rents pushed you out, with the number, is a story about the downtown. It builds the angle, finds the local hook (a season, a regulation, a trend the reporter is already covering), and asks you for the one real number and the one real person who make it concrete.
Then it writes the pitch: a subject line that states the story, three short paragraphs, the offer (an interview, photos, a visit, data you can share), and nothing about how great your business is. It writes the follow-up for one week later, the quote sheet so you're not improvising on the phone, and a short list of the kind of outlet and reporter to send it to, by beat, so you look them up by name rather than emailing a general inbox. It won't invent a trend or a statistic, and it will tell you when the idea is an ad, not a story. Stories about customers need their consent, which the Testimonial Collector handles.
What's inside
- An angle finder: six questions that turn what's happening in your business into something a reporter can run
- The pitch: subject line, three paragraphs, the offer, under 180 words
- A follow-up note for day seven, and a graceful close for day fourteen
- A quote sheet: three things you'll say in an interview, one number, one honest limitation
- An outlet and beat list for your area and trade, so you find the right reporter's name
- A calendar of the three local hooks in the next six months that your business can speak to
How to use it
- 1Click "Install skill" on this page and copy the install prompt.
- 2Paste it into your AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, anything that accepts pasted text).
- 3Answer the setup questions once: your business, your area, your trade publications, and anything newsworthy in the past year.
- 4When something happens, or a season or regulation is coming, run the angle finder and let it write the pitch.
- 5Find the reporter by name on the beat it suggests, send the pitch, and send the follow-up a week later.
Example
A family-run garden centre in Peterborough wants coverage for its spring opening, which is an announcement, and the skill says so. The angle finder surfaces something better: the owner has noticed first-time vegetable gardeners up sharply since grocery prices climbed, and the centre tracked it (seed-starting kits sold out twice last April). That's a local story with a number and a trend the regional paper has already covered from the grocery side. The pitch offers the owner for an interview and the sales figures by week. The reporter writes a piece about food costs and backyard gardens, the centre is the example, and the article still ranks for "vegetable garden Peterborough" a year later.
Pro tip
Pitch the reporter who wrote about your topic in the last month, by name, and reference the piece in your first line. A general newsroom inbox is where pitches go to die. And when they say yes, be available that day. A local reporter's deadline is this afternoon, and the business that picks up the phone is the one in the story.
Related tools
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