Valley PR Blog

Tips on “newstips”

By Charlotte Shaff on August 4th, 2010 In Advice

When I send a pitch to the Arizona Republic or East Valley Tribune, it is usually to a specific reporter’s email address. But, there are times when I am not quite sure who should get it or it seems like it could go to a few different people, so I will also email it to “newstips@arizonarepublic.com” or “newstips@evtrib.com.”

My guess is that people who don’t pitch for a living and have a news tip or suggestion/complaint/idea/question/event find these email addresses for their query. I’ve always wondered if anyone actually reads them and if they do, will they get them to the appropriate person? Well, yesterday I decided to email and ask if they are human and I was pleasantly surprised.

The person from the Republic quickly replied to my email and while he/she didn’t tell me who they were, they did share this information:

“The newstips are check everyday by a newsroom staffer and are filtered to the appropriate reporter or editor as each item pertains to their coverage. Each editor or reporter decides if the information should be looked into or passed on to another reporter, or, should it be deleted. If the reporter/editor decides to run a story, they will look into the information and if more information is needed you might get a call. All calendar items are forwarded to the calendar desk and if space is available that item can be published.”

A few minutes later, Jayson Peters, news editor at the Tribune sent me some nice tips.

“Hello Charlotte. I am indeed human. Or so I’ve been assured.

I’m one of three editors (the managing editor and two news editors) who monitor the newstips@evtrib.com mailbox.

A good chunk of my day goes to filtering messages – i.e., deleting many of them – and assigning the rest as I see fit. We don’t really have beat reporters anymore, just general assignment writers, as we are a very small staff now compared with what we were more than a year ago.

For our part, we are mainly concerned with notices for the East Valley as that’s all we have the resources to cover these days: Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek and Tempe. Beyond that, it has to be of significant statewide or Valleywide relevance to crack that standard – and honestly if it’s that newsworthy, odds are we would just pick it up from AP.

So, what helps us, in particular, are concise, relevant Subject lines that clearly convey the geography involved.”

So, if you always wondered like I did about who read the newstips emails, now you know. But, I’d still suggest going straight to the beat reporter if you know who it is.

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