You have a paper coming out that people outside your field would care about. You find a reporter who covered something similar last month, open a blank email, and write four paragraphs of background before you get to the finding.
That email probably will not be read to the end. A pitch is not a summary of your paper. It is a short note that lets a busy reporter decide quickly whether there is a story, and hands them what they need if there is.
Start With the Press Office, Then Pitch Directly
If your institution has a press office, talk to them first. The PLOS media toolkit for authors notes that many institutions have public information officers who promote upcoming research, and that a press office may be able to help with writing and distributing press releases and organising interviews with journalists.
Our guide to working with your university press office covers that route in detail. This post is for the other cases: the press office passed, there is no press office, or you already know a reporter whose beat fits your paper. In those cases, you are the press office.
Check What You Can Say, and When
Before you email anyone, read your journal's press or embargo page. Rules differ between publishers. As one example, at the time of writing (October 2026), PLOS ONE's press and media page says that:
- Articles are embargoed until 2 p.m. US Eastern Time on the date of publication.
- Once research has been accepted and assigned a publication date, authors may discuss it under embargo with journalists, and should inform journalists of the embargo in all their communications.
- The journal discourages actively seeking publicity before that point.
- Authors who want to blog or post about an accepted paper on social media should wait until the embargo lifts and include a link to the article.
Under a policy like that, the moment to pitch is after you have a publication date, with the embargo date and time stated plainly in the email. The PLOS toolkit also advises confirming with a journalist, before an interview, that they will abide by the embargo.
Find the Right Reporter
A good pitch to the wrong person goes nowhere. Look for reporters who have covered your topic recently, read two or three of their stories, and notice who their readers are. A reporter writing for clinicians wants a different angle from one writing for a local newspaper.
Pitch one reporter per outlet, by name, rather than sending the same email to a list. If a specific story of theirs made you think of them, say so in one line.
If you are in the US, SciLine says it helps scientists build connections with journalists who cover their area of expertise. It also runs a free one-hour live course, Understanding the media, on what makes a science story newsworthy and how to become more findable by journalists; at the time of writing (October 2026), registration for the last session has closed and SciLine says more dates will be scheduled.
The Pitch: A Template You Can Copy
Keep the whole email short enough to read on a phone. Here is the structure.
Subject: Embargoed until [date, time, time zone]: [the finding in plain words]
Line 1: Why you are writing to this reporter, in one sentence.
The finding: One or two sentences a non-specialist would follow, with who it affects.
The study: Who or what you studied, how, and over what period, in one sentence.
What it does not show: One honest limitation.
Why now: A current debate, season, policy decision or local angle, if there is one.
Embargo: Journal name, publication date and the exact embargo time with time zone.
What you can send: The paper, figures or video you have the rights to share, and a plain language summary.
Availability: Days and times you can do interviews, your time zone, a phone number, and a co-author who can step in.
The plain-words line is the hardest to write. Our guide to writing a plain language summary helps with it.
A Worked Example
Say you are an education researcher with an accepted paper on phone breaks in secondary school classrooms. This is a hypothetical example; the brackets are where your real details go.
Subject: Embargoed until [date], 2 p.m. ET: Short scheduled phone breaks linked to better attention in [region] classrooms
Hi [name], I read your piece on [their recent story about school phone rules] and thought this might be useful for your next one.
In a paper publishing in [journal] on [date], we found that classes with short scheduled phone breaks showed [the result, with its size] compared with classes under a full ban.
We followed [number] classes in [number] schools over [period], measuring [outcome].
It was one school system and one school year, so it does not tell us what happens over longer periods or in younger children.
Several districts in [region] are reviewing phone rules before [term].
The paper is under embargo until [date], 2 p.m. US Eastern Time. I can send the embargoed paper today, along with a one-page infographic and a short video summary we have the rights to share.
I am free for interviews [days and hours, time zone]. My co-author [name] can do interviews in Spanish. [Name, title, institution, phone]
Here is why each part is there.
| Part of the pitch | What it does for the reporter |
|---|---|
| Embargo in the subject line | Tells them at a glance when they could publish |
| Reference to their own story | Shows the pitch is meant for them, not a list |
| Finding first, with its size | Lets them judge newsworthiness in seconds |
| One limitation | Signals you will not overclaim in an interview |
| Why now | Gives them a reason to run it this week |
| Assets you can share | Saves them a round of emails |
| Availability and a co-author | Makes an interview on deadline possible |
Send it once. If you hear nothing after a few days, one short follow-up is reasonable; after that, move on to another reporter.
Have the Assets Ready Before You Hit Send
The PLOS toolkit suggests giving journalists a copy of your article and a link to where it will appear once published, so they can include it in their coverage. It also notes that press releases are often posted under embargo on services such as EurekAlert or AlphaGalileo a few days before publication, which is a sign of how much lead time reporters expect.
Before you send the pitch, put these in one folder you can share in a single reply:
- The accepted manuscript or the journal's embargoed PDF, if your journal allows sharing it.
- One or two figures or images you have the rights to share, with captions.
- A plain language summary of 100 to 200 words.
- A short video or audio summary, if you have one.
- Your headshot and a one-line bio.
Stay Reachable After You Pitch
The PLOS toolkit is blunt about timing: reporters have tight deadlines and may move ahead without your input if you cannot get back to them. Keep your phone on for the next few days, and tell a co-author they may be called.
Before any interview, the same toolkit advises writing down one or two main points, asking the journalist about the background and audience of the piece, avoiding technical terms, and not commenting on anything outside your expertise.
Giving Reporters Something to Show
A reporter can do more with a story that arrives with visuals. If you do not have any, Amplify turns one paper into a video abstract (16:9, about 3 minutes), a vertical short (9:16, 45 to 60 seconds), an audio brief in English (plus 21 more languages on request) and a one-page, print-ready infographic.
Everything is generated from the PDF you upload and nothing else, and every artifact carries the title, the authors and a link back to the paper of record. A person reviews every format before it is released, and nothing publishes until you approve it. If you want visuals for an embargoed story, start early and check your journal's embargo rules before sharing anything. An embeddable widget can then put all of them on your faculty or lab page, so a reporter who clicks through to your profile finds the paper, the summaries, the audio, the video and the infographic in one place.
A Pitch Is a Favour to the Reporter
Reporters need stories, and a clear, honest, well-timed pitch saves them time. Know your embargo, pick one reporter, lead with the finding, offer what they need, and answer the phone.
