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How to pitch The Times’ David Pogue
Learn the dos and don’ts of pitching The New York Times tech critic David Pogue
The New York Times leading tech critic David Pogue loves a good pitch—he really does. After all, 60 percent to 70 percent of his columns come from pitches, he told Ragan.com.
Considering he writes 50 print columns and about 25 blog posts per year—plus a weekly online video—that provides PR pros with lots of opportunities to pitch Pogue. And, unlike most journalists, Pogue wants to hear about products from PR people.
In this exclusive interview with Ragan.com, Pogue tells us how PR pros should pitch him, what annoys him and examples of some great pitches he’s received.
| Who is David Pogue? |
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In 2000, Pogue started writing a column about technology for The New York Times. His pieces are often humorous and very user friendly. He reviews gadgets like cameras, cell phones and Web site services. Pogue said he reviews maybe one computer each year. In addition to his weekly column and regular blog posts (Pogue’s Posts), Pogue creates one weekly online video story critiquing one or more products. He is also a technology correspondent for CBS News, and a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and cable news network CNBC. Pogue has written or co-written seven of the “For Dummies” books and 60 (humorous) computer manuals in his “Missing Manual” series. |
What Pogue wants
Pogue prefers e-mail. Don’t bother pitching him over the telephone. Pogue said he receives about 150 e-mails every day (once the spam is cleaned out) and—if the e-mail fits a certain criteria—he will respond. He ignores e-mails asking which product to buy or how to fix a gadget, simply because he lacks time.
“The ideal thing for me … is a short paragraph telling what the thing is,” he explained. “So the best pitches I’ve ever gotten are, ‘David, I see that you’ve been covering digital cameras a lot. Wondering if you’d be interested in one that shoots underwater and costs less than $100? Press release is below. Contact me if you have any questions.’”
There’s no fluff to wade through. In an instant he knows the gist of the pitch. Make sure your contact information is easy to find, Pogue noted.
“A bunch of my columns have come from really targeted pitches like that,” he said. “One guy said, ‘David, my client sells a laptop that can be dropped from six feet, get dunked in water and survive in 300-degree heat. Let me know if you’re interested.’
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Hear how Pogue's video career began.“How can I not be interested?” Pogue shouted. “That’s incredibly intriguing! So of course I contacted him and a column came out of it.”
What he doesn’t want
CEO quotes and jargon annoy Pogue.
“I don’t even know why we go through the exercise [of including CEO quotes in pitches] and we definitely can do without the buzzwords—integrated, best of breed, B2B, consumer-centric—it’s all just bogus,” Pogue said.
He’s received countless bad pitches, for example: We have a consumer electronics expert available for your interview. “It’s like, dude! What do you think I do?” Pogue jabbed.
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Another one of those poor pitches: We are pleased to announce the hiring of a new chief financial officer. “Now how does that possibly interest me or my readers?” Pogue remarked.
Bad pitches sour Pogue’s attitude toward PR pros, and he suspects this is the case for most journalists.
“I get the idea that a lot of PR people inherit some database and they just blast everything to the whole list and I cannot tell you what a waste of time that is,” he said. “It just turns the busy journalists against that person, that firm and that client.
“It’s a waste of time!”
On the bright side
Pogue has existing relationships with certain PR pros, and trusts these people.
Contact David Pogue at David@pogueman.com, and hear him speak at Ragan's Social Media for Communicators Conference.
| Pitching Pogue: A five-point primer for PR pros |
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Again this article was very detailed in describing to me that type pitch I need to use to attract the attention of Mr. David Pogue concerning my project interest.