People to Pitch: Chicago News Cooperative

If you haven’t been keeping track (catch up with the past six weeks of changes in our recent post) ChicagoNewScoop debuted Nov. 20 with news and features that appear online at the site’s home page, in print and online editions of The New York Times on Fridays and Sundays, and on WTTW Channel 11.

With two weeks of publishing under their collective belt, staff are still figuring out all the details: “We’re at the very start,” Greising says, “putting the rudiments of the business and our editorial operations in place.” But a few outlines of what and how to pitch are emerging.

They have limited space in the print edition of the Times to fill: “3 slugs per issue plus Pulse items.” The latter: three 200-word Pulse stories, twice a week, may be the best pitching opportunity.

“They look like briefs, but they’re not,” Greising says. Headline news of the day or New Yorker-style “Talk of the Town” topics are both likely to inspire Pulse items, he adds: “Things that are interesting to know and in some cases, need to know” for someone who lives in Chicago, he says. If you’ve got something, send it along and mark it “Pulse pitch” in the message header.

For the moment, the best way to send pitches is via a general Email box, info@chicagsonewscoop.org. “We have somebody taking on the responsibility of checking that box making an initial read and forwarding it to the right person,” Greising says. You can also reach individual staff members at the new news site by email, using the standard convention FirstInitiaLastName@chicagonewscoop.org.

ChicagoNewScoop.org is running one lead story at a time on its home page now, but more stories will appear there when the site officially unveils in January, Greising adds. “It’ll look like any good news site does,” he says, catches himself, adds “I should say: it’ll look better!”

Category: New on the Web, People to Pitch

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