All right. So welcome to real world perspectives about how to attract media attention to your widget. So my name is Janet Han. I am a cardiac electrophysiologist with interest in digital health coming from Los Angeles at the VA greater Los Angeles healthcare system and UCLA. And I'm so pleased to have three wonderful journalists now in the hot seat where they usually are not in the hot seat. So the tables are turned a little bit. So I'm going to actually have everyone sort of introduce themselves just going down the row. Hi, everyone. I'm Katie Adams. I'm a senior reporter at Med City News, which is a magazine that focuses on innovation in the healthcare world. So all the new shiny tech, different new care models and emerging regulations, we cover all that as well as just the business of healthcare. Big deal making, where investment dollars are flowing in the digital health world, that kind of thing. Perfect. Crystal Fend. I work largely with MedPage today, which is a physician audience publication. I worked largely in the cardiovascular space, but also many other areas of medicine, dealing a lot with clinical trials and all kinds of, you know, business of healthcare, the full range of clinic related things. Great. I'm Caitlin Cox. I work for the website TCTMD. We're based out of New York. I'm actually based out of Decatur, Georgia. Oh, that's so easy for you. About four miles away. So TCTMD is an editorially independent news website that's published by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a foundation in New York. We aim our coverage at clinicians, cardiologists specifically, but across the range of cardiovascular medicine. Most of our research, most of our articles relate to research on things that can affect clinical practice and decision making. We also do a lot of stories about what matters to physicians in their personal and work lives. So work life balance, burnout, that kind of a thing. So I always like learning what people care about the most. Absolutely. I feel like we have a great panel that sort of spans from digital health through cardiovascular care and cardiology in general and really about patient care and clinician care. So I think, you know, now that the tables have turned, this is going to be fun because I know that you guys are usually the ones asking the questions, so I get to pepper you guys with questions today. You know, I feel like, you know, at this conference, at HRX, we are about many times the widget, right? Like I have a widget that I love, that I want to be able to share with the world. Maybe my widget was created and it has passed muster with the FDA and it's time to sort of shine and get that out into the world a little bit. Now, when we talk about doing that, we sort of have to obviously contact you guys. But I think as scientists and innovators and physicians and entrepreneurs, sometimes we don't really understand what is news, right? And so I think it would be nice to hear from your guys' or your gals' perspective, what is really truly news to you? Because to me, I feel like, oh, yeah, I turn on the news at night and it's about there was a fire down the road or, you know, like this airplane did this or that or some sort of catastrophic thing, right? It's rare to hear really good news. And so I would love to hear what really from your perspective as a journalist, what constitutes news to you? Well, I guess I can start. I know we're talking later in the panel a lot about pitching. But something I love to see when a new company reaches out to me is kind of either tying their product or widget, as you're saying, to either the greater news cycle, like a problem we're seeing a lot that clinicians have already been talking about, if you can communicate to me how your product offers a real solution to something that, you know, clinicians are struggling with and are being vocal about, I'd love to hear that. I also love when a pitch ties back to my previous coverage. So if this is something, you know, I'm following an issue and your product, you know, is either tangentially related to that or directly addresses it, that's a great way to get in the door. Especially if you, you know, are in tune with the issues that we're covering and we're following, that's a great way to kind of start on the same baseline. Okay. Got it. Crystal and Kaitlin. Every publication is a little bit different about what is going to be newsworthy for us. So talking to a publication with physician audience, it's about what's new. So the timeliness aspect. Oh, I want to touch on timeliness. So we're going to get back to that. So it has to be that and it has to be something that matters. So the why, something that matters to clinicians. And so that kind of hits that timeliness factor, too, in a different way. And then also just being aware of, as Kay said, where it falls into the broader news scheme of things. So what's happening in context. Has there been a lot of attention to a certain issue that can make it more newsworthy? And over to you. You covered a lot of secrets. So I think for us at TCTMD, most of the stories we cover are data driven. Many of them are published journal articles or presentations at major meetings. But really all of them are things that advance the narrative of the field, how thoughts about various things are changing. I joke a lot that it's like sports reporting because you get different teams on different sides and people carry on their interest in this for years. And for that type of thing, it's very quick turnaround. And then also occasionally we get lucky and have some sort of a news item in the larger world that can be tied to cardiology. Not to go down a complicated road, but like, for example, when Roe v. Wade went away, we had a lot of coverage about women's cardiovascular health. So things like that. So I think that's the thing, right? So how do we know that our like how do we tie our widget to a timely thing? What does timeliness mean to you? How do we know about what is right in the greater news cycle for digital health? Where do we find that out, right? Approvals. Yes. Things hitting the market. Actually being in use and accessible to healthcare professionals and consumers. And a few weeks of journal articles coming out. That kind of thing. I would think. We're way, way less than that. I know. Us too. I'm being generous. If we get a press release, if somebody gets in touch with me and it's like this published last week, I'm like, I'm sorry, you missed the boat. You missed the boat. And it hurts me for you that you didn't weren't able to get ahead of the news cycle on that. So that is for us like a big issue is hitting the embargo, which is the release time where something can be released to the public. Usually for a journal article there will be this process where it goes through the whole research gamut and then it gets sent to the publication and the publication will let the reporters know ahead of time what's going to be in the publication, typically speaking, if you have access to that. And so for whoever's trying to get attention to their widget, knowing that cycle and the timing of it and trying to get ahead of that and be ready is going to be very important. What sort of lead time are you talking about for something like a device? Right? Because sure, there's medical journals and medical society meetings that come at a regular interval. Right? If you have a widget or a device or a software program that is approved, what is the lead time that we would need as someone who's excited about our product that would be timely enough for you? Two days? Two days. That's it. Three days? I mean, the earlier the better if you know about it. But yeah. Yeah. When it's already scheduled in a publication, we probably get about five days ahead. So try not to go out of town during those five days. So let's say that you're getting an FDA, you know that your FDA 510K is coming down the pike. You're not telling anybody because you don't want anyone to know. So that's kind of like what the embargo is, right? For a journal. And we can be trusted. We will not spread the word. Because I mean, know this, which is that it would hurt us if we told people. You can get cut off from getting embargoed material. So we will honor the embargo. Sure. Lead time is still within the next couple days? Like you're still good with that? More lead time, obviously, is probably better. As long as you have people available to do the interview, that's very frustrating when someone pitches embargoed news but isn't being super cooperative with, okay, well, then we need to do the interview tomorrow so that I can write it up and get it prepared for, you know, when this time drops. I would say I don't need more than a couple days as long as, you know, you can make your executive or researcher available. Available to you. And I think it's important to talk, too, about the different windows. So let's say you have a widget and you're developing it. And so you have these multiple windows that you can do different kinds of stories. So early phase development, you might be able to have a human interest story that also mentions something. That's going to be more featurey. Then you could hit the phase when you're going to be submitting. And maybe that's of interest to certain publications. Then it gets approved. You know that's the broadest window for the most types of publications is when you're going to be able to hit that and be ready for that. And then let's say something happened, a publication happened, something and the ducks weren't in line. The window was missed. You can come back to it when something happens in the news cycle that makes it relevant again. And you can find another way to get a bite of the apple, so to speak. So really it's having this sort of running timeline in your own head, in your team's head of when things are released, when big important things happen, and to be able to say, okay, yeah, we missed the window. But really following the more global scale of news, right, to make sure you can come back later. Yeah. And if we miss the window, I don't know if I should admit this, but if we miss the window, oftentimes there's something that I tend to refer to in my head as a reaction story. Which is, well, now that everybody in the cardiology field knows this, how do they feel about it? And so that's one way to revisit it if you miss the initial news to get a broad perspective on it. That's a good sort of safety net. Exactly. Yeah. To make sure you don't have to feel quite so terrible if you actually missed that. No, that's great. So any other parts to sort of understanding what is newsworthy that you guys want to touch upon? There are also ways to make your company relevant. Well, I'll talk about Med City News specifically. We don't cover a ton of breaking news. We do cover some. And a lot of times if we cover an announcement the same day, it's like big news, a big deal, big acquisition, big federal regulation was released. If your company is related to that in any way, you could send over a pitch, hey, this is what our CEO has to say about this. And I'm going to have to explain what your company you'll get some press that way. Not that I'm trying to get anyone press, but if that's what you're after, you don't always need a news hit from your company to get your company written about, if that makes sense. You can pay attention to what's going on in the larger news cycle and insert why you're relevant, if that makes sense. That totally makes sense. So remember to sort of understand what you, your own team is going through, but remember always to have a broader sort of look at where things are. Because at least at Med City, it's very we're not ever going to be the ones breaking the news. We're here to analyze it. So I mean, I have a journalism degree. People don't necessarily want to hear what I have to say. They want to hear, you know, what experts have to say woven into a story or an analysis. So I'm always seeking expert commentary. And if you are relevant to that, I could very well, you know, reach out again. It's going to have to be like a same day thing. Make sure your executive is available, but that could be useful. So in other words, things can move very, very quickly, right? So you just sort of have to be prepared to sort of spin on a dime, right? And I think having things that are actionable helps as well. I think something you can change in what you do in your job. And then also I'm totally blank there. Actionable and Crystal say something. I'm joking. I think we can totally come back to that, right? But I think you hit on something that I want to talk about because I think this is something that's very applicable, right? It's like how do you what is a pitch, right? Because we always talk about, oh, yeah, you have your elevator pitch ready, that 30 second to a minute talk that you have when you have somebody trapped in the elevator with you. But when you're pitching to a journalist, that's something totally different, I would imagine that has to be a little bit more fleshed out. So what do you guys feel like how do we pitch to you appropriately? Maybe I'll phrase it that way. Or what is a good pitch? Know your audience. So if you're going to pitch to a certain publication, you need to know that this is something along the lines of what they might cover. So know who you're pitching to. Yes. And their audience. So if it's clinical news, one of our publications might be the best fit. If it has more to do with, you know, we were successful in a round of venture capital, that's probably not going to be the best fit for one of us. But it might be another publication. So to be targeted, you will maintain a better relationship with that reporter if you're not sending them things that are irrelevant to their publication all the time. So study the publication, obviously, that you're pitching to. There's also definitely a way to pitch the same story or the same piece of news to two different publications in two different ways. There may be a study that both Crystal and I would cover, but in completely different ways with a different focus. So by looking at our publications, you'd probably be able to see where those two focuses would go and don't just send out one pitch to all these publications. Try to tailor it. Even if it's a cover letter. Like the same idea. So what's the process then? Let's say I have my widget. I'm ready to make that pitch. What's really truly the process of getting a hold of you or how does that happen? An email with a subject line that doesn't look like it was generated by AI. Something that's clearly human. And then also I think in that very first communication, it's helpful if you can describe in a sentence or two what sets your widget apart. How is it different from all the other widgets out there that people are working on in the same area? And just really isolate that unique strength of it. And that helps us kind of see where it would fit into a story or in something else. I would say mainly email or sometimes LinkedIn messaging. I would say never phone call unless we already have a relationship, yeah. So when you are making that pitch, is there specific things besides that first one or two lines that you're looking for? Does it have to be fully fleshed out? Are you going to draw us in later with other thoughts or questions that you might have? Or does it need to sort of really be just done and almost like written? So I might get a hundred of these a day. So I do not want a lengthy email that I have to search through to find information. I think that the ones that I prefer to see are it's going to be an email with just a couple of paragraphs saying, you know, why this is important. And then you can put your press release in there if I want more information. And make it easy to get in touch with you if I want more information. Does that sound? Yeah. Yeah. And not too much hype. Because you can tell when it's just hype. You know? Define that a little bit. Right? Because some of it has to be hype to get you excited, right? Specifics are better than adjectives. So actually say what it is. Saying something is novel without saying why it's novel is like this little alarm bell. Like wait, what? And then also if you have any resources that you can send along to corroborate what you're saying. Like, I don't know. Even something like a link to an FDA document or a published paper or anything that's not just purely persuasion. Got it. So like a little context? Yeah. Context and something factual that we can build it on as news. Like something factual that happened, not just isn't this cool? Right. Katie was going to say something. Well, I don't think you want what Caitlin was saying about hype. I really don't think you want your pitch to look like the press release. Because looking at so many AI startup press releases over the years, it really is remarkable how, you know, a ten paragraph press release can really say, like, nothing. And it would, you know, it is very vague. Try to be more specific. And say, you know, transform workflows with revolutionized efficiency. Like what is the software doing? And I think a lot of times in the pitch, if something does look interesting, I am kind of before I agree to do an interview, I want to look for the specifics. If you're a cardiology AI company and you were able to reduce ED visits by 20%. I need to know what the numbers looked like before the raw ones did and what they look like now. Because 20% does not tell the whole story. You know, same thing if it's a big deal. If you're not a huge company, I probably won't cover it unless you can disclose the financials. So sometimes a pitch looks interesting, but you just got to ask up front are you actually going to disclose information to me and be honest with me? Because if you're not, my audience isn't going to be super interested. Got it. Okay. So enough detail. Right? Not too much detail. Because then you read, you know, millions of words a day. So that's not quite what you want either. Because you probably don't have time. Right? What is it about a pitch that would actually catch your eye? Differentiating it from the hundreds that you get. Like what are those things? What are those sort of key green flag types of things that you would say, oh, okay, I got to read this one. Well, I cover a lot of funding rounds in the digital health space. And when I first started at Med City, my editor told me that, you know, if you ever, ever cover a funding round, there's one question you have to always ask, and it's name your competitors and how do you differentiate yourself from them? And it's very surprising how often very smart startup founders don't have a great answer to that. So I love when a pitch can kind of say, I know I'm a startup in a crowded space, but this is why I'm different. Or when you kind of lead with your uniqueness or what sets you apart. Any other thoughts? We're talking about something already being tested in clinical practice. Really having an effect on heart outcomes is important. Okay. Okay. Like patient outcomes. Patient outcomes. Yeah. Like, you know, fewer people will die. Okay. Yeah. Fewer people did die. I mean, just very specific, real things. Or even if it's a workflow thing, you know, my hospital reduced the amount of time it took to see a stroke patient by this much. So you're looking for sort of end of the road impact, maybe? Yeah. Okay. From your end. Yeah. From the medical perspective. Just for our particular audience. Okay. But I would imagine that would be different for you, Katie, right? Because you're sort of on the front end. Totally. Of this. Yeah. And we don't necessarily need something to already be used in clinical practice, but we do need at least, I guess, the story of how this is on the road to something that could move the needle for doctors or really make their day easier. You need to be able to prove it. Okay. All right. And if I see the word embargoed in the subject line, I am much more likely to look at that. Because it says Top secret document. An event. There is a thing that happened. This isn't just fluff. So there's either going to be a publication, there's going to be an announcement, something is going to happen. You have cleared one hurdle in my brain already. And it means that you hit the right time as well. So I don't know who that's going to be useful for, but I find That's true. Yeah. I think the most effective ones psychologically, though they drive me crazy, are the ones that say embargoed. And then the person sending the email on the inside is like, so I have some information about this subspecialty. Do you want to hear it? It's embargoed. And you're like, gosh, you got to tell me what it is. So you write back. And, you know, whether or not it's important. I don't want to encourage it. But it's true. That is the stuff that like, because then you're like, what are you talking about? That'll make me mad, though. You have to be able to follow up with something with substance, I would imagine. Yeah, you do. You have to have substance when you follow up. But like, in terms of getting that initial reply, the mystery. So to dovetail on that, any red flags for pitches that you see and you're like, okay, I am not opening that email? Hype words. Hype words like? Hype words like groundbreaking in the subject line. Nope. That's a red flag for me. So you're like, delete immediately? Almost. I mean, it depends. But, yeah, it's a red flag. Or if you can tell that it's about one particular center or department simply announcing one thing they've done. Like, it's their first time doing this really wonderful thing. But it's something being done all over the world already. So it's hard to generalize that to a wider audience. Like, it's big news for them, but not necessarily for everybody else. So again, looking at that sort of larger picture, right? Yeah. Okay. Any other red flags that you feel like in a pitch might not cut it? When I can see that there's a space where my name is supposed to be and it's not there. What do you mean by that? It says, hello. And then? Like a form letter. It's a form letter that they didn't know my name and they just didn't put it in there. Or if I get multiple copies of the same thing that's addressed to different people to the same email address, I just straight delete. Yeah. So it's sort of like it tells me that it wasn't targeted to me. Other red flags that you can think of? Trying to help my audience when they're pitching. I would say a lot of it does come back to knowing your reporter and the publication's audience. Like at MidCity, the way we split up the beats is a little unique, but we do have like a dedicated biopharma reporter. So you really should never be pitching biopharma to me. Or I get pitches every day. I get at least a couple of pitches about dental innovation and we've never once covered anything in the dental world. So there's, that's just a waste of time, I guess, for whoever's pitching it. Because I don't have time to forward every biopharma pitch to our reporter because, again, I get dozens per day. So really knowing, be kind of specific, right? Specific to the person you're pitching to, to the journal that you're pitching to, really do your homework, right? More than anything else. Do your homework and be kind of careful. It occurred to me that maybe this isn't something people would think to do, but almost every news website is going to have that page where they have every reporter's name listed and hyperlinked to their stories. So you can go through and look and figure out. And if you don't know who to contact among those people, usually the managing editor is a good person to email to because they kind of know what everybody's specialties are. Or the, you know, senior editor, something like that. Like go towards the top. But you can figure out what people's specialties are just by looking at the site. And what is truly, when I think about that, you know, I think about when I write papers and I go to a journal and I look up, you know, the associate editors and the main editor and what's really the return rate on that? Let's say I don't know you guys and I'm like, okay, I got a story. I think it will fit with Med City News. And I just go to the managing editor. Is there like a pretty good return rate on that or is it not quite so great? Just for not even just pitching a true pitch, but just feeling them out to be like, well, would you take some kind of story like this? That's hard to say. It's different from publication to publication. At Med City News, we're a small team. We have an editor in chief and three staff reporters. So a lot of times it's just you're really got to stand out for our editor to want to respond back to you and set up that time to figure it out. Other times, you know, if we've worked on a story a couple times before, I'm happy to give you more context and explain kind of how you can make the best of your pitching to us. And I will say timing matters. There is probably I don't know if this affects your publication as much, but there's typically a week in the fall and a week in the spring when every medical meeting known to man happens. And we call it hell week. And they're too busy. Anything that's not really important or comes from one of those meetings is just going to get ignored. So if you have something that's not tied to one of those meetings, I would So like sometimes what will happen is they think, oh, everyone's thinking about cardiology right now because the American College of Cardiology meeting is happening. But if that thing is not happening at the meeting, we don't have the bandwidth because we only have so many cardiology stories that we can publish. And it's not going to hit one of those because they're all going to come from the meeting. But on the flip side, let's say you have a late breaker on your widget. That's great. Absolute right time. Yeah. If you know that that's going to happen and you probably do some, you know, amount of time in advance, prepare for that. Maybe two weeks out. Two weeks out you can get in touch and say, hey, we've got this late breaker happening. And just be like, we'll be in touch. Or would you be would you agree to an embargo if we have information? And here's how you reach us really quickly. Yeah. And then and then like a few days before, reach out again because we're busy and that thing went into a folder. So hitting the time and being very available because maybe the meeting is happening in London and your people need to be available at 2 a.m. on a Saturday, you know, to get these panic last minute emails from reporters. So that happens. Yeah. And obviously, you know, we draw a lot of analogies from like the medical sphere and medical meetings. But again, you can sort of still look at this from another perspective of people that may not go to these meetings. Right. Which is if you have an FDA clearance that happens to have happen around that time for a device that is within cardiology or within whatever medical sphere that's appropriate for that meeting, it probably is the same. Right. Like that would be the exact right time to sort of maybe reach out to people to an audience that would be using that device. Right. So. And in terms of writing people back, I think it's safe to say at our publication, we have six journalists with us. If we get an email from a clinician talking about their own work, we always reply. Always. Like it may not be a yes, but we like keeping in touch with new people and learning about what they do. And also, if we don't necessarily feature that news, it might be somebody who we could talk to later for a story on something else. So we really do try to build those relationships and keep in touch with people. So don't be afraid to reach out. Yeah. And kind of in that same vein, oftentimes there's a tendency to just put a quote from the CEO to put senior leadership in to a pitch somehow. But for us, we actually want to hear from the academic you're working with. Yes. So OK, I understand you've got your CEO quote in there. But if you put the academic also saying like what this means to me to see over 40 years, we haven't had a treatment for X or Y condition. And now we're finally making some progress. I'll actually use that one. Yeah. And it will. Yeah, even if it even if it's hitting something else in the in the life cycle of of this field, if you provide a clinician who might be working on on your widget or drug, but it's somehow related, I'd be more willing to use that. So it's just kind of, again, knowing your audience. Yeah. And I think that kind of pushes us towards not just talking about a pitch, but, you know, when many of the stories in the news that really sort of target us more are those ones that maybe touch a little bit upon human interest. Right. And I feel like that probably is something that we want to hear from you guys about, which is, you know, we talk about the hero's journey. Right. And many people don't know what that means. What is the hero's journey? What does that mean to you? Is that something that should be within a pitch or is that something that you write towards or include? So this is my this is my area that I love to talk about. I think generally understanding that this is a kind of the way humans work. We have these storytelling. Things just kind of built into us where you've got you know what the hero is, you introduce the hero. The hero is the product. The hero is the researcher. The hero is the company, whatever it is. And then you can't just say. Jump to the conclusion because you're like, why do I care? You know, you have to kind of earn that. So the way storytelling works, this hero's journey as they go through and you see the challenge, you see the challenge and then it builds up to this climax and you're really invested in the person because of the challenge that you've seen. So when when the climax comes, the guy gets the girl, the product gets FDA approval. You're like, yeah, right. And then and then you show the resolution. So why does this matter? How's it going to impact things? So that same structure is built into everything. We were talking before about how even straight journalism, you know, you've you've got the your typical inverted pyramid, but still it's kind of built in there because you tell what happened and then you start to get into why does this matter? And how did you get there? Yeah. And then maybe you kind of walk through these things. And at the end of the story is the resolution. Yeah. It's like, what now? What's going to happen? Next steps. So knowing that structure, it can be applied to so many things. You're doing an interview and you're going to know that that reporter is going to need to step through all of those steps. So you're going to have to tell them who you are, what you're doing, but with the knowledge that you need to earn it. So you've got to present what the challenge was. Why does this matter? And then you can say, here's what we did and this is why it's going to resolve the situation. So I'm kind of building that into your pitches. Building that into interviews. All of it's going to help. And so I can pass that back to somebody else. You did a great job. That's my yeah. And I would just add that to say beyond even challenges and obstacles, it can also just be what gets you excited about this. One of the best questions people seem to take to my experience is, hey, say you're at a party with a bunch of colleagues who aren't in your subspecialty, but you really want to tell them about what you do. How do you say it to them? How do you get across that passion and that interest and what gets you doing this every day? So that helps as well. Because then people get more comfortable and actually start talking about their own inspiration and not just data and numbers. Because everybody in this field works really hard. A lot of smart people. And it's fun to learn what matters to them and why they dedicate so much of themselves to any one given project. And really I think people can relate to some of the struggles that we all go through, right? In innovating and getting that product through to the final stages. So maybe putting some of those personal touches really is what gets that to stick more in someone's mind and stick more in being able to translate what you've done, right? To a person who may not understand what you're doing. I talk to a lot of digital health founders and startup CEOs, and it is remarkable how many of them started their company because of some story with their parent or spouse and how much of a real life impact is often, you know, the reason for the genesis of the company. And, well, Med City has a huge investor audience, so I'm, you know, writing a lot with what they want to hear and what they're interested in in mind. And investors like to hear that, too. Investors want founders who are passionate and are, you know, they want to hear those stories. So if I can see that in a pitch that, you know, you started this company after seeing your wife's battle with this disease, that does make it more interesting to me. So should that come sort of at the beginning when, you know, you have this two-line beginning email? Do you include any of the sort of personal stuff in the first email or do you sort of wait? I'd wait. It would be really hard to get the tone right on that. I know I couldn't do it if I was emailing somebody. I'd be either too emotional or not emotional. Start with the news itself. Okay. Other ladies? No difference in opinion on that? I'd probably agree. Yeah. I think it depends, but, yeah, you need to get the details and the news of it all beforehand. What do you feel about, you know, when you talk about this sort of hero's journey and, you know, you're already writing your piece. We've given you the data. You're writing your piece. Do you feel like we could help you in any perspective of that? Like, not that we would write it for you, but would it be helpful for us to write any tiny piece of that that you could include or how do you feel about that? Or do you say, no, I will write this. You give me the outline. I'll write it. Just providing those pieces. So making sure that we have all of the components we're going to need is probably, from my perspective, I don't want probably pre-written content. Outside of like a press release, right? Yeah. But I mean, even then, I think the only thing I would ever quote from a press release would be a quote. Not the substance of it. Information, but not. So you would not prefer to have a full press release written just sort of, or you have a press release we can give you. We won't use the wording. We'll rephrase it in a way that matches however our usual structure is and tone. And so outside of the hero's journey, any other tips or tricks for pitching appropriately? Well, something I love to see in a pitch would be like a strong opinion, especially if you don't have a hard news hook, but you're trying to offer an executive to speak about something that's happening in the news cycle or to speak about something I just covered. So much of MedCity's stories are, you know, figuring out what the future of healthcare is going to look like. So when there's a strong opinion on that, I usually, you know, try to find someone who has a differing opinion and those make for really interesting stories. Any sort of difference of opinion is kind of what our readers want to read and they want to learn more about those conversations I've been having with experts. And then I would say the other thing a lot of MedCity stories focus on is like, is this thing good or bad? Like, was this a good business decision for Walgreens? Is this new regulation going to have a positive impact? Is telehealth dead? Questions like that that are kind of yes and no. So if I can find leaders who have strong opinions on that and especially opinions who differ, that's kind of the texture, that's kind of the stories I'm going after. So talking about all those pitches and pitching and sending emails, how do you really, how do we build this relationship with you, right? Like, I want this relationship with media to be not like a one-off for sure, right? Because if I'm building one widget now, this is sort of a life cycle, right? We talk about the life cycle of a device or software or whatever. This is going to be sort of years down the road. I want to say, I know, Caitlin, how do I build this, right? Like, how do I keep this relationship going? What is the best way coming from you guys of how to build a relationship with journalists from the beginning to towards mid to towards end? Something I would encourage is befriending reporters at conferences like this. We've all been talking about how we get hundreds of pitches per day, and we do, and we, I mean, most of them, I don't really do anything with, but I'm so much more likely to look at something from, if I recognize the email sending it to me, if I know that I've met this person before and, you know, had a little chat, had lunch with them at a conference and had their card, I would say trying to make those relationships in person whenever you can is tough, but probably one of the most impactful things you can do if you want to get in with a reporter. So networking. Yes. So I just had this pop in my head, but I think one way to do it also, especially if you're early career, but if you're involved with professional societies in your field, is to get to know the media people at that professional society and help them introduce you to us. Like, for example, if we're looking at a source in a particular topic, get on that roster, because it kind of gives you a legitimacy that you can, that they know you can communicate well, and so that helps us know that they can communicate well. I don't know. That was just my thought. I've met a lot of people through various, like, ACC commenters. And any misconceptions about working with reporters? Or you want to say something primary? No, I would just add to that respect. So how do we build that collateral? Yeah. So just for example, maybe somebody gets in touch with me, and they're pitching something where I'm like, ah, that's really interesting, but it's just the wrong timing or it's the wrong part of the life cycle of this widget for me, for my publication. And say, hey, you know, come back to me when you have this thing, this data, this phase, and, you know, I'd be happy to cover it when you hit the right thing and that's my way of showing respect for them. But then, you know, if they can hit those different points, that maintains the relationship and be like, oh, yeah, I remember that thing. And you might just have to let something go where it's important to you, but it's the wrong time for us. And so not continue to send five emails of, hey, did you get my email? Hey, did you? And but, you know, we got it. And we'll get back to you when it's the right fit. So it's never personal. Yeah, it really isn't. It would just matter whether it's the right thing at the right time. And so what are some misconceptions, maybe, about working with journalists from your perspective? Top of mind? The misconception that we'll really, really fix up their quotes and make them perfect. So like I will correct basic unintentional grammar errors and, you know, make sure that people say what they were trying to say. But I occasionally will have somebody I talk to on the phone and has some wonderful verbal colloquial quotes and just sounds like a real human and is shocked to see themselves looking like a real human in the story because they thought somehow or other I was going to rephrase it, make it look like an academic paper. So that, maybe, just that, you know, like any other type of journalism, we are bound by ethics to be accurate and true to what was said and true to the facts. Makes sense. Other thoughts? Misconceptions of any type? I would say also that, you know, we might use a part of the story you pitched us or the research you gave us not in the way you intended. You know, there's a lot of studies out there that a company sponsored so that it could prove the value of its product. And, you know, if the research is valid, I might cite a statistic from that in a different story, you know, that doesn't focus on that product but mentions it, mentions that it was a sponsored study and this is what they found and this is the rate that LLMs hallucinate. And a PR person will email me, like, why didn't you talk about, you know, all the things that our product can do to solve this and to address this problem? I wasn't writing that story. I was writing a very different story. This is just something I merely mentioned, which, you know, when you put research out there, I'm allowed to do without talking to you and getting your take on how your product is the silver bullet solution to this. Misconceptions. I think I sometimes see where people don't understand sort of the rules of the road in terms of if you're talking to us, it's assumed that it's on the record. It's if you're talking to a reporter and you know you're talking to a reporter, even if you say afterward, this is off the record, you already said it and we're not obligated. So you would rather have people strike that hole off the record. I think people need to, if there's something controversial, just kind of maybe inform yourself about how it works when you talk to the media. There are different levels of expectations of maybe, you know, maybe at the end of the interview someone will say like, oh, well, yeah, send that to me before you publish it. And that was never agreed to beforehand. So sometimes that does happen as a misconception about the editorial control that you have over what a journalist writes. That's not what happens in academics, right? In academics, you always get your copy before it's put out into the world. So I think that's a key point, right, is that you have a timeline that you're following, that you have to write your story, that it will just come out maybe without any other second pair of eyes from like the team that you interviewed, right? Oh, yeah. No, we would never send the whole thing. I will occasionally send quotes on request with the caveat that we don't ever promise to make all the changes. Regularly do we get people asking for crazy changes, but it's happened enough that we say it. And I would say also speaking about off the record, there are a couple different terms that you can use for this, and it is important to set it up from the outset. And very rarely would we do something unattributed, but there are occasional times whenever, you know, if we can verify that it's true, that we would be able to use it. Very rarely. But like off the record means you can't really use it at all, right? Like is that the way you understand it? And then on background is sometimes you can get information that you can use, but you can't attribute it to the person, right? Is that your understanding of it? I'm making sure it's universal. But so all of these things, though, should be kind of discussed up front. Or like if you have a particular thing that is off the record, but then you want to go back on the record, it's really helpful to tell us when you're doing that so we just know. Sort of setting ground rules up front about how you want to do it. Let me see. We only have ten minutes left. This went very quickly. I'm super appreciative of all of your thoughts. I think we're going to sort of switch gears just a tiny bit. We're going to play a game. Because we have to spice it up. So I put some signs. So you pass out those signs. So this game is called Sunit or Yeet. Which means? I get it now. Sunit, as you know, is one of our exec producers. So hold up the sign. Right? So Sunit means yes, right? And Yeet, so hold up Yeet, what Yeet means, right? So Yeet is like the media. So you see the media person who is going to chuck you into the void for some huge mistake that you made. So Sunit or Yeet. So this is going to be sort of rapid fire. And I'm going to have you hold up your sign as to what you feel about the next several things that I'm going to ask. One, I know this could be controversial. So when you have an interview, do you is it okay to, you know, of course, let's say you ask me to come for an interview. And I'm like, okay, I'll come. So I come. But I come with, like, my PR manager. Oh, Yeet. So everybody agrees? No. So Katie, you're kind of plus minus on this. So PR person's okay? I want to say that pretty much rarely happens. And it usually is a bigger company. I am coming from this little different angle. I don't want to sound annoying or anything, but I'm only, like, a couple years out of undergrad for a journalism degree. A lot of this goes over my head. I don't understand off rip a lot of this AI and clinical speak. So a lot of times I will have a very interesting company, and it's, you know, chief medical officer speaking like he's speaking to one of his colleagues. And I know that is fine. I will go and, like, do all my research. And I come to interviews pretty prepared. But in the beginning especially, it was helpful to have someone translate that. And I never, ever would quote a PR person. And I would always kind of paraphrase it back to what the expert was saying. But in the beginning there, that was helpful. It was helpful. I mean, you understand that whatever marketing person there is here to sell their product and make it sound so great. So you do have to, you know, use your due diligence. But I did need that a little at the beginning, yes. But Crystal wants to chuck you into the void. Transparency. Say who's going to be there. If I show up and there's a team there, it puts it into a different territory. It feels more adversarial. And if the PR people are present, it's med page today policy that we have to say in the story that this conversation was monitored by media relations or public relations or whatever it was. I see. So you feel like you might not get an authentic story? Is that how? No, it just changes the conversation that the let's say the academic is willing to have. Sure. So you agree with that? Yeah, definitely. So you chuck people into the void for not announcing, right? Void. But, yeah, you should say. You shouldn't sneak somebody in. I don't want to hear a click on the other line that I don't know where it's coming from. Got it. Got it. Okay. Great. So we talked a little bit about the comms person that might or might not be helpful. Oh, let's talk about this. Do you talk about money ever? Yes. Oh, yes. So interesting. Like everybody's so sometimes uncomfortable talking about money or how much the cost is. So why do you say yes to that? So much of healthcare is about what's affordable and what's not and how it's going to be scaled up. So it's important to know whether what level of profit is being made off of something or what it's going to cost the healthcare system. So totally okay. And if you don't know the answer, that's okay, too. Just say I don't know. Got it. That can also be incredibly important to the story sometimes. Like I cover a lot of direct-to-consumer startups. You know, you could have a great, you know, clinic that's, you know, catered to a certain patient population. But if it is, you know, a $500 per month subscription fee, that is only going to be able to treat a certain, you know, privileged amount of patients. And that's, like, a huge part of the story that I need to know up front. So it depends on the story. But usually you want to know about the cost, especially if it's consumer focused. And, I mean, health systems. I write about a lot of provider technology. They are so strapped for cash. I want to know about costs and reimbursement path. That usually matters a lot to the story. So now that we've talked a little bit about money, we also touched on this a little bit earlier, too, is about cold calling people. I get some cold calls. I get yeeted into the void. So no cold calling at all. Zero. You can do it. I won't ever pick up. I'll listen to the voicemail. But never, never. Don't do it. Why is that? Because I get cold calls, you know, from, you know, mentees that maybe want to chat or learn. Is it that you don't have time? Or why do you feel like no cold calls? Zero. I'm not prepared to get the information I need, usually. You know, like all of, because we're such a, I don't know, there's a lot of facts jammed into a news story. And so, like, if it's just that first hello, that's fine. And then I can call you back. And also oftentimes we'll be on another call or in the middle of writing a story and we can't talk. Yeah. No cold calls. I know that Katie had big feelings about this. I don't know what the situation, if you guys have a work phone. I don't. And we also don't live all in the same time zone. There's nothing more frustrating than, like, waking up to some random number that's trying to pitch you a story that you would never even cover. It just feels almost invasive. Also, yeah, I live in central time. People are calling me at dinner from the west coast about some new gadget that, again, I would never cover. If I didn't respond to your two e-mails, I would never respond to your call on my personal phone. Okay. So a little bit of invasion of privacy, perhaps. What about if we slid into your DMs with either in any of your socials, right? Like IG or middle, middling. Yeeted. Never Instagram, Twitter, maybe. Twitter is okay. LinkedIn. Yeah. LinkedIn is okay? LinkedIn and Twitter. Don't track me down on Facebook. Ah, so no Facebook. No Facebook, no IG. Twitter is okay-ish? Okay. If you have a professional presence on your Twitter, that should be fine. But yeah. Never anything, you know, with your personal life on it. So some DMs on socials are kind of okay. What about, okay, so you touched on this as well. So let's say that I send you a pitch, and I don't hear back. One e-mail is okay? Yes? Yes, okay? Two? Yeah. Yeah. Two yeeted. Oh, two. So two is- Two follow-up? Yeah, two follow-up. Let's say I don't hear back on the first e-mail. Do I send a second e-mail? Yes. You do send a second e-mail, but- I'll ignore it, but you can send it. But once you get past that, it can be really annoying. So no three. Three is a definite yeet. Okay. No three follow-up e-mails for sure. What about, we talked also about no texting you? Let's say I find you're yeeted. So, oh, so Katie says- You can text me if I know you, if we've worked together before. Okay. But if you got my number for my e-mail signature, and you're, you know, trying to get me to cover your upcoming news, that's a little yeet. Yeah, okay. But Crystal says no way, no text. Never. Caitlin, you said- I'm okay with it. I have my phone set up so that it doesn't beep at night. Because we talk to a lot of people in Europe. Sure, okay. I was like, I don't want to be woken up at 4 o'clock in the morning. But yeah, as long as it's a text, and if you don't demand an immediate response, that may or may not text back. Somewhat okay. All right, got it. And then what about sort of, what if the cold call comes with like a scoop? Does that make a difference for you? Doesn't matter. It's always going to be more effective in an e-mail. Okay, so e-mail- I read all my e-mail, and that's the price of me reading all my e-mail, is that I don't want to get it anywhere else. All right. Thanks for the game. Any other parting thoughts? You have a wealth, I don't have questions currently, but if anyone has any questions, happy to take them. But any other parting thoughts? Like, what is the one thing that you want the audience to know from the media perspective? Go down the row. Maybe start with Caitlin this time. Off the top of my head, that it's not adversarial. We're not trying to catch anybody in anything. No entrapment. No entrapment. But nor are we your friends. So we try to really stay as neutral as possible and share what matters and will make people's lives better. Great. Other thoughts? So one thing you want to impart. Put you on the spot a little bit. It's all about timing. I think you've probably all gathered that already, but the difference between successful and unsuccessful interaction will often come down to timing. I would say to remember that you're talking to a reporter. When Caitlin was talking about how sometimes they expect you to make them sound so great. Remember that we have to stay very objective and report the truth. Some people will get mad at me for publishing the fact that they declined to answer a question. That's incredibly important context that I asked you something that you didn't want to give up and they'll feel betrayed, but that's your job. So I would say always remember that you're still talking to a member of the press. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, the three of you. This was a pleasure and a lot of fun. So giving everyone some insights on how to interact with you all and allowing me to put you in the hot seat, right? So thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Put this to a close. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

media attention

Janet Han

cardiac electrophysiologist

pitching stories

newsworthy material

timeliness

data-driven stories

humanizing pitches

journalistic integrity