How to Pitch a Story to Seattle Business

1.     AUDIENCE: Seattle Business Magazine has about 105,000 readers. Most are business, health care and nonprofit executives living in Washington state. They tend to have high incomes and are involved in important business decisions. They look to Seattle Business Magazine for news about Washington state. We are not interested in companies headquartered out of state unless they have a major presence here.

2.     THE COMPANIES WE COVER:  Although we focus on companies that have at least several million dollars in sales, we make an exception for start-ups or other companies that have significant growth potential. We will also consider smaller companies in the context of a larger trend story.

3.     STORIES WITH LEGS: Magazines operate on long lead times. We typically require a story to be delivered to us two full months before the issue comes out. And once out, magazines tend to hang around for a long time. That means it's critical to pitch a story that has a long shelf life. The story should still be relevant months after it was written. When you are pitching a story, think about what our readers will be interested in three to four months out. Consider changes that might take place in the industry and make sure the story is written in a way that prevents it from being overtaken by events.

4.     STORY IDEAS:  We are always interested in stories about why particular companies have succeeded or failed. That's our bread and butter. But there are an endless number of other ways to approach business stories:

• Find a national trend and look for its counterpart in the local scene. That applies to everything from health care reform to stimulus spending and changing labor trends.
• Be the first to identify a trend. With fewer journalists covering business, there are more opportunities to be the first to identify new trends. There are lots of people blogging about daily events. Fewer people are taking a step back and looking at the broader trends.
• Make sure you answer the "Why?" and the "Who Cares?" question. Is the company offering a new product that will change the world, a new approach to distribution or a more efficient way of managing a process?

5. READ THE MAGAZINE: Each section of our magazine takes different kinds of stories with different length. Your story has a better chance of being accepted if it is targeted at a particular section.

Startup: This section leads our magazine. It includes numerous shorter pieces including the following: 

• BRIEFS: Short pieces about recent major business developments or deals
• EXECUTIVE MOVES: Recent hires, promotions, resignations or firings. We usually look for C-level changes at companies.
• BRIGHT IDEA: A story about a company with an innovative technology or business idea. These companies are often startup companies. We are looking for ideas that are fresh or have the potential to introduce major changes in an industry.
• SPOTLIGHT: A profile of a company of recent interest.
• ON REFLECTION: An analytical story that discusses a recent trend.

Departments

Our Department stories focus on specific sectors of the Washington state economy. They include, but are not limited to, health care, technology, human resources, finance, manufacturing, green business, real estate, law and media. These can be narrow stories or industry trends, but they tend to be relatively narrowly focused.

Features

Our feature well includes major trend stories, profiles of important people or corporate strategy pieces. These stories tend to have a broader focus. We typically run two to three feature stories per month, of which one is our cover story.

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