Research your publication
After you’ve chosen a publication to pitch to, make the effort to read a recent issue, cover to cover. Go ahead and read more than one issue if you can. If they’re a blog or podcast, read or listen to as many posts or episodes as you can.
While you’re reading or listening, try to find out if the publication has recently published anything similar to the story you hope to pitch.
For example, if you make macramé plant hangers and want to pitch a how-to story with a tutorial, Google the publication name and “macramé” to see what comes up. If there's anything similar that was published within the past couple of years, either pitch a different story to that publication, or choose a different publication from your list.
Before you pitch, work out what sorts of stories the publication publishes, and how many of them it creates. Magazines, for example, might come across simply as a suite of stories, short and long. But the reality is that those are carefully and strategically pieced together, weaving a complex embroidery of news, opinions, features and educational materials.
If you can understand this, you can learn which of those sections is most suited to your story, and pitch accordingly.
Homework
Your homework today is simply to read (or listen, or watch). Choose a publication that you want to pitch to, and read, listen or watch the whole way through. Don’t just skip to the sections or articles that interest you the most, read the whole thing from cover to cover (even the ads, so you get a feel for the brands they choose to partner with).
If you can, read through past issues as well. Or else, look them up on line to see what kinds of content they have published in the past. Try to be mindful of both the subject-matter of their content, as well as the nature of that content (more on this in the next activity).