Phone Pitching

What you will learn

• What Telephone Pitching is built for -- and how it sits next to Email Pitching and Bookings & Coverage.
• The page layout: the ACTIVITY landing, the PITCH LIST area, and the four sub-tabs inside it.
• How to log a call outcome -- the four real buttons -- and how they map to the reception scale.
• How to schedule a callback and where it lands afterwards.
• What the "Add Contacts to Pitch List" action does (and does not do).

The mental model

Telephone Pitching is the page for working a list of journalists by phone -- the follow-up to an email pitch, or a phone-first push when the story warrants it. Find it under PITCH > Telephone Pitching.

The page does one job, and it does it well: call management. You see the contact, you see their history, you make the call, you record what happened. The reception on each contact updates from that, your scheduled callbacks queue up on a dedicated dashboard, and the Story's activity timeline picks up every outcome you log.

Two boundaries worth knowing up front so you reach for the right page at the right moment:

• Bookings live in Bookings & Coverage. When a call lands an interview, you create the booking there -- that page owns the time zones, the talent and the outlet contact details for a confirmed slot.
• Email goes through Email Pitching. The "Add Contacts to Pitch List" actions on this page build your phone working list; outbound email runs through the Email Pitching wizard.

Reception -- Hot, Warm, Luke Warm, Cold, Ice Cold -- is derived from the outcome you log, not picked from a menu. Click the outcome that matches the conversation; the temperature follows.

The page layout

ACTIVITY (top-level tab)

The landing tab. Filter by location, search for the Story, pick the one you are working. Stories already marked Done hide from the list unless you flip "Include Completed".

PITCH LIST (top-level tab)

Appears once a Story is loaded. The left-hand pill rail carries four sub-tabs covering every job: working the list, chasing callbacks, reviewing activity, and auto-building from the media database.

PITCHING (sub-tab)

The working list -- "Story Pitch List". Two views: a List view with per-row outcome buttons, and a Board view that swaps the list for a kanban with columns To Call, Left Message, Interested, Not Interested. Drag a card between columns on the Board to log that outcome. Add Contacts to Pitch List grows the list; Refresh reloads it.

CALLBACKS (sub-tab)

The Callbacks Due dashboard. Every callback you have scheduled, grouped Overdue / Due Today / Upcoming, with running counts. A badge on the sub-tab itself shows how many are queued so you spot pile-ups at a glance.

ACTIVITY (sub-tab)

The Pitching Activity Report -- stats on calls made and outcomes for the Story.

AUTO BUILD LIST (sub-tab)

Grow the pitch list from the media database by filters rather than hand-picking. "Search For Media Contacts", review the results, add the ones that fit.

Phone technique: the 20-second pitch

The phone is a different craft from the email. Voicemail boxes and busy reporters reward brevity; rambling pitches kill conversations before they start. Three patterns that work:

The 20-second pitch (when they pick up)

Open with the news, then the offer, then the ask. "Hi, [name], it's Olivia at Acme PR Corp. I'm calling about the Globex Wellbeing Index that lands Tuesday -- UK workplace burnout up 23%, hybrid teams worst hit. Dr Helen Ashworth (CPO, lead author) is available for interview from Monday afternoon. Worth me sending you the embargoed assets?" Twenty seconds, three sentences, one yes-or-no question at the end. Refine the script for every campaign so it rolls off the tongue.

The voicemail message

Even shorter -- ten to fifteen seconds. State your name, your agency, the angle, your number twice. "Hi [name], Olivia at Acme PR Corp. Got a workplace-burnout story landing Tuesday I think your readers will want -- Dr Helen Ashworth available for interview. My number is 07000 000 000. Drop me a line and I'll send the embargoed materials. Thanks."

When the call gets cut short

"Mid-deadline, can't talk" is a yes hiding inside a no. Reply: "No worries -- I'll send the assets by email in the next five minutes so they are there when you have a moment." Then send it within five minutes. The follow-up email references the call ("Following our brief call just now...") which keeps the thread warm.

When to phone instead of email:

• Follow-up to an email that has had two touches without reply -- the rule of three's phone variant.
• An exclusive offer where you want to confirm interest before sending materials.
• A breaking-news reactive where seconds matter and email is too slow.
• A relationship call where the priority is the journalist, not a specific Story.

When not to phone: a first cold approach to a journalist you have never emailed (email first, phone if warranted on follow-up), or during their filing window. Most national news desks take pitches in the morning and file copy in the afternoon (filing typically 14:00-19:00 for next-day print); call before lunch when you can. Trade-press deadlines vary by title but Friday afternoons rarely land well.

Logging a call

Every row in List view (and every card on the Board) carries the call-outcome buttons. Pick the one that matches what happened and Buzzscribed handles the rest.

• Interested -- the contact wants to engage. Reception becomes Hot.
• Message (Left Message) -- you left a voicemail. Reception becomes Luke Warm and a callback prompt opens for you to set the next attempt.
• Unavailable -- you could not reach them and left no message. Reception becomes Cold.
• Not Interested -- they passed. Available by dragging a card to the Not Interested column on the Board, or by the same action on the contact's history. Reception becomes Ice Cold; record a reason and a brief note.

Scheduling a callback as part of a "Message" outcome (or independently from the Notes view) bumps reception to Warm -- reflecting that there is a live thread on the call rather than a dead voicemail.

Each outcome appends to the contact's history. The Notes button on a row (and the comment icon on a Board card) opens that history so you can see every prior interaction before you dial. The pattern is simple: read the history, make the call, log the outcome.

Callbacks: schedule, then find

When a call does not connect, schedule a callback from the prompt. The platform holds it in two places:

1. The CALLBACKS sub-tab -- Callbacks Due, grouped Overdue / Due Today / Upcoming. This is your daily worklist.
2. The contact's history -- so anyone reviewing that person's record sees the pending callback before they pick up the phone.

A scheduled callback also surfaces as a badge in the pitch list, so you can spot which rows have action waiting on you.

Frequently asked

Where is this page in the navigation?

PITCH > Telephone Pitching.

Can I book an interview from the call screen?

Bookings live on the Bookings & Coverage page, where time zones, talent and outlet details all come together. Use the Interested outcome here, then jump to Bookings & Coverage to lock the slot.

What does "Add Contacts to Pitch List" do?

It builds the working list for this page. To email those contacts, head to Email Pitching -- that wizard runs the outbound send.

How do I set a contact to Hot?

Log the outcome Interested and reception becomes Hot. The five reception values are derived from outcomes, so the temperature on your list always reflects what actually happened on the calls.

Where do scheduled callbacks live?

On the CALLBACKS sub-tab (Callbacks Due, grouped Overdue / Due Today / Upcoming) and on the contact's history.

List view or Board view?

Both are available on the PITCHING sub-tab. List is fastest when you are powering through calls; the Board is useful when you want to see the shape of the pipeline by outcome.

What to read next

• Email Pitching -- the email half of the pitch workflow.
• Bookings & Coverage -- where an Interested outcome turns into a locked-in interview slot.
• Mail Queue -- managing queued sends on the Mail Dashboard.