How to pitch a story to Silicon Prairie News

We receive a lot of story pitches at Silicon Prairie News. In the process, we’ve formed a number of “rules of thumb” that guide our editorial decision making. Here’s some of the key things you should know when suggesting a story to us. What you should know about SPN What we publish – We publish…

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Ryan Pendell, Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News. Photo by Molly Misek.

We receive a lot of story pitches at Silicon Prairie News.

In the process, we’ve formed a number of “rules of thumb” that guide our editorial decision making. Here’s some of the key things you should know when suggesting a story to us.

What you should know about SPN

What we publish – We publish stories about startups in the NE, IA, KS, MO region. We are looking for stories that have regional interest and appeal. When we consider stories we ask, “Why would someone in NE/IA/KS/MO care about this?”

Who we write for – Our core audience are other entrepreneurs in the region. When we consider stories we ask, “What relevance does this story have for other entrepreneurs?”

What we love – We are always looking for truly innovative companies that we’ve never covered before who are gaining traction. We are also looking for stories that deal with the struggles of starting a company. “Rural innovation” stories about entrepreneurs outside of the big cities are always of interest to our readers. We also like stories that express the diversity of our region, as well as stories that cross the typical boundaries of cities and states.

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What we need from you

How your story connects to our region. We often have people tell us about their company and never mention their location. We need to know that first.

Basic biographical information. Give this to us up front, particularly if you are guest posting or freelancing. 1-2 sentences (what you do, what you’ve accomplished, official job title, where you live) is best.

Images. This is the trickiest part for people–and what typically delays publishing for stories. Our featured story space is around 700×400 in a horizontal landscape frame. A tiny headshot image is no good. A vertical image is almost always no good, since it will be cropped significantly. We need wide, high resolution images in .jpg or .png format.

We prefer to have several image choices. As a rule of thumb, we prefer images of humans above empty workspaces and logos.

Guest posts

We publish occasional guest posts if we think the content will be valuable to our readers. Our readers appreciate advice listicles/how-tos/strong opinions/first-person stories about startup life and entrepreneurship. There also needs to be some tie back to our region–you live in our region, are connected to our region somehow, or can knowledgeably use sources/examples from our region in your post.

When you pitch to us, let us know (a) what your platform is (why you’re an expert) and (b) what your relationship is to the region. Let us know why you think your post would be great for our readers. Contact the editor if you have an idea.

Freelance opportunities

We are always looking to pay for great writers and photographers, especially with connections to Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. Knowledge of tech or business community is a major plus. We can provide you with story ideas and contacts or you can pitch your own ideas. Please send us samples of your previous work when you first contact us. Send inquiries to the editor.

FAQs

Q: Can you cover/promote my event?

Because our readership is regional, we cover events that have regional appeal. This typically means large annual events (EntreFEST, Techweek Kansas City, Startup VooDoo). We also promote our own affiliated events (Big Omaha, SPAwards, HDC, etc.) We also attempt to cover Demo Days from incubators and accelerators.

If it’s a lunch talk, a kids event, a local speaker or an on-going local series, we likely won’t cover it. There are great community builders across our region who do the tireless job of keeping people informed on local startup events. We recommend sending local event announcements to: Gravitate [Iowa/Des Moines], We Create Here [Iowa City/Cedar Rapids], Startland News [Kansas City], Techli [Saint Louis], Startup Digest [Omaha/Lincoln].

Q: Can you cover my Kickstarter?

We do cover crowdfunding stories if we feel there’s substance or traction with it. Typically, we are most interested in knowing what your strategy is and how effective it is working. Our readers want to know your tactics and results.

Q: I’m from [place outside of NE, IA, KS, MO]. Will you consider covering me?

If you have some tie back to something in our region, yes. If you have operations in our region, yes. If you used to live here, yes. We don’t cover Minnesota, Ohio, Chicago, Michigan–all of which have been described by at least one media outlet as the “Silicon Prairie.”

For Northern Plains news, we recommend Emerging Prairie.

Q: You’ve done a story on us before. Why don’t you do one on us again when we ask you to?

As a media source, we serve our readers, not the people we cover. Our editorial judgment is based on a host of factors: our understanding of what our readers like, our resources (often limited during major events coverage) and our own journalistic judgment.

As our ecosystem grows, SPN’s bar for “newsworthy” rises. We think that’s a good sign for the community.

Q: What cities do you cover?

We cover all parts of NE, IA, KS, MO.

Ryan Pendell is the Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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