How to pitch a journalist at the CBC

Baby Got Booked The Podcast

Our guest today is here to tell us why journalists are your worst best friends. Tanya Birkbeck is a bilingual multi-media broadcast journalist who works on staff at CBC Montreal. She files daily to national and provincial news casts for radio and television and also creates web and social media content for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She’s a trained video journalist and has worked internationally producing news reports and radio documentaries while also training and mentoring journalists. She will also tell us about how she launched the world’s first feminist cat magazine!

Tanya’s Inspiration: Tanya grew up on a grain farm in rural Saskatchewan. She was an only child who lived out in the middle of nowhere. She spent a lot of time reading books and writing about her animals. Because of this upbringing so far away from everything she developed an incredible curiosity for the rest of the world. This was the inspiration for what would later become her career in journalism.

Feminist Cat Magazine: As a kid Tanya created a lifestyle magazine for female cats called Catelaine. It was inspired by Chatelaine, Canada’s largest women’s magazine. She borrowed Chatelaine’s logo and did the illustrations and wrote the articles using her own cats as characters.

Worst Best Friend Ever: In terms of their relationship with their sources journalists are the worst best friend ever. They’re the best friend who doesn’t respond to your messages, misses your anniversary and doesn’t come to your kid’s birthday party but all of the sudden when they need to borrow your car to move they are calling and saying “can you have your car over here five minutes ago please?” It’s nothing personal journalists are just very hard to get a hold of because they are extremely busy. Follow up, follow up, follow up.

The importance of that first line: The subject line has to catch their eye because they are scrolling through dozens of messages. It should inspire curiosity that makes them have to know what the second sentence is because they are so hooked on the first one. It is like buzz feed headlines that you can’t resist clicking on even though afterwards you can’t believe you wasted your time on it.

Be a little quirky: The things that make a good interview are clarity, getting to the point and it helps to have a quote that’s a little quirky. Make your point in a way that doesn’t sound exactly the same as everyone else. Let your personality come through a little. For example Tanya talked to a doctor who was against a proposal of having a non smoking and smoking area on a terrace. The doctor said “that would be like having a peeing and non-peeing area in a pool”.

· Tanya’s a-ha moment that took her out of the baby pool and into the ocean: She was working as a producer on an art show in 2012 when the student protests occurred. They were looking for some reporters and she had worked as a reporter years earlier. They asked her if she would like to go back to reporting and when she did she realized it’s what she loves and wants to do for her career. When you’re doing something you really love you know it in your heart. If you don’t really love what you’re doing you’ll know that too. Figure out what you love.

· You can pitch Tanya your stories via email or twitter. Her email is [e-mail] and her twitter handle is @tanyabirkbeck

· Tanya is also active on instagram where she posts a lot of journalists in the field style photos. It’s a good way to get to know what interests her.

· Look me up on twitter at @lifewithgeeta or check out the resources on my blog at [geetanadkarni.com] for example the template for the perfect mediagenic bio that you can get written in under 15 minutes

· Write headlines no journalist can resist, with the 58-headline template pack [http://babygotbooked.com/headlines]