Module 1: Newsworthy Angles

The News Peg

The News Peg is the timely reason your story matters right now. News is, by definition, new — and journalists need a reason to run your story this week instead of never. The peg is that reason. Without one, your pitch reads as advertising: "we exist, please write about us." With one, it reads as news: "here's why this matters today."

Pegs are everywhere once you look. Seasons and cycles: a tax preparer pitches in March, a tutor pitches in August, a landscaper pitches in April. Trends: when everyone's talking about remote work, the home-office organizer has a peg. New rules: a local law changes, and every contractor affected is suddenly newsworthy. Local events: a festival, a factory opening, a school milestone — tie your story to what's already on the calendar. Fresh numbers: "we surveyed 300 customers and found X" manufactures its own peg, any week of the year.

The test is simple: finish the sentence "this story matters this week because ___." If you can't finish it, you don't have a peg yet — keep looking. The peg is what turns "interesting someday" into "publishable today." And when you can't find a natural peg, make one: run a tiny survey of your customers, publish the most surprising number, and pitch the number. Data is a peg you can manufacture on demand.

One warning: don't fake a peg. Tying your bakery to a tragedy or a controversy you have nothing to do with will backfire — journalists see through it instantly, and readers punish it. The peg has to be honest. The good news is that honest pegs are plentiful; you just have to build the habit of looking at the calendar and the headlines through a journalist's eyes.

Five angles that always work

An angle is the shape of the story — the reason a reader cares. Journalists recycle a small set of angle shapes because readers reliably respond to them. Learn the five, and you'll never stare at a blank pitch again.

1. Data. Numbers are news. Survey your customers, count something in your business, publish the most surprising figure. "73% of our clients had never backed up their books" is a story; "we do bookkeeping" is not. You don't need a thousand responses — 50 real customers beats a vague claim every time.

2. Contrarian. Everyone in your industry says X; you say they're wrong, with evidence. "Why I tell every client NOT to post daily" from a social media manager. "The 5-star review is a vanity metric" from a reputation consultant. Contrarian angles work because disagreement is inherently interesting — but the take has to be genuinely yours, argued from experience, not contrarianism for clicks.

3. Local. The hometown angle is the most underused weapon in press. Local papers, local TV, and local podcasts exist to cover local businesses — it's literally their job. "Springfield bakery's starter is older than its customers" will run in Springfield every time. National is hard; local is a layup. Start there.

4. Human story. One customer's transformation, told well, beats every statistic. The before, the struggle, the after — with permission and real names. Journalists love these because readers see themselves in them. If you have a customer whose life or business changed because of what you do, you have an angle.

5. Milestone. 100th client, 5 years in business, first employee, expansion to a second location. Milestones are ready-made pegs — they're timely by definition. The trick is pairing the milestone with meaning: "5 years in business" is dull; "5 years, 400 clients, and the one lesson I'd tattoo on my arm" is a story.

The angle audit

Here's your activity for this module: the angle audit. Take a blank page and list ten facts about your business — the more specific, the better. Not "we care about customers." Real facts: how many clients you've served, the weirdest request you've fulfilled, what you did before this, the mistake you see everyone make, the thing customers thank you for most.

Now run each fact through the stranger test: "Would someone with no connection to my business find this interesting?" Be ruthless. "We've been in business ten years" — a stranger yawns. "In ten years we've unclogged 4,000 drains and found wedding rings, a phone, and once a live turtle" — a stranger reads on. The fact didn't change; the specificity did. Vague facts die. Specific facts live.

For every fact that passes, write it as a one-line story pitch: the fact, plus the peg, plus the angle type. "Local plumber finds a live turtle in a drain (human story + local) — pitched during spring cleaning season (peg)." Do this for all ten facts. You'll end up with three to five usable stories, which is three to five more than most businesses ever find — because most never look.

Keep the audit somewhere you'll see it. Angles expire and new ones appear: every unusual customer result, every milestone, every strong opinion is a future pitch. The businesses that get press consistently aren't luckier — they just keep a running list of stories and pitch them. You're building that list now.