How to Pitch: Femina Middle East
July 19, 2016 Consumer Magazines
Sharon Carvalho, Content Editor at Femina Middle East, spoke to MediaSource about the women’s lifestyle magazine, what makes a great pitch, and her experience of working with PRs in the region.
Tell us about Femina Middle East
Femina Middle East is the regional version of India’s most iconic women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine. It has been around for over 55 years and has always been the voice of the modern woman. The Middle East edition launched in July 2014 and targets multi-cultural women living in the UAE who have adopted it as their home.
What subjects do you cover in the magazine?
Our readers enjoy the mix of fashion & beauty and aspirational stories that we cover in our pages, with a core focus on content that inspires. Our ‘Heroes’ section has gained popularity due to the unsung women we interview regularly.
What makes for an interesting interview?
Someone who is unstoppable, inspiring, aspiring and a force to be reckoned with makes for an interesting profile.
How do you prefer to be pitched?
We prefer receiving an email first, followed up by a call a couple of days later. We receive an email a minute, so chances are the email has slipped through the cracks. But that isn’t intentional - it’s just a hazard of the job. The call helps us track the email down and respond immediately. We do not appreciate receiving a call the second an email drops into our inbox because we probably haven’t read it yet. We prefer receiving kits in person or via Dropbox. WeTransfer files expire and we don’t want to bother PR teams with a request to send it again.
What should PR professionals consider before contacting you about a story idea?
They need to figure out whether the story makes sense to us, and whether the idea will resonate with our readers. There has to be something unique with what the person is doing. They also need to understand that no matter how they spin it, if the story idea has no hook, nothing will convince us.
What helps a pitch stand out?
How it is pitched makes a big difference. If there is fluff that masks the essence of the story, we will probably get bored. And if we are bored, we are not going to subject our readers to that.
Are there common mistakes PRs and brands should avoid?
Overselling an idea. We tend to make up our minds about a story within the first minute of hearing or reading the pitch, so no matter how much you ply us with arbitrary information and try to spin it to have us see the light, once we’ve made up our mind, there’s not much that can be done to turn back.
You must be inundated with press invites – what gets a positive RSVP?
We are more like to RSVP to events happening in the evening.
How can a PR best assist you with a story?
As tricky as it is, try to understand the angle we are taking with a story and just ask us what we need.
What’s the best way to build a relationship with you?
Spend time with us and get to know us. The PR teams that pop into our minds first are the ones we know personally.
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