How to pitch a Sunday paper

The Sunday paper is the last placement that still gets read twice. Once with coffee, once when someone tears it out and mails it to a parent.

That's the whole reason we still pitch it — the shelf life is measured in weeks, not hours. A story that lands on a Sunday shows up in inboxes for a month afterward, always from someone who thought you'd like to see it.

The pitch is the same one we've been using for three years: a specific angle, a photographable subject, and a Tuesday email. Not Monday, not Wednesday. Tuesday.

Specific angle means one sentence, no adjectives. 'The chef who only cooks on Sundays.' 'The bar that doesn't take reservations.' If it takes a paragraph to explain, it isn't ready.

Photographable subject means the desk can see the image before they read the copy. Sunday features are half visual — if the shoot is uncertain, the pitch dies in the assignment meeting on Wednesday.

The Tuesday email is a discipline, not a superstition. Monday inboxes are triage. Wednesday inboxes are already assigning next week. Tuesday is the only day the feature editor is actually reading.

One more thing: don't follow up. Sunday desks remember who pitched clean and who pitched twice. Being remembered as the second kind is worse than being forgotten.