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Let’s talk about rejections.
If you’ve ever attended one of my workshops about writing better pitches, you’ve surely heard me say that there are countless reasons editors turn down pitches, and soooo many of them aren’t directly related to the quality of the idea. This is true! I promise! In all the years I spent commissioning stories for NYT, by far the most common reason I would pass on a story was: I’m just not looking right now. It was nothing against the writer, the story, or the idea; it was just bad timing.
The sad reality is editors can’t respond with specific feedback to every pitch — if they did, that would be the whole job — so with hopes to shed a little light on the black box of rejection, below are some of the most common reasons editors don’t take your story.
(That said, remember that this list is far from comprehensive, and sometimes it really is just that editor isn’t vibing with the pitch or the idea. There’s no way to be sure why a pitch was rejected unless the editor directly tells you, so just keep that in mind. And, you know, while we’re talking about it — never hurts to ask the editor why!)
The editor’s budget, rather than the editor, said no
Newsroom budgets are messy and constantly changing, and odds are the editor you’re pitching has no input on their budget. Budgets are set wayyyy at the top, and editors who commission stories typically work wayyy below. If the budget isn’t there, most editors can’t do anything about it.
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