Joni Sweet is a seasoned writer, editor, and content strategist with 15+ years of media experience. In this newsletter, Joni reveals insider tips to help PR professionals sharpen their pitches, avoid rookie mistakes, land coverage for their clients, and build stronger relationships with writers. Get detailed feedback from her on your next pitch with The Pitch Fix.

Hi friends,

Greetings from the other side of wrist surgery! (In case you missed it, my last newsletter shared that I broke my wrist. FUN!)

I made it through the operation last Friday, and after several rough days, I feel like I’m well on my way to recovery. It hasn’t been easy though. The pain has been substantial at times and it has been hard to maintain my mental wellbeing. The many, many well wishes I've received from you all have really made a difference though. Thank you for that.

The good news is that work seems to be a positive distraction right now (although I can't say one-handed typing has gotten any easier). And I’ve got a few assignments in the works that I’m hoping you can help with.

Please see below, and look out for a more substantial newsletter from me later this month.

xx Joni

Can you help with these assignments?

Personality-Driven Marketing for Travel Advisors (The Compass magazine)

For an upcoming print issue of The Compass, I’m working on an article that will explore how travel advisors can improve their marketing by understanding different client personality types and tailoring their messaging accordingly. The article should help advisors recognize that travelers with similar demographics may respond to very different marketing approaches based on their motivations, communication styles and decision-making habits. While demographics such as age, income and location remain important, personality often plays a bigger role in how clients engage with marketing. I’m looking for the following experts to interview about this topic:

• marketing professionals (ideally, those who work within travel and hospitality)

• travel advisors who have a good grasp on their agency marketing

Interviews will be conducted via video chat in the next week or two. If you know someone I should speak to, please send me an email with a couple of sentences about their background as it relates to this topic ASAP. jonimsweet@gmail.com

The Growing Trend of Nostalgia Travel/Vintage Americana (The Compass magazine)

For an upcoming print issue of The Compass, I’m exploring the growing trend of nostalgia travel, where travelers seek out destinations, experiences and accommodations that reconnect them with the past. The article should help travel advisors understand what’s driving the trend and how they can tap into it when planning trips for clients. Though this might look different for each traveler, we’d like to lean into vintage Americana and US historic elements, with mentions of the 250th since it’s top of mind for many -- this could be Route 66 trips, US rail experiences and more. For this article I’m looking for:

• Travel advisors to interview about the nostalgic travel trend

• Very high-quality examples of nostalgia travel/vintage Americana. Please include a Google Drive or Dropbox link of images with your pitch (no attachments, please!)

Interviews will be conducted via video chat in the next week or two. If you know someone I should speak to, please send me an email with a couple of sentences about their background as it relates to this topic ASAP. jonimsweet@gmail.com

Looking for fascinating people in travel, health, and wellness (Yahoo)

As you know, I’m currently recovering from wrist surgery. While typing thousands of words isn’t exactly my superpower right now, Q&As are a format I can still produce relatively easily, so I’d like to write a few that will appear on Yahoo.

I’m looking for introductions to fascinating experts, founders, researchers, authors, adventurers, and unconventional thinkers in the travel, health, and wellness space.

Impressive bios aren’t the most important factor here (but the expert should have credentials and authority). What I’m really looking for are great stories and irresistible angles, centered around an expert.

The best interviews help readers solve a problem, answer a question they’ve been wondering about, challenge a common assumption, or reveal something surprising. Think less “hotel concierge available to discuss travel trends” and more “I need to click on that.”

A few examples of the types of angles that tend to work:

• A sleep expert explains why you’re still tired after 8 hours of sleep.

• A travel psychologist reveals the mistake that makes vacations more stressful.

• A longevity researcher shares the wellness habits she’d never spend money on.

• A frequent flyer explains the airport myth that’s costing travelers time and money.

• A nutrition expert reveals the healthy food she never buys.

• An adventurer shares the travel lesson that completely changed how they see the world.

These are just a few ideas, though, and I’m confident your clients have even better ones for us to explore.

If you’d like to pitch someone, please send:

• A proposed headline that would make readers want to click.

• Three to five talking points the expert could discuss.

• Why this person is uniquely qualified to speak on the topic.

• Any timely hook, recent research, new book, trend, or news angle.

Before you hit send, ask yourself: Would a busy reader stop scrolling to read this? If the answer is no, keep workshopping the angle.

The more specific, surprising, useful, or conversation-worthy the pitch, the better. No firm deadline, but please reach out when you have a pitch prepared. jonimsweet@gmail.com