Open this lesson in your favourite AI. It'll walk you through the why, explain the demo, and quiz you on the try-it list.
Journalists are not looking for what is interesting to you — they are looking for what is interesting to their readers, and that judgment is governed by a set of news values that have been consistent for over a century. Knowing timeliness, proximity, prominence, conflict, human interest, and novelty lets you audit your own story before you pitch it.
Use these three in order. Each builds on the one before.
In one paragraph, explain the six news values journalists use to decide whether a story is worth covering.
Walk me through how a journalist would evaluate a startup's funding announcement against each of the six news values and decide whether to write it up.
Given a 10-person startup raising a $2M seed round with no brand recognition, which news values are available to you and how would you construct a pitch that compensates for the values you cannot claim?