Newsworthiness Guide for Scientists

I had a recurring “elevator pitch” at Lancefest earlier this summer. After explaining that I’m a science journalist now, I’d end with “so if you run into a story, let me know!” One person had a question that left me stumped: “What counts as a story?” For those of us who don’t happen to be Einstein I didn’t have a good response then. I’ve got a better one now, though I’m afraid it doesn’t fit in an elevator pitch. This is all based on my experience, so take it with a grain of salt. But here are the criteria that seem to matter: First, a story usually needs a news hook. News is, in particular, supposed to be “new”. That doesn’t mean I can’t write about history, or established science. But editors like those stories a lot better if there is some recent development, within the past year or so, to tie it to. The new development doesn’t have to be all that important, the story can mostly focus on something else. But it needs to be somewhere in there. Second, news stories are usually…