The Elevator Pitch

PROCESS

Mindwarmer

Step 1:
Model two story pitches for the class, one good and one bad. They can be verbal or written. As you make your pitches, have students take notes. 

• Start with the bad one: offer a vague idea for a story, act uncertain about it, show that you haven’t put much thought into it. 
• Then, model a good one: give a clear, concise explanation of a story idea, including the format that the story would take (e.g., audio, video, print), who your intended audience would be, and how you would like the story to impact that audience.

Step 2:
When you’re done, have students pair up and list five dos and five don’ts for a good story pitch. If needed, help them along by providing some basic pitch guidelines.

Step 3:
Have the class share their lists of do’s and don’ts. Compile these into a master list as they share, and post it on the wall.

EXERCISE

Step 4:
Have students form groups of three or four, and explain the challenge: each team will have ten minutes to develop a 90-second pitch. They should come up with two parts to the pitch:

• An Elevator Pitch: a one- to two-sentence explanation of their story 
• A thoughtful answer to these questions: Who is the audience? How will you tell your story in order to best reach them? What kind of impact do you hope to have on them? 

Note: If students have already completed Meet the Audience and/or Empower the Audience, they can refer to the audience profile and the “North Star” (impact goals) that they developed in those activities to help them think about their audience for this pitch.

Step 5: 
Start the clock and let the teams work on their pitches.

Step 6:
When the ten minutes are up, explain the format that the class will use for pitching and giving feedback:

• Each team will have 90 seconds to pitch their stories.
• There will be two minutes of Q & A with the class.
• The class will then provide two to five minutes of feedback, guided by their Critic Role Cards 

Step 7: 
Explain the Critic Role Cards:

1. Audience-Centered Critic

Your role is to make sure that the potential audience is sufficiently considered in the development of the story.

• Is there a strong alignment between the story, form of delivery of that story, and the potential audience?
• Is it relevant to the audience?
• What kind of impact will it have on the audience?

2. Story Critic
Your role is to make sure that story elements are sufficiently considered in the development of the pitch.

• Is there a story there, as opposed to a general topic or idea?
• Is it interesting?
• Does it have tension, or a solution? Something new, or something different?
• Does the arc of the story make sense? Are things happening in the right order? Do you have all the characters?

3. Evidence Critic
Your role is to make sure that evidence is sufficiently considered in the development of the story.

• Is the story backed by evidence? Where will the reporter look for evidence? What data exists around this topic, and where would the reporter find it? 
• Are there enough sources of evidence being included? Do the sources reflect both the “newsmakers” and those “affected” by the news?
• Is the credibility of sources being considered?

Step 8:
Give Critic Role Cards out to each student. Try to disperse them evenly, so that there are roughly the same number of audience-centered critics, story critics, and evidence critics. Students will base their questions and feedback on these cards.

Step 9:
Ask one team to kick off the pitch process. Follow the format you outlined Step 6: give them 90 seconds to pitch the story, two minutes for a Q&A, and two to five minutes for feedback.

Step 10:
Before continuing with the rest of the pitches, pause for reflection:

• How strong was the pitch?
• How effective was the feedback?
• What should we keep in mind for our next rounds of pitches and feedback to improve?

Step 11:
Repeat the process for the rest of the pitches.

Have questions? Feedback?

We’d love to hear about your experience using these activities in your classroom, get your thoughts on what we could improve. Email us at resources@journalismdesign.com or fill out this form.