Every time you turn around, another outlet or reporter is launching a newsletter, and many freelancers are even publishing their own Substack newsletters. 

Although the options can be overwhelming, newsletters, often read closely by influential industry audiences, can be great targets for pitches. 

Here are a few considerations to help find the right newsletter for your pitch and maximize relevant eyeballs:

• Tailor your pitch to the newsletter’s format. Newsletters vary widely in their approach. For example, in health care, newsletters like KHN Morning Briefing and the Fierce Healthcare newsletters predominately link to existing media coverage. Others, like VoxCare or Politico Pulse, share longer-form write-ups directly in the newsletter.

• Understand the audience. A newsletter’s audience can help determine where your news belongs. Making a political announcement? Then POLITICO Playbook or Axios AM could be the right fit for your news. Sharing perspective on a national policy? Then reaching the wonks reading The Washington Post’s Daily 202 might be the way to go.

• Reach vs. relevance. Many newsletters reach a fairly niche audience, but there can still be significant variation in their subscriber base. On the higher end are newsletters like The New York Times’ On Politics (1.1 million subscribers) and Axios AM (over 600,000 subscribers), while state-based newsletters such as POLITICO Illinois (18,000) and POLITICO New York (23,000) reach narrower, but more targeted audiences.

Once you find the right newsletter for your needs, consider offering an exclusive. We’ve heard from reporters that exclusives often increase their likelihood of featuring the news and can impact how prominently they display it in the newsletter.