On August 7th, the IELC held a journalism pitch and media training workshop, hosted by Alicia Ramirez from the Riverside Record.

The goal of the workshop was to equip labor leaders with the tools to break through the news cycle and maintain good relationships with journalists. The goal was for attendees to apply their lessons in order to pitch a story by Labor Day.

During the course of the workshop, attendees learned about the Inland Empire’s media landscape, best practices for finding the specific coverage that suits organizations, and how to increase both visibility and impact.

Attendees also put their newfound knowledge to work in breakout groups. Each group was given a scenario and had to figure out how best to promote their hypothetical worker action.

The groups came back together after brief discussions and shared best strategies for their respective campaigns, with comments from Alicia.

After this, Alicia dove into the components of a proper pitch. They include: making it easy for the reporter to say yes and overall putting yourself into the reporter’s shoes. Oftentimes on Labor Day and other holidays, newspapers and news stations operate with skeleton crews. As such, giving a reporter as much information as possible along with potential interviewees and photos is a big help.

Attendees left the workshop with plenty of information that they could apply to any upcoming events, contract negotiations, or actions. As the Labor Council, we look forward to assisting our affiliates with these pitches and continuing to change the narrative around labor in the Inland Empire.