Freelancing for Journalists

Freelancing for Journalists

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How to pitch ideas from existing content

How to pitch ideas from existing content

We share examples of story ideas developed from films, podcasts and magazine articles

Lily Canter's avatar
Lily Canter
Jun 13, 2025
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Freelancing for Journalists
Freelancing for Journalists
How to pitch ideas from existing content
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Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

People often ask me where I get story ideas from - and the answer is everywhere! But more often than not an idea strikes me while I’m listening to a podcast, reading a magazine article or watching a documentary.

Just because something has been covered in one format already doesn’t mean it can’t be ripe for treatment somewhere else. There may be a different angle to take, something that has been overlooked or a fresh perspective through the eyes of a specific case study.

I’m not talking about follow-up stories or jumping on a TikTok trend (although these are also legitimate ways of generating ideas) but immersing yourself in a subject so you have your finger on the pulse of what is resonating with audiences.

Consuming media through lots of different platforms is vitally important to any journalist. If you are not doing this, then it might be the reason you are struggling with ideas.

In today’s Premium newsletter I am going to share three feature ideas I generated - and had commissioned - which were inspired by an Amazon Prime TV documentary, a BBC podcast series and a magazine article. I also share my pitches and the editors’ responses.

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