PITCHING TO FSRN:

**SURPRISE US: We are looking for true stories, events or people that present something new, important and interesting to a national audience.

**NATIONAL INTEREST: Would your story be more interesting to your local station than to people across the country? FSRN is a daily national and international news show so we are looking for stories with a national angle. International reporters do not have to always find the US angle in their pieces.

**KEEP IT SHORT: One paragraph is best. Not whole scripts. Write a paragraph about the story you intend to produce, include your angle and a list of the sources whose voices you will use in your story. (It is a good idea to develop secure contacts with the sources you intend to interview before you pitch the story.)

**BE SPECIFIC: Tell us why your story would interest our listeners: e.g., "On the eve of the scheduled execution of Frances Newton in Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a report called 'the forgotten population,' which takes a look at death row in America through the eyes of women."

**WHAT'S THE NEWS PEG: Let us know whether the story is time-sensitive:
e.g., "Witherspoon's story will be published in this week's edition of Insects Today." Or: "This would be a great story to run with the anniversary of the Smithsonian next month."

**OUR PROCESS: Your pitch will be circulated around the daily editorial team and each day a general consensus will be reached on what pitches we accept and which we decline, after which one of the producers will get back to you. Most often this happens in the evening after deadline after the change of shift between day and night producer.

After you have pitched, an editor will get back to you with our interest within 48 hours. Send all features pitch submissions to producers[at]fsrn.org and for headline submissions send to headlines[at]fsrn.org.

GUIDELINES:

Our maximum allotted time for a feature story is 3-4 minutes. A full feature requires a minimum of at least three different voices. Our second tier shorter news story runs between 1:30-2:59 minutes and typically requires a minimum of 2 voices. Headlines are a maximum of 1-minute. Voicers should be between 35-45 seconds.

There must be one alternative voice in the piece as we require that multiple viewpoints are presented in feature pieces.

If you have actualities that are not in English, transcribe the acts fully and our production team will take care of the Voice Over mixes. However, please make sure that the English translations are clear and make sense so that the source's intended meaning is conveyed.

Producing audio and script.

You should have not only understandable but good sound quality (PLEASE READ TECHNICAL GUIDELINES BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION);

1. Be factual
2. Have a timed out script
3. Be able to quote at least two or three sources for each fact
4. Finished pieces must be the appropriate length
5. Send us a script with suggested cuts if the story is too long
6. Include ambience when possible
7. Whenever possible record your interviews in person instead of on the phone
8. And, we always like to remind our reporters to avoid excessive microphone popping in your narration tracks by paying close attention to your narration in your headphones.

When narrating, avoid sounding flat. Think about getting the words off of the page and talk to us as if you're telling a story. Be conversational and authoritative rather than authoritarian. Mark up your script so that you emphasize key information and words without being overly dramatic. Make sure to add marks (commas work well) for breathing so you don't find yourself taking a breath in place that breaks up a sentence inappropriately. Rehearsing your script before recording makes a huge difference in delivery on a tight deadline. At this point, communicating your script well is more important than spending 5 minutes more on editing the writing.

For headlines ONLY: be ready to record your script by phone at the time agreed to with you and the editor.

After you file, be on call after you are done with your story in case there are problems. If you don't meet these criteria the production team reserves the right to reconsider accepting your pitch or airing your story.

DEADLINES:

• SCRIPTS-- 10:00 AM US Pacific Daylight Time, 1PM US Eastern
• AUDIO UPLOAD-- 11:30 AM US Pacific Daylight Time, 2:30PM US Eastern

*(www.worldtimeserver.com shows all time zones)

Encode your mixed story as an .mp3 file at 128kbps MONO at 44.1 MHz.
upload to: wwwfsrn.org/upload -
ask your producer for the password.

Finally, send an email confirmation with the filename and TRT (Total Run Time) to the appropriate producer: producers[at]fsrn.org or headlines[at]fsrn.org.

INVOICING

Invoices should be sent to bookkeeper Julie Alexander at BillhelpJ[at]aol.com.

It should include the amount for which you are invoicing, your full name, current mailing address, social security number or tax identification number, story slug/title, total length of story, and the date your story aired.

PAY RATES

$180 for a 3:00 -4 min reporter package
$90 for a 1:30-2:59 min reporter package
$50 for a headline w/a sound bite
$40 for a headline voicer only

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