How to Pitch Monty Munford

1) What’s the best way to pitch you?

​Never by phone. Intelligently by email, DM on Twitter​.

2) What’s the best time to pitch you?

​Friday afternoons, probably Friday morning as well​.

3) What kind of stories interest you?

​Those that are REAL stories, not just PR churn. Subjects that I've written about before. Not news stories. Bigger, important stories​.

4) What tips would you give someone pitching you?

​Be respectful, use the right font, no more than 100 words, maybe a relevant link. ANY wrong use of grammar automatically banned for life​.

5) What will you never write about?

​Negative stories, unless the 'story' is so bad that everybody should know about it​.

6) What's the best pitch you ever got?

​"How is it that a 21-year-old black guy like me is making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year on YouTube?"​

7) Do you prefer to receive news in a press release or a different format?

​I want a three-paragraph pitch with a press released attached. If I get the story in those three paragraphs, then I might look at the release. Also, NO FUCKING BOILERPLATES. Nobody ever reads them, nobody cares.​

8) How do you feel about embargoes?

​Usually set by people who think their news is more important than it is. So, I feel negatively.​

9) What are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when pitching you?

​Spelling my name wrong. It's Munford, not like that bloody folk band with sons​.

10) What's the biggest misconception/s that you think people have about the media?

​That it's not important. If we don't have a free press, if we don't have a free media, then we have tyranny. The notion that journalists are inherently wrong is one that is fostered by those who have an interest in tyranny. The media protects citizens from those who would enslave them.

Take a look around. As soon as fake news became another word for EVERYBODY's journalism and alternative facts became today's reality, what happened? 

It will get worse before it will get better, but a responsible media has never been as important as it is now.​