Journalism norms

Beat

reporter beat

Definition

Beat is the subject territory a reporter actually files: rural hospitals, payments fraud, Western water. It is narrower than the masthead vertical. Pitching a “tech reporter” your HR study because the paper has a tech section is how mail dies.

Read the last six bylines. The beat is in the URLs, not the job title on LinkedIn.

How it works

Tag every person on the media list with a beat phrase you could defend. When they change desks, move them. When they go on book leave, pause.

Worked example

Two people at the same paper: one wrote six hospital-finance stories, one wrote AI features. Your staffing data study goes to the first. The second gets nothing this round.

How it differs

Outlet tier ranks the masthead. A media list is the people. The beat is the territory. An exclusive is a grant to one person in that beat.

Common errors

Buying lists labeled “AI journalists.” Pitching a real-estate beat a cybersecurity exclusive because the reporter once quoted a CIO.

Sources