How one PR landed her client in the Guardian via my workshop

Here's a really good example of someone getting in front of a journalist and pitching a story. 

Communications manager Kimasha Williams came along to my How to Secure Media Coverage workshop in London in January. During the session I mentioned that two days later I'd be heading to Colombia to report from the country for three months. That pushed Kimasha to come up to me and pitch a compelling story regarding Colombian smallholders. I was instantly interested and asked for more information by email, which she sent over the following week. 

I took a punt on the story, spending weeks researching and arranging logistics (and avoiding flying) to take a nine-hour bus journey from Medellín to the scorching hot oil city of Barrancabermeja in north east Colombia without a commission.

I was there to report on a story of hope, speaking to farmers who had transitioned into a new line of work after being wrapped up in what has become Colombia’s curse - the illicit cocaine trade, which has to led armed conflict, tens of thousands of deaths and more than 200,000 people displaced.

After a night of intense heat with two fans (ineffectively) trying to cool me down, the next day I headed down to the dock for an 8am boat ride along a strong tea-coloured Rio Magdelena, the mighty river flowing through Colombia (significant for me as at the time I was inhaling a book about the river), alongside local commuters and people travelling from the city to their riverside villages.

I was picked up by my contacts so I could visit the farmers at the root of the story. Trying to find shade under a towering palm tree in the 36C heat against a backdrop of the drone-like sound of cicadas on his farm near San Pablo, Yoger Payares told me: “It was difficult to be living here and not be involved in coca, because it’s what you grew up to know.”

Spurred by the subsidies, technical support and tax discounts offered under the policy, many coca growers have left the profitable business and transitioned into palm oil (the three famers I interviewed that day had certified as sustainable growers, for example producing palm oil without causing deforestation, destroying wildlife habitats, or harming local communities and workers).

“Things are calmer,” Payares said of growing oil palm on his 11-hectare (27-acre) farm. “I can live safely.” It has also led to other payoffs. “One of my kids has been to university, another is at university. I own a house. I have my own truck. I never thought that I would have my own transport. Everything I have is thanks to what the palm has given me.”

After a long day reporting, I took the riverboat back and made a quick dinner in my sweltering budget room as I plotted my journey the next day to my next destination (three buses and a hell of a lot of waiting).

Fortunately when I looked at my emails that day, I breathed a sigh of relief as a commission had landed: the Guardian wanted the story. Phew.

And so it led to this piece in the Guardian, and became the most-read story in Global Development.

Kimasha posted this on her LinkedIn account last week:

Thank you Suzanne, for covering this story - a pinch-me moment for me too, and in the Guardian's Latin America and Caribbean features section!

I attended Suzanne's highly recommended media pitching workshop one Friday afternoon, where she mentioned she would be travelling to Colombia the following Sunday for a few months. That was my lightbulb moment to tell her about a group of oil palm smallholder farmers I thought she'd be interested in meeting, given her interest in sustainability and inspiring stories.

A massive thank you to my colleague, Juan Camilo Plazas Ovalle, for his support in making the connections on the ground possible.

Suzanne, thank you for taking a chance to chase this story and, admirably, in the most eco-conscious way. You brought these smallholders' stories to a global audience with such care and nuance 💚

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I think it demonstrates that listening to journalists, subscribing their newsletters, going to their events and then having the confidence to pitch a journalist to their face, can work wonders.