Who am I?

Until 2024, I ran the opinion pages at Sifted after a 20 year career as an editor and writer at some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines.

I was an editor on the European and UK editorial teams at LinkedIn, and a writer and editor at Newsweek magazine.

As commissioning editor at Sifted, I received probably 50 pitches a week from PRs, founders and executives. 99% of them I deleted or ignored.

Why? Because they weren’t any good.

I want to help fix this problem. Do you? Read on.

What needs to be done?

Journalists are busy, they’re underpaid, and frankly they’re often bitter about it.

What they want is to tell good stories. What they want is a pipeline of excellent op-eds.

What they want is the facts in a timely and transparent fashion.

If you give them that, you can build a relationship that will reap dividends — for you and for your clients.

I can help you do that.

I’m not going to tell you there is a magic formula to pitching journalists. But it can help to hear from an insider things like:

When is the best time to pitch? Who is the best person to pitch?

When is the morning conference and how can you align the stories you are pitching around it?

How can you take advantage of the dysfunctional idiosyncratic way that newsrooms are run?

And how is this going to change in the future? I don’t claim to have a crystal ball but I think over two decades I have a few useful insights.

I use in person and online training, as well as writing workshops, practical exercises and follow-on consultations to improve your pitching and build relationships with the media.

I can also help your clients with hands-on media training, allowing them to ensure that the story they want to tell is the story that gets told.

I can turn around sharp, creative copy to tight deadlines. I’ve been doing it all my life.

Get in touch at ocrowcroft@gmail.com

What people say about me.

“Orlando is a bold, consistent, and trustworthy journalist who has sourced and covered a remarkable array of original stories.”

Jez Fielder, Euronews

“Orlando is an excellent journalist - a quick and accurate news reporter and accomplished feature writer. I would not hesitate to recommend him.”

Peter Beaumont, the Guardian

I'd love to hear from you