So I recently started a business writing news articles and I have had some success. What I'm struggling with is finding the right kind of clients to pitch to. Basically I need to find small to medium sized news sites which are in need of news content on a daily basis. My successes rate from cold pitching is good (around 10%) but I struggle to find the right kind of sites to pitch to. I know they're out their because I find them occasionally using google news but there is no "search by size" feature. So basically my question is does anyone know a good way to find small niche news websites?
You can find small to medium size news sites and usually most of them are also in need of a good or rather a unique writer. Find some prospects and prepare your sample content that will represent as your pitch to them. A story that is not only unique and interesting but never been produced anywhere.
The OP doesn't specifically stated what kind of news website so i provided the most related information for his query. Simply in search engine, "target keyword" news website, then hit enter to show the related websites from the SERP.
You can create your account on freelancing services and join Facebook groups and search your relevant gigs there. The sites I follow are Fiverr, PPH and upwork. You can find a lot of international and local work from it. Good luck
I've got a writing side business as well. Being that you target news specifically, it makes things easier. Do a search. There are databases of sites. You can craft a "canned" email to all of them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_States http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usstate/usatable.htm Create a website to show off your portfolio, if it would help. Slowly move up the food chain of news sites. Also, you could advertise your services on Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, etc.
As someone who runs one of those sites, I can tell you that precisely 3 people have ever contacted us, so I'm guessing that not many people put in the effort to look that hard. We're routinely among the top shared sites in the world according to all the fancy FB tracking metrics but we almost never hear from writers. Sites are out there, you just have to find them.