How to pitch a solutions story so an editor says yes.
You've found your story. Now you need to convince an editor it's worth their time, their page, and their budget — and that you're the right person to tell it.
That case is made through a pitch. A pitch is a concise narrative proposal for the story you want to produce. It does two things simultaneously: it sells the story, and it sells your ability to cover it.
What is the story? Not the topic, the actual story. Specific, grounded story, told through people.
Why does it matter to the audience? What's the relevance, the stakes, the resonance beyond your immediate geography?
Why now? Is there an upcoming event, anniversary, global observance, or policy deadline that makes this the right moment?
Why are you the right person? What access, expertise, or proximity do you have that another journalist doesn't?
For solutions journalism pitches specifically, there are additional elements to address. Editors need to understand the problem and its scale — what's broken, and for how many people. They need to understand the response: what is being done, by whom, and where. They need evidence that the response is working (or that its failure is instructive). And they need to see the story behind the solution — the characters, the tension, the human detail that will bring it to life on the page or screen.
A pitch that covers these elements tells an editor: this is a real story, with real evidence, and I can get it. That's the combination that gets a yes.
Egypt: "Cleaning the Nile, One Kilo at a Time"
An initiative to clean the Nile through trash fishing and special cleaning events has managed to clear about 50,000 kilos of waste. Two Egyptian environment-focused startups — Greenish and Bassita — launched VeryNile in 2018 with the aim to raise environmental awareness among Egyptians and reduce plastic pollution in the river.
According to a recent report by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, around 150 million tons of industrial waste goes into the Nile every year. This does not count the plastic waste that gets dumped into the river as well. According to studies, the Nile is one of ten rivers that contribute to 90% of the plastic that ends up in oceans.
VeryNile collects trash through periodic cleaning events, where volunteers collect the waste from the surface of the water, and through collaboration with fishermen. The fishermen collect plastic and aluminum waste from the river while fishing, and VeryNile pays them money in return for every kilo of trash. After taking the trash from the fishermen, VeryNile gives it to recycling companies. Most of VeryNile's work is around Cairo and Giza, but some of its cleaning events took place in other governorates, such as Luxor and Aswan.
Why it checks our boxes: The pitch opens with tangible results (50,000 kilos cleared), provides context about the scale of the problem (150 million tons of industrial waste annually), why it matters globally (90% of the plastic that ends up in oceans), explains the unique model (paying fishermen for trash), and suggests multimedia storytelling opportunities.
