Getting Multiple Stories from One Trip
Same trip, different angle — how to keep getting paid from the same itinerary
Happy Friday, Substack readers! I hope you had a productive and fruitful freelance writing week. June has been slow, and I’m hearing that same sentiment from many of my colleagues. Next week I’m refocusing my attention to pitching. There are a few stories I really want to place but have stepped back on pitching them to put my attention on other projects.
Today I want to share some thoughts on getting more than one story from the same trip. In the coming weeks, I’ll be profiling writer Steven Lindsey to hear about his experience as a freelance travel writer, about how to tap regional magazines as outlets, and how to bolster your income with trade magazines.
Please drop me a comment with the questions you have and topics you want to know about! I’m ready to schedule my next AMA but want to make sure it’s helpful in getting you what you need.
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When you’re invited on a press trip, your hosts will often want to make sure that you’re able to give them some coverage — that’s why they’ve invited you. I’ve written before about how “Confirmed Coverage” are the dirtiest words in the freelancing business, but today I want to explore how you can take the trip and then spin it into multiple stories.
Basically, my strategy is to:
*Take notes on everything I do on a trip and jot some ideas out when I’m back in my room so I don’t forget.
*Take lots of photos so I don’t forget and so I also have images to share with publications.
*Take the same trip but spin it different ways for different publications with different audiences/niches. For example, a profile on an interesting person for BBC, a family-focused story for Parents, and a travel itinerary for New Zealand Herald.
Please map out the last press trip you took and see if you can come up with different ideas from the same trip for different publications and different audiences and let me know in the comments what you come up with!
Last fall, I took a road trip on the section of Route 66 between Albuquerque, NM and Seligman, AZ. I’ve written three stories about it so far and still have more pitches to send out.
The reason for the trip: Route 66 celebrates its centennial this year. Any time there are big events like that, there’s an opportunity to find stories and pitch them, so I started doing research on how it became a national landmark and came across Angel Delgadillo as one of the people responsible for its preservation.
I pitched the story as a profile of Delgadillo to my editors at BBC Travel with this pitch:
“You might be aware that next year marks the 100th anniversary of Route 66, known as the “Mother Road” and “America’s Highway.” I’m not sure if your editorial focus on iconic roads has changed, but I wanted to submit a pitch on this topic. While an article about the highway’s unique sections and quirky landmarks is a ubiquitous theme, I wanted to share an idea about the person who is largely responsible for the road becoming the landmark it is today.
Angel Delgadillo was born in 1927 and grew up in Seligman, Arizona, a small town along Route 66. As a kid, he saw Okies displaced by the Dust Bowl migrate along the road to California in search of a better life. Delgadillo opened the town’s barbershop and souvenir shop after graduating high school in 1950, but watched as the towns along Route 66 declined and all but disappeared with the advent of interstates over the following decades. (His late brother, Juan, operated Delgadillo’s Sno Cap Drive-In, another cornerstone of the Seligman community and popular tourist stop.) When Route 66 was delisted from the United States Highway System in 1985, Delgadillo founded the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, inspiring the other seven states that Route 66 goes through to do the same. Nicknamed the “Father of the Mother Road,” and the “Angel of Route 66,” Delgadillo is now 98 years old and his legacy is the preservation of one of America’s most emblematic roads. (He was an expert and part of the inspiration for the Disney movie, Cars.) Thanks to him, landmarks, hotels, trading posts, diners, and the neon signs that represent the highway have been preserved for generations of road trippers to enjoy.
I’d love to write a profile about him similar to the recently published piece about Stavros Melissinos, the poet sandal maker to coincide with Route 66’s upcoming centennial anniversary. I can source quotes, do interviews, and provide images.”
They accepted, so I planned a road trip from Denver to Albuquerque to Seligman and back with stops in Gallup, New Mexico; Flagstaff, Arizona, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado and booked the interview. I was able to get support from various entities for my itinerary. The BBC story was published first:
Meet the 98-year-old ‘Angel of Route 66’
The trip included so much more than our visit to Seligman and time with Delgadillo (though that was really a career highlight) that I thought I could squeeze more out of it. Drawing on the experience of traveling with my teenage son (who was obsessed with “Cars” as a kid) the summer before he left for college, I pitched the following idea, of a “Cars” themed trip, to Parents magazine:
“When my 18-year-old son was a kid, his favorite movie (watched on repeat) was the 2006 Pixar movie, Cars. As a teen, he was more interested in actual cars and getting his license than in Lightning McQueen, but when he graduated high school last spring, I decided to take him on a Cars-themed road trip along Route 66 (which turns 100 this year) in New Mexico and Arizona. To get inspiration, the movie’s creator, John Lasseter traveled Route 66, stopping at small towns and derelict landmarks that became the town of Radiator Springs and the Cars cast of characters (for example, Flo and the V-8 Cafe are based on the MidPoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas and its former owner, Fran Houser).
Our road trip took us to Albuquerque, where we stayed at a revamped vintage roadside motel, The Imperial, and ate at classic stops like the 66 Diner and The Frontier. We stopped in Gallup, crossed into Arizona and stayed in Flagstaff before going to Seligman, where 98-year-old Angel Delgadillo, the man responsible for Route 66 becoming a landmark, still greets people at his Route 66 gift shop. Cars is a theme all along the way. For my son and I, it was a great way for us to spend some one-on-one quality time together, have a truly American road trip experience, and embrace a little childhood nostalgia before he went off to college and adulthood. I’d love to write about things families can do along Route 66, tie in some Cars stops, and the bonding experience my son and I had on the trip.”
For this story, I highlighted 10 experiences travelers shouldn’t miss on Route 66 in a listicle-style story:
10 ‘Cars’-Inspired Route 66 Stops That Turned a Road Trip With My Teen Into an Unforgettable Experience
I also pitched the idea to my editor at the New Zealand Herald as a classic “romance of the open road” Route 66 road trip and the idea of Americana and nostalgia with this pitch:
“Route 66 is a dream destination for people around the globe who are captured by the road’s 1950s nostalgia, the freedom of the open road, and symbols of classic Americana.
When my 18-year-old son graduated high school last spring, we took a road trip along Route 66 (which turns 100 this year) through New Mexico and Arizona. Our road trip took us from Denver to Albuquerque, where we stayed at a revamped vintage roadside motel, The Imperial, and ate at classic stops like the 66 Diner and The Frontier. We stopped in Gallup, New Mexico, a destination known for its trading posts selling Native American turquoise jewelry and crossed into Arizona staying in Flagstaff before going to Seligman, where 98-year-old Angel Delgadillo, the man responsible for Route 66 becoming a landmark, still greets people at his Route 66 gift shop.
For my son and I, it was a truly American road trip experience. Route 66 goes from Chicago to Los Angeles and is over 4,000 km long, and to cover all of it would take several days. Though there are many places to stop all along the way, this stretch is a favorite of mine because it can be a pretty desolate road. Route 66 goes through Albuquerque and Flagstaff where there are other things to do. Because it is a rather far away trip for people coming from New Zealand, this stretch of Route 66 is a great trip to combine with a visit to the Grand Canyon (a couple of hours drive from Flagstaff) or a visit to Zion or Moab in Utah, or Mesa Verde in Southern Colorado.”
Though the pitches were similar for this story, the format was a first person essay that went followed our itinerary. It’s on track to be published in the coming month, so when it does, I’ll drop the link here!
Questions? Please leave them in the comments!
This is such a good thing to keep in mind! And I love that two of your stories were for international pubs. New Zealand Herald was a surprise!!!
Fascinating stories - thanks for sharing! Curious as to how you placed a story with BBC Travel, since, from what I know, they don't accept coverage resulting from press trips.