Spartan Profiles: Jeff Crilley
JUST THE FAX, PLEASE
Wanna know how to pitch a story to television? If so, you might want to heed the words of Jeff Crilley, ’85, an Emmy award-winning TV reporter in Dallas. “We need good stories,” explains Crilley, reporter and part-time anchor for KDFW (FOX) in Dallas, TX, with 20 years experience in the business. “It’s very easy to sell a story to the media. Just come up with a great story. Come up with an angle that’s unique, timely, and must be told right now.”
Jeff shares a host of insider’s secrets in his new book Free Publicity: TV Reporter Shares The Secrets To Getting Covered On The News (www.jeffcrilley.com). For example, he suggests pitching stories during the holidays. “Half of all news comes from the government,” he reasons. “On a holiday, this news monster with its insatiable appetite begins to starve and becomes more receptive to story ideas.”
He also recommends sending a one-page fax with a catchy headline, rather than anything fancier or longer. “A major market newsroom gets hundreds of press releases every day and the decision on whether to cover your story is made in a matter of seconds,” he says.
Jeff himself has appeared hundreds of times in national news, including recently when he proved the innocence of a convicted felon in Fort Worth, and also when he did the hometown reaction to Kelly Clarkson winning the American Idol competition from her hometown Burleson, TX.
A native of Detroit, Jeff says he chose to attend MSU over the University of Michigan. “There is not a prettier campus in the country,” he notes. “I loved the changing seasons and the cool football weather.” As a student, he got an internship with WLNS-TV (Channel 6) and moved up to weekend anchor by his senior year, at age 20. “At that time (CBS’s) Sixty Minutes was number one,” he recalls. “It was really exciting to appear in some of the local news promos.”