How to contact the Wall Street Journal: tips, pitches and what reporters want

By Zach Schleien

The Wall Street Journal's newsroom email is wsjcontact@wsj.com, and tips go through Signal, SecureDrop or mail. Here's every route WSJ lists and how to pitch the right reporter.

To contact the Wall Street Journal's newsroom, email wsjcontact@wsj.com. To send a news tip, use the options on WSJ's tips page: Signal at 347-413-0496, SecureDrop, or a letter to the investigations editor in New York.

If you want the Journal to write about your company, don't count on a general inbox. WSJ says it can't promise a reply to the emails it gets, so send a short pitch to the reporter who covers your industry instead.

Below is every route WSJ lists on its own pages, what each one is for, and how to find and pitch the right reporter. I've earned 200+ media placements in 25+ countries, including 52 major publications, and I've never hired a PR agency. This is what I'd do if I wanted a story in the Journal today.

Rather skip the pitching? I can get you into the Wall Street Journal, guaranteed. Book a press call.

Key takeaways

• Newsroom and corrections: email wsjcontact@wsj.com. WSJ says someone on staff will read it, but it can't promise you'll hear back.
• News tips: use Signal at 347-413-0496, SecureDrop, or mail to the investigations editor. WSJ says the most useful tips include documents and names of people it can contact to check the facts.
• Opinion: WSJ's About page lists wsj.ltrs@wsj.com as the Opinion contact. News and Opinion are run separately.
• To get your company covered, pitch the reporter on your beat. WSJ's tips page says you can still reach its reporters directly by phone or email.

What the Wall Street Journal covers, and where a founder fits

The Journal was founded in July 1889. Its news mission describes the Journal as a source of news "through the lens of business, finance, economics and money." It describes its audience as anyone who wants or has a job, a career or an ambition, including people who want an edge as an investor, a manager or an entrepreneur.

So the question a WSJ reporter will ask about your story is simple: what does this mean for business, money or work? If your story can't answer that, it's a better fit for another outlet.

Here are the parts of the Journal where founders and experts fit best, from WSJ's own menu:

• Business, which has an Entrepreneurship section, plus C-Suite coverage like CFO Journal, CIO Journal and CMO Today.
• WSJ Pro, with sections on venture capital, private equity and cybersecurity.
• Tech, with AI, cybersecurity and personal technology.
• Personal Finance, Real Estate and Health.
• Lifestyle, which covers careers, the workplace, travel, food and fitness.

Many sections have named columns, like Personal Tech by Joanna Stern or On The Clock by Callum Borchers. A column is one writer's beat, so read a few before you pitch it.

The Opinion pages are a separate department. WSJ's About page says the news department "operates independently of the opinion pages." I couldn't find op-ed submission rules on WSJ's own pages, so read the Opinion section before you send a guest essay, and use the Opinion contact below.

Every Wall Street Journal contact route, and what each one is for

These are the routes on WSJ's tips page and About page, as of November 2026:

1. wsjcontact@wsj.com. The About page links this address for the newsroom and for corrections to news articles. WSJ says an appropriate staff member will read your email, but because of how many it gets, it can't promise a reply.
2. Signal at 347-413-0496. Signal is a free app for encrypted calls and messages, and you can send files like photos and PDFs.
3. SecureDrop. For documents, WSJ runs SecureDrop, which you open in the Tor browser. The tips page gives the address and the steps, and says the system is built to protect your identity, even from the Journal.
4. Postal mail. Address it to Marcelo Prince, investigations editor, The Wall Street Journal, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 6th floor, New York, NY 10036. For more privacy, WSJ suggests putting your return address inside the envelope instead of on it.
5. wsj.ltrs@wsj.com. The About page lists this address as the contact for Opinion.
6. Customer service. Subscription and account questions go to WSJ's Customer Center, not the newsroom.

Three lines on WSJ's tips page matter most if you're a founder:

• "The most useful news tips are detailed, provide some documentation and suggest names of people the Journal might contact to verify the information."
• "It's still possible for tipsters to reach out directly to our reporters by phone or email if they feel comfortable doing so."
• "The Journal may not respond to all messages."

So the tip channels are for real news with proof: a problem at a company, the documents that show it, and people who can confirm it. A product launch or a funding round isn't a tip. For that, go straight to a reporter.

What I'd skip: WSJ "press release emails" and phone numbers posted on random sites. Check anything like that against WSJ's own pages first.

How to find the right WSJ reporter

At the Journal, you're pitching a person and their beat, never the paper.

• Bylines. Search WSJ for your industry, your competitors and the problem you solve. Write down who wrote each story from the last few months.
• Columns. If a column covers your topic, the columnist goes near the top of your list.
• LinkedIn and X. Check each reporter's profile for the beat they list and the stories they share.

List everyone whose recent work looks like your story. At one outlet, there can be up to about 20 reporters who fit. WSJ's news mission says it pursues exclusive stories, so if your news is big, offer it to the best-fit reporter first as an exclusive, then go wide after it runs. One of Filteroff's biggest press hits was an exclusive I gave to Business Insider.

Reporters change beats and jobs. Check that each person still covers your topic at the Journal before you send anything.

What WSJ reporters look for

Here are the five things I'd make sure a WSJ pitch has:

1. A business or money reason. Show what your story means for companies, jobs, investors or someone's money.
2. Something new. WSJ says it goes after exclusive stories and scoops in its core areas. A fact nobody has reported yet is worth more than an opinion.
3. Proof. WSJ's tips page asks for documents and names of people who can confirm a story. A pitch works the same way: your own data, a document, or a customer who'll talk.
4. People on the record. WSJ says on-the-record sources are always preferable. Be ready to talk with your name attached, and line up others who will too.
5. Room for the other side. WSJ calls its approach "no surprises" journalism, which means everyone involved in a story gets a chance to comment before it runs. If your story is about a problem in your industry, expect the reporter to call the other companies involved.

You don't need to be big. The Washington Post featured my mental health community, 18percent, on July 2, 2018, when it had about 150 members. When the BBC tech show CLICK featured Filteroff, we had about 500 users and a team of two. Journalists cover stories, not company size.

Example angles for the Wall Street Journal

These are made-up examples to show the shape, not real pitches:

• Data you own. A payroll software founder shares what the company's small business customers did with year-end bonuses, using the company's own numbers.
• The operator behind the headline. When a new rule or tariff is in the news, a founder who imports parts explains what changed in their costs and what they did about it.
• A money story. A mortgage broker shows what first-time buyers in one city are giving up to afford a home this year.

And one real one, a weird true story with a business lesson. At Filteroff, we built an AI system that spotted scammers and bots and quietly moved them into a separate fake dating pool full of other scammers and bots. TechCrunch and Gizmodo both covered it.

When COVID hit, I pitched one angle to essentially every journalist covering the pandemic, not just dating and tech reporters: singles stuck at home were video dating on Filteroff. That angle sat behind Filteroff's 2020 press surge: the BBC, then the New York Times, within weeks. The same move works at the Journal. Find the business story every reporter is already covering, and show the part of it only you can explain.

How to write the pitch

Keep it under 150 words. The subject line should say what the story is and why it matters now.

Here's a made-up example you can copy:

Subject: [Your industry] costs jumped this quarter, and we have the data

Hi [first name],

I read your story on [their recent story]. [One sentence on what's new and why it matters to businesses or people's money right now.] I run [company], and our numbers from [your data] show [the one specific finding]. I can share the data and put you in touch with two customers who'll talk on the record.

Would you like to see the data before anyone else?

[Your name, phone number and one line on past press]

I broke down each part of a pitch in How to write a PR pitch that actually gets a reply, and there are six more pitches you can copy in Media pitch examples: 6 pitches you can copy and why they work.

Lead with what's happening, not an ask. When I cold emailed CEOs and CFOs of companies that might buy Filteroff, the email was a status update, not a sales pitch. It said "We're profitable and growing and reinventing the industry." That outbound produced the offer that closed.

For my own campaigns, I write one master pitch in 1 to 2 hours and send it to the 200 to 1,000 journalists who cover that beat. Your WSJ list will be much shorter, so add a line about each reporter's recent work.

Do-it-yourself checklist

• Read a month of WSJ stories in the section that fits you, and note who wrote them.
• Write your angle in one sentence: what's new, who it affects, and what it means for business or money.
• Pull your proof together: your own numbers, any documents, and two people who'll talk on the record.
• List every WSJ reporter who covers your kind of story, up to about 20, and check that each one still covers that beat.
• Decide if you'll offer an exclusive. If you do, pitch the best-fit reporter first and give them a few days.
• Write one short pitch and change the opening line for each reporter.
• Follow up once, a few days later, with something new to add.

Mistakes that get WSJ pitches ignored

• Sending a press release to a general inbox. In my Top Romp days, I sent roughly 20 to 40 generic press releases to company contact pages, spent hours on each one, and got zero replies. What changed it was watching my friend Michael pitch press, asking him a ton of questions, and then doing it myself.
• Pitching "the Wall Street Journal" instead of a person. An inbox can't write a story. A reporter can.
• No business reason. If the story doesn't touch companies, jobs or money, pitch it to another outlet. For a general news story, I covered how to reach CNN in CNN contact email: how to send a news tip and get on CNN.
• No proof. A claim you can't back up with numbers, documents or people on the record won't get far.
• Sending an opinion piece to the newsroom. News and Opinion are separate at the Journal, so send news to reporters and opinion to the Opinion contact.
• Pitching once and quitting. To get my dad's op-ed into the New York Times, I sent roughly 70 pitches to every Times writer covering that beat. One of them forwarded it to the op-ed editor.