MSN contact: how to reach MSN and get your story in front of its readers

By Zach Schleien

Where MSN gets its stories, every contact route I could confirm on MSN's own pages, and how to reach MSN readers through the publishers it licenses.

MSN gets its stories from other publishers instead of writing them, and I didn't find a newsroom email, a news tip form or a pitch address on the MSN pages I checked. To get your story on MSN, pitch a reporter at a publisher whose stories already run there, or, if you publish your own articles, join MSN Partner Hub.

The email address on MSN's partner help center, PartnerHubSupport@microsoft.com, is for publishing partners with feed questions. It isn't a place to send story ideas.

I've earned 200+ media placements across 25+ countries, including 18 TV appearances and 52 major publications, and I've never hired a PR agency. Below is every MSN contact route I could confirm on MSN's own pages, and how I'd get a story in front of MSN readers.

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

Key takeaways

• MSN gets its stories from publishers. On its blog, MSN says it licenses content from more than 4,500 media brands.
• I didn't find a newsroom email, news tip form or pitch address on the MSN pages I checked.
• For most founders, the way onto MSN is coverage from a publisher whose stories already appear there. Pitch that publisher's reporter.
• If you publish articles on a regular basis, MSN Partner Hub lets you publish to MSN and get a share of the ad revenue. You start with an invite code.
• Partner support runs through a help bot that opens tickets. It's for partners with account or feed problems, not for pitches.

How MSN works, and why there's no tip line

MSN is a news feed built from other publishers' stories. On its own blog, MSN says it focuses on licensing, curating and promoting content from publishers, and that it uses a mix of algorithms and human insight to turn that content into news feeds.

MSN's partner help center describes the same setup from the publisher's side. Partners set up a brand, publish their content to MSN, and get a share of the ad revenue. Readers get a feed based on their interests. When a reader follows a brand or creator, that source's stories move higher in their feed.

So there isn't one MSN editor to pitch for a feature story. The story that reaches MSN readers is written by a reporter at one of those publishers, or by a partner publishing its own work.

Every MSN contact route I could confirm, and what each one is for

Story pitches and news tips

I didn't find a newsroom email, a news tip form or a pitch address on the MSN pages I checked. That fits how MSN works. The reporters who write the stories work for the publishers, so that's where your pitch goes.

MSN Partner Hub, for publishers and creators

If you publish your own articles on a regular basis, Partner Hub is how they get onto MSN. Here's what MSN's Partner Hub FAQ says:

• You start by getting an invite code. Then you follow the Getting started guide.
• Have your brand logos and the bank details for payouts ready before you set up.
• You can create posts by hand in the dashboard, or set up auto-publishing from your site with a plugin or an RSS or ATOM feed.
• Posts go through an automated review. A flagged post goes to a human moderator, who should update your dashboard within 24 hours.
• Your content is published in the market named in your contract.

The FAQ doesn't list eligibility rules. It does say Partner Hub favors content that is timely and relevant. So I wouldn't treat it as a place to post one company announcement. It makes sense if you already run a blog or newsletter that publishes useful articles every week.

Partner support

MSN's "Need help?" page sends partners to the MSN Partner Assistant, a help bot that troubleshoots common problems. For harder problems, it opens a ticket with the Partner Support team, who reply by email. MSN's feed requirements page lists PartnerHubSupport@microsoft.com for questions about feed requirements.

These routes are for partners with account or feed problems. Don't send story pitches there.

Account and service help

MSN's Member Center lists a customer service line and a support forum for MSN members. Those are for account and service problems. None of them reach the people who decide what runs in the feed.

How to find the publisher and reporter to pitch

Since MSN's stories come from publishers, your real list is the reporters at those publishers who cover your topic. Here's how I'd build it:

1. Search MSN for your topic and open 10 to 15 recent stories.
2. Note the brand that published each one. Those are the publishers whose work reaches MSN readers on your topic.
3. Go to each publisher's own site and find the reporter who wrote the story. Read their recent stories to see what they cover.
4. Keep the 3 to 5 reporters whose recent stories sit closest to yours.
5. Find a public way to reach each one, like a contact line on the publisher's site or the reporter's social profile. Never guess an email address.

The reporter is the unit, not the outlet. Your press universe is every reporter who covers your niche, and that can be up to about 20 reporters at a single outlet.

If a big national publisher covers your beat, here's how I'd find the right reporter at TIME and at the Wall Street Journal.

What helps a story get seen on MSN

MSN's content ranking page explains how stories get placed in the feed. Here's what matters for you:

• Fresh news. MSN expects content in a news feed to be fresh and timely, and says newer content ranks higher than older content, on average.
• Trending topics. MSN says that, on average, stories about trending topics, breaking news and headline news are ranked more highly.
• The publisher. Stories from well-known national or global news publishers carry more weight.
• Honest headlines. Clickbait may be ranked lower when readers show they're unhappy with it, for example by leaving right away.
• People still watch. Algorithms select and order the feed with editorial oversight.

What that means for your pitch: tie your story to something that's already in the news, and aim for the biggest publisher that covers your beat.

Example angles that fit MSN

These are angles a reporter at a big news publisher could run while the topic is in the news. The first three are made-up examples. The last two are real ones from my own archive.

1. A money angle: a budgeting app shares what its users cut first when grocery prices go up, with numbers from its own data.
2. A holiday angle: a travel startup shows how far ahead its users book holiday flights, and how that changed from last year.
3. An expert angle: the founder of a hiring platform explains what a new jobs report means for people looking for work this month.
4. A price spike angle: when gas prices spiked, my angle was that high gas prices mean fewer first dates.
5. A big news angle: when COVID hit in early 2020, I pitched one angle hard and wide. Singles stuck at home were video dating on Filteroff to find love in lockdown. I pitched essentially every journalist covering the pandemic, not just dating and tech reporters, and the BBC and then the New York Times covered us within weeks.

You don't need to be big, either. My first real press win was the Washington Post featuring 18percent, my mental health community, on July 2, 2018, when it had about 150 members.

How to write the pitch

Keep it short enough to read on a phone:

• Subject line: the story in plain words, not your company name.
• First line: why it matters to readers right now.
• Next two or three lines: what's new, and your proof.
• Last line: an offer. One sentence once got me booked on live TV: "Would you like to interview the founder?"

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

Subject: Shoppers are cutting [item] first as grocery prices rise

Hi [first name],

I read your story on [topic]. Here's a related one your readers haven't seen yet.

[Company] helps [who] [do what, in one plain sentence]. Since [month], [one real number from your own data]. Here's what that shows about [the bigger trend in the news].

I can share [the data, documents, or customers who'll talk on the record]. Would you like to interview the founder?

[Your name, title and phone number]

For six more pitches you can copy, see Media pitch examples: 6 pitches you can copy and why they work.

When I run a campaign, I write one master pitch, which takes me 1 to 2 hours. Then I change only the journalist's name and publication and send it to the 200 to 1,000 journalists who actually cover that beat.

I go through each part of a pitch, step by step, in How to Write a PR Pitch That Actually Gets a Reply.

One story can also lead to more. After my dad's op-ed ran in the New York Times on April 9, 2020, I rode three news cycle waves: the personal survival story, the children's health angle in May, and the school reopening debate in September.

Do-it-yourself checklist

• Write your story in one sentence anyone reading the news would understand.
• Tie it to something in the news this week.
• Search MSN for your topic and list the publishers behind 10 to 15 recent stories.
• At each publisher, find the reporter who covers your beat. Keep the best 3 to 5.
• Gather your proof: real numbers, documents, or people who'll talk on the record.
• Write a short pitch and put the key facts in the email itself.
• Send it, then follow up.
• If you already publish useful articles every week, look into a Partner Hub invite code.

Mistakes that get MSN pitches ignored

• Sending a pitch to MSN partner support. That's for partners with account and feed problems.
• Pitching "MSN" instead of a person. An inbox can't write a story. A reporter at the publisher can.
• Sending only a press release. 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.
• Old news. MSN ranks newer content higher on average, and reporters want what's new too.
• A clickbait headline. MSN may rank clickbait lower, and reporters can spot it in a subject line.
• 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.