BBC's History output is broad, public-service minded and audio-led. It spans BBC News, BBC Culture, Radio 4, World Service and archive-driven strands — so a single pitch rarely fits all.

This guide sets out how to reach the 128+ BBC History reporters in our directory, what they actually commission, and how to pitch without wasting the first email.

BBC History is not a single desk. It is a network of commissioners and reporters across News, Culture, audio and regional teams.

The core editorial bias is explainer-led relevance — "why this matters now" beats "this is interesting." Anniversary hooks, newly released archives and contested public memory move fastest.

What fits:

• Anniversary and centenary journalism tied to a live news peg
• Archive releases, declassified files, digitised collections
• Archaeology and heritage discoveries with public-interest weight
• Oral history, testimony and first-person witness accounts
• Myth-busting backed by named academic evidence

What rarely fits: niche academic findings with no present-day hook, commercial book publicity dressed as news, and anything requiring the audience to already care.

Do not pitch "BBC History" as an entity. Pitch a named person with a demonstrated interest in your subject.

Our BBC History reporters list includes names such as Lorna Acquah, Lucy Adams, Harriet Agerholm and Iain Anderson. Treat these as starting points, not permanent beat maps — BBC staff rotate frequently and bylines do not always equal commissioning power.

Before you send, verify three things: their most recent three pieces, whether they write or commission, and which BBC platform the work appeared on.

BBC History journalists work to a public-service test: is this accurate, is it new, and does a general audience need it now? Answer all three in the first two sentences.

Lead with the news line, not the historical context. "Newly digitised records reveal X" beats "For centuries, historians have debated X."

Angles that convert:

• Anniversary plus fresh evidence — a centenary with documents nobody has cited
• Correction stories — "the accepted account is wrong, and here is the source"
• Local-to-national lifts — a regional archive find with national consequence
• Living memory — interviewees still alive and willing to record
• Data from archives — counts, dates, named lists, searchable sets

Avoid superlatives and avoid "the untold story" unless you can prove no one has told it. BBC fact-checking is rigorous and reputational risk sits with the reporter.

Build BBC History journalists contacts through published bylines, programme credits and official BBC press channels — not scraped inboxes.

The standard sequence: one concise email, one follow-up after five working days, then stop. BBC inboxes are heavily filtered; persistence reads as noise.

Email rules that hold:

• Subject line = the story, not the client: "New archive: 1948 port records, 3,000 names"
• Body under 150 words, with the news line in sentence one
• Two named experts with affiliation and availability
• Assets offered, not attached — link to a folder
• Clear embargo and exclusivity status, stated plainly

Never pitch the same exclusive angle to multiple BBC desks simultaneously. If you are offering it to News and Culture, say so.

Format fit matters as much as the idea:

Run every pitch through this before it leaves your desk.

• Named BBC reporter identified, with a matching byline from the last 90 days
• News line in sentence one — what is new, and why now
• Anniversary or archive date confirmed and checked against BBC coverage
• Two named experts, both media-ready and available in the next 14 days
• Primary sources cited: archive reference, file number, publication
• Visual and audio assets identified and ready to link
• Embargo and exclusivity stated explicitly
• Under 150 words, no attachments, one clear ask
• Follow-up scheduled for day five — and only once
• Contact route logged in your BBC History reporters list for next time