Most restaurant brands pitch Nation’s Restaurant News the wrong way, and the reason is that they think of it as a food publication. It is not. It is a business publication whose subject happens to be restaurants. A new limited-time burger, a chef’s seasonal menu or a grand opening ribbon cutting will almost never earn a story on its own. A franchise system that raised average unit volumes by 14% after cutting its menu by a third will.
If you want to learn how to get featured in Nation’s Restaurant News, start by unlearning the consumer food media playbook. NRN readers are chain executives, franchisees, operators, investors and suppliers. They read it to decide what to do with their own restaurants on Monday morning. Your pitch has to give them something they can use.
What NRN covers, and who reads it
Nation’s Restaurant News is part of the Informa Connect division of Informa PLC. It has long been grouped with sister publications such as Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Food Management, and with industry events. Informa Connect also runs the Restaurant Leadership Conference, where NRN editors appear as speakers and moderators.
The site’s sections tell you where stories live. Operations covers marketing and branding, labor, delivery and takeout, equipment, food safety and executives. Technology covers automation, delivery platforms, loyalty and AI in restaurants. Segments break out quick service, fast casual, casual dining, fine dining, family dining, emerging and regional chains, independents, eatertainment and hotel dining. Finance covers mergers and acquisitions and franchising. There are menu trend stories, industry insights, and the annual Top 500 ranking of restaurant chains by sales.
The common thread across all of it is the restaurant as a business. Even NRN’s menu and food coverage, much of it led by senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn, tends to ask why a menu choice works for operators: margin, speed, labor, sourcing, traffic.
The masthead, as listed on NRN’s contact page in October 2026, includes Sam Oches as group editorial director, Leigh Anne Zinsmeister as group managing editor, Alicia Kelso as executive editor, Joanna Fantozzi and Bret Thorn as senior editors, and Nora Hakramaj as digital editor. Oches was named editorial director and editor-in-chief of NRN and Restaurant Hospitality in May 2021, after leading editorial at Food News Media, the publisher of QSR and FSR magazines. Read each editor’s recent bylines before you decide who gets your pitch.
Build a Unit Economics Pitch
I use a structure I call the Unit Economics Pitch for every restaurant story I send to a trade outlet. It is built on the four numbers restaurant operators look at every week, and NRN reporters know them by heart.
Average unit volume (AUV). What does a typical location do in annual sales, and how did that change? AUV is the first number a franchisee or investor asks about, and it appears in NRN stories constantly.
Traffic and check. Did sales grow because more guests came in, because each guest spent more, or both? Operators care about the difference. Traffic growth with flat check is a much stronger story than price-driven check growth with falling traffic.
Labor. What share of sales goes to labor, and did a change you made move it? Labor is the cost that keeps operators up at night, and a measurable improvement draws attention.
Food and beverage cost. What share of sales goes to ingredients and packaging, and what did your change do to it? Menu engineering, sourcing changes and portion adjustments all show up here.
You do not need all four in every pitch. You need at least one, with a clear before and after, a time period and a sample size (one store, ten stores, the whole system). A pitch that says “our new kitchen display system improved efficiency” goes nowhere. A pitch that says “across 38 locations, ticket times fell from 6 minutes 40 seconds to 4 minutes 55 seconds over six months, and labor dropped 1.8 points of sales” gives a reporter a story and a headline.
If you cannot share exact figures, share ranges or percentage changes. Reporters understand confidentiality. They cannot work with vagueness.
Here is a full example, using an invented 60-unit fast casual chain so you can see the structure end to end:
Subject: Exclusive: [Chain] cut 11 menu items, lifted AUVs 9%
Hi Alicia, in March our 60-unit fast casual chain removed 11 of its 34 menu items. Six months later, system AUVs are up 9%, from $1.62 million to $1.77 million annualized. Traffic is up 4% and check is up 5%. Food cost fell 1.2 points of sales because we now buy fewer SKUs in larger volumes, and labor fell 0.9 points because the line has fewer stations. Two franchisees will speak on the record about what changed in their kitchens. Our CEO is available this week, and we plan to announce publicly on November 12.
That pitch runs about 100 words and contains all four numbers. It also hands the reporter the obvious follow-up questions (which items, why those, what guests said) without answering them, which leaves room for an interview.
Five angles that work for NRN
The growth story with a model. An emerging chain opening its 20th or 50th unit is interesting when the pitch explains how it grows: franchising versus company-owned, development agreements, real estate format, average build-out cost, payback period. NRN’s emerging chain coverage reads like a primer for investors and franchisees, so give them the model.
The operational fix. You solved a problem every operator has, such as labor scheduling, drive-thru speed, delivery margins, food waste or turnover. Show the before and after with Unit Economics Pitch numbers, name the operators who can talk about it, and offer the data.
The menu strategy, not the menu item. A new item is not a story. A menu strategy is. Cutting the menu to speed up the line, adding a daypart to use idle hours, moving to a value tier to win back traffic, building a beverage program to lift check. Tell NRN what you changed, why, and what happened to sales and margins.
The deal or franchise move. Acquisitions, refranchising, multi-unit development deals, private equity investments and executive hires all fit NRN’s finance and executive coverage. Send the news before you announce it publicly, with deal terms you can share and an executive available to talk.
The data story. If you are a technology company, supplier, consultant or research firm, aggregated data across many restaurants is the strongest thing you can offer. Traffic patterns, loyalty behavior, delivery order sizes, menu price changes, labor trends. Explain the sample (how many restaurants, which segments, which period), offer it as an exclusive, and make someone available to walk the reporter through it.
How to pitch and when to send it
NRN’s contact page lists editorial names and titles, though most direct emails are hidden from scrapers. Find the right reporter by reading recent stories in your segment and noting the bylines, then reach out through the channels they list publicly, such as LinkedIn or their author pages. For a story with an executive or franchise angle, the executive and finance coverage is your target. For food and beverage, start with the menu and trend coverage.
Write fewer than 150 words. The subject line is the news and a number: “Exclusive: [Chain] cut its menu 30% and raised AUVs 14%.” The first paragraph states the news. The second gives the Unit Economics Pitch figures. The third offers an executive, operators who will talk on the record, and the timing. Include your phone number. Do not attach decks.
Timing matters around the industry calendar. Large chains report earnings quarterly, and those weeks fill reporters’ schedules. Major industry events, including the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago each May and conferences such as the Restaurant Leadership Conference, bring a burst of announcements. If your news can wait, pitch it in a quieter week. If it ties to an event, pitch it a week or two before so the reporter can plan.
A few mistakes sink restaurant pitches over and over. Sending a consumer press release written for local TV, full of adjectives about flavor, to a trade reporter. Announcing a deal on social media the morning you pitch it as an exclusive. Pitching a “trend” based on three restaurants. And hiding the franchise structure, which NRN readers will always want to know, because it changes how they read every other number.
A short, polite follow-up after five business days is fine. Add something new: another data point, a franchisee willing to talk, an updated figure. After that, let it go and pitch a different angle later.
Become a source, not just a subject
The operators and suppliers who show up in NRN year after year are rarely the ones with the biggest marketing budgets. They are the ones reporters call when they need to understand something. When an editor is writing about tipping rules, minimum wage changes, delivery platform fees or beef prices, they need people who can explain what it costs a restaurant in plain numbers.
Make yourself that person. Send a short note to the reporter who covers your area with two or three specific things you can speak to and the data you have access to. When news breaks in your part of the industry, respond fast with a sharp, quotable view. When a reporter quotes you, share the story and send a brief thank-you with one more useful fact.
The Top 500 is worth a note here. NRN’s annual ranking of chains by sales is one of the most cited lists in the industry, and the data behind it comes from chains and research partners. If you run a growing chain, make sure your sales figures reach the people compiling it each year, and if you are a supplier or analyst, the ranking gives you a hook for commentary on which segments are winning and why. Reporters writing around the list need sources who can explain the movement behind the numbers.
NRN also produces podcast and video content, and editors moderate panels at industry events. Being a thoughtful voice on stage or on a podcast builds the same relationship from a different direction. Over a year, the question shifts from how to get featured in Nation’s Restaurant News to how often you can say yes when an editor asks for your take.
So, which of your four numbers moved most in the last six months, and who on the NRN masthead would want to know why?