Screenshot of Alexandra Frost’s article in The Washington Post: “Just 30 minutes a day of ‘Japanese walking’ may help you get in shape.” Screenshot captured Nov. 21, 2025
For this month’s installment of “How I Pitched It,” I talked to Alexandra Frost, a freelance journalist in Cincinnati, about her Washington Post feature on Japanese walking.
Alexandra Frost
The story, published this summer, offers a service-oriented look at why and how readers might want to reconsider their 10,000-steps-a-day goal and try interval walking instead.
Here, Frost, also a content strategist, marketing writer and freelancer coach, reveals exactly what her pitch looked like and why she thinks it got picked up. Check out the highlighted text to see my added commentary on what other freelancers can take away from her success.
The pitch:
Hope you’re doing well. New pitch for you below (and I’d still love for you to consider the previous tech ones if you still need them!)
Medaris: This is a smart way to follow up on past pitches while also providing the editor with something new to consider.
Thanks,
Alex
This walking strategy is more effective than your 10,000 step goal — and a lot quicker to achieve
Medaris: Frost offers a headline that’s right in line with the Washington Post health section’s tone.
“Japanese walking” or “interval walking” is trending, as Americans keep failing to fit two hours (10K steps) of walking into their rigorous work and family schedules. It’s a concept based on a 2007 Japanese study gaining attention again this month, in which participants were divided into three groups. One group didn’t walk, one did 8000+ steps per day, and one did Japanese walking, involving three minute slow walking followed by three minute fast walking (five total intervals). The interval walking group had improved blood pressure, BMI and blood glucose levels than the other groups. And, research shows you only need to do this four days per week to see improvement.
Medaris: Right away, Frost answers a key question: Why now?
I’d like to interview fitness and health experts about why interval walking might be more effective than your daily steps goal for various health improvements. I’d also like to interview a psychologist about motivation, and how it might be more effective to focus on a concentrated half hour than to be worrying about your step goal all day.
Medaris: Adding a psychologist’s voice to the reporting plan might set the pitch apart from another than only focuses on how health markers change.
Due to the trending nature of this story, I’m pitching to a few editors, but would really like to work with you again!
Medaris: While I typically don’t advise pitching multiple editors simultaneously, in this case, Frost sensed that the buzz around the concept would quickly pass and doing so was worth it. As long as you’re up front, as she is, with the editors, any reasonable ones won’t hold it against you. It may also give them the nudge to respond quickly.
What inspired the idea for the pitch?
I follow health news because I cover it quite a bit. I noticed a few lesser-known publications picking up this story after a TikTok video about Japanese walking went viral.
Why The Washington Post?
I’d met the editor in a virtual workshop for freelance writers, and heard specifics on what kinds of pitches she was hoping to receive. I also followed some of the work the section had been publishing recently, and my idea seemed to be the right balance of new, clicky (but not click-baity) and well-established in new and old research.
I pitched simultaneously to a few editors, which I noted in the pitch. The editor forwarded it to another editor on her team, and around five days later, that editor emailed to accept it — if I hadn’t already offered it to another publication.
Why do you think your pitch was successful?
I knew The Washington Post frequently covered walking strategies and the topic was performing well for them. I also pitched it on the front end of it becoming part of a news cycle — many other mainstream outlets, including the New York Times, covered it after the Post.
The pitch laid out the compelling research quickly, succinctly and in a way readers would connect with, and I had a clear reporting plan. I also think it did well because it served as an alternative narrative to typical advice (“walk 10K steps per day”) that everyone is not only sick of, but that also isn’t backed by science.
What else would you like freelancers to know about this pitch/story, or pitching in general?
Don’t be afraid to pitch to big publications, but do your homework first — and I don’t just mean reading the section here and there. Instead, dig into what they seem to be covering repeatedly, what they don’t cover, and how soon they seem to publish topics that become part of the mainstream news cycle in relation to other outlets. Do they want to be the first to cover a concept? Or do they pursue second-day news? Or are they often publishing longer, more timeless features without a newsy hook?
Finally, keep pitches engaging, shorter than you think and include links that show this is part of the conversation now. Also, share your reporting plan, but don’t stress too much about pre-interviewing experts who may or may not be included. You don’t want to get their hopes up before a pitch is accepted.
AloJapan.com