First Person Strategies

Research and communications, built on newsroom standards

First Person Strategies is a research and communications practice for experts, business owners, and nonprofit leaders who have a lot to say and not enough time to say it. The work runs on the discipline of more than 15 years in newsrooms and investigative reporting.

Newsroom experience

Bylines in

Its main offering is The By Line, a customized brief that helps you stay current in your field and spot where your voice can add to the conversation. First Person Strategies also takes on select research and communications projects, including investigative research, corporate and crisis communications, and ongoing communications retainers. Get in touch to talk through what you need.

The By Line

A custom editorial system built to amplify your voice

The By Line delivers a customized brief to your inbox. Each one tells you what's happening in your field that's worth weighing in on, which conversations to join, and where else your expertise could be heard, from panels and podcasts to op-eds and newsletters.

If you have a beat, a point of view, or a presence to keep front and center, whether it's your own or your brand's, this system is for you. It does the daily scrolling and the research you have no time for.

And behind it, you get a human editor. One‑on‑one sessions shape your posts and replies until they sound like you, set your editorial calendar, and mentor you past whatever's been standing between you and your audience.

Who it's for

Experts whose credibility lives partly in public: business and practice owners, nonprofit and civic-sector leaders, academics, fractional executives, and anyone whose audience expects to hear from them regularly, in their own words, on a particular set of topics. It works for businesses and organizations too, on a founder's account, a house account, or both, with every brief going to whoever signs off.

How it works

Every engagement starts with the standard build. I interview you, study your actual writing, and create a voice profile. I map your beat: the topics you own, the sources to watch, the people to know. Then the system goes to work, and it keeps improving with your feedback.

What arrives in your inbox

Each brief scans your beat and scores what it finds against a rubric we weight together, so only what clears the bar reaches you. It points you to what's worth weighing in on, online and off, and posts can be built from work you've already done. When you want drafts, they come sized to each platform, with licensed images, credit lines, and quote cards where they help.

Over time, the briefs also build a list of the people and organizations shaping your beat, which is yours to keep.

Every item links to its source article or primary document. Nothing is ever posted in your name without your OK.

From a client

It knows what to look for because it was created by someone who knew what to ask.

I met with a book editor who was interested in my work, but told me I needed a platform. I was very discouraged. Doing my own social media never came naturally for me. I had plenty to say — I'd been a writer and editor for years — but I had no system for saying it, and no help inventing one.

What changed was that Kate sat down and asked me what I was actually trying to accomplish, and then built a system around the answer. It knows what to look for because it was created by someone who knew what to ask. Today, I'm still crafting every post. But the research is done by the time I sit down, and the ideas are sorted. I'm finally building that platform and already getting results.

A journalist and editor building a public presence, 2026

See a brief

This is one item from a real Monday brief, compiled from a client engagement with personal details removed. Three items arrive each week, each scored against the client's rubric, each with a proposed posting day, a draft for each platform, and a note on anything to confirm before it goes up.

The client's beat was local news and civic life. The World Cup had just ended at MetLife, and the brief found the local-newsroom story inside it.

Read the full sample brief (PDF)

Item 1 · This week's main post · Score 13/15

What local news learned from the World Cup

Your angle: The tournament that ended in New York's backyard doubled as a stress test for local newsrooms, and what worked was showing up as neighbors and reading the meeting minutes.

What arrives: a LinkedIn draft built from the reporting, a Bluesky version under 300 characters, a text graphic with alt text and credit, and a proposed day: Tuesday, around 3pm, because the story fades fast after the final.

Check before posting: The Nieman Lab handle is verified. The reporter is named in the source line, not tagged.

Three ways to ride

1 The Locomotive We build it, you run it.

The standard build, handed over for you to run yourself. Briefs arrive in your inbox with post ideas calibrated for you, and there's no ongoing dependence on me.

2 The Club Car We build it, I keep editing.

The Locomotive, plus ongoing editing. After the build, decide whether to keep me on, at the level of involvement you choose: shaping briefs to your voice, fact-checking and editing every draft, or scheduling every post as well.

3 The Private Car We build it, you get it as an app.

The Locomotive, plus your whole system as a private web app, with prompt lists built around your beat, drafting panes sized to each platform, and word counts as you type.

Details and rates available on request. Follow The By Line on LinkedIn for updates.

Optional Add-Ons

Additional sessions + additional platforms + newsletter setup + visual identity

About

Kate Pastor, editor and founder of First Person Strategies

First Person Strategies is built and run by one person: me. I'm Kate Pastor, an editor with more than 15 years in newsrooms and investigative reporting, and an interviewer's ear honed to listen until the real story shows up. The AI editorial systems I build run on the same discipline. The system does the searching, and an editor teaches it what to look for.

First Person Strategies on LinkedIn · The By Line on LinkedIn

Tell me what you're working on.

Whether it's your voice online, a research project, or a communications challenge, send me a note and I'll tell you what fits.

Get in touch