Pitching us is simple. There’s one crucial factor we think about when considering pitches: publishing work which is engrossing, exciting and fun to read — even if the topic is serious. In particular, we're looking for stories, rather than broad topics: colour, drama and detail. We want pieces that grab the reader by the scruff of their neck, that say: give us 20 minutes of your day and we will take you on a journey. These are stories that are dramatic, fast, immersive, weird or intriguing.
What we're looking for
The kinds of pieces we're looking for could take many different forms. It might be:
- A buzzy, gossipy look at a scene, trend or dispute
- An exclusive investigation into wrongdoing, incompetence, negligence, abuse of power or something more sinister
- An intimate look at a specific community or phenomenon that's grounded in character and location
- An explainer that clears up widespread confusion or interrogates a cliche.
In order to do this, we need our writers to not just find stories with narrative potential, but to report them with that aim in mind; to build up great scenes and truly identify the characters and conflict. The people in your piece aren't just colour — they are the story.
Your pitch could spotlight a side of a hotly-discussed topic underreported by other publications. Perhaps you want to get really granular about a viral trend centred on the city or pitch us some great first-person gonzo style reporting. You might simply be very funny about a trend or problem in your city — in which case, step this way, please. And we love all things data.
Often we get pitched articles about topics – please instead tell us what it is you want to say about them. For example, pitching us an essay about London nightlife doesn’t make our pulses race. But we’d be delighted to get a pitch which outlines the writer’s opinions on London nightlife, what questions the essay will pose and that gives us a sense of what the answers might be.
Similarly, a proposed story or narrative will always trump a topic. So an essay about London nightlife might sound a bit quiet but (to use another hypothetical from the above pitch), a story about the shadowy organisation trying to undermine Sadiq Khan by sowing a narrative of decline via nightlife sounds fascinating.
Every pitch needs
You don't need to send the most comprehensive, fleshed-out pitch in the whole world. But it does need to contain the basic who, what, where and when:
- Who are the main character/s?
- What is the key question are you're trying to answer?
- Where is this located? What makes it London specific? How will you ground it in place?
We also need a sense of who has written about this before — a basic clip search is fine — and clips to things you've written that you think might give a good feel for how you'll write it (this could be work published in other outlets or via your own blog or newsletter).
And if you have an idea, but it doesn't feel quite like a full pitch yet, do get in touch.
As always, the best way to get a sense of how to land a successful pitch is to read us extensively! Please only pitch us once you’ve read a good number of our articles.
What we pay: We agree a fee with writers when we make a commission and our fees vary greatly depending on the type of story. We pay from around £300 for a quick-hit and approximately £500 for something more reported and we also have the budget to pay significantly more for highly investigative stories that take months of work.
We also cover reporting expenses if they are agreed in advance with the commissioning editor. And we will pay an appropriate ‘kill fee’ if the story doesn’t work out.
How to reach us: Please send your pitches to editor@the-londoner.co.uk