Dear Writers,
Here’s our latest roundup of publications that work directly with freelance writers, and pay up to $600 or more per article.
As always, we’ve included payment and contact information, to make it easier to connect directly with the right editor.
Be sure to carefully study each publication before sending in a pitch. If you’re not sure how to write a good pitch, please read this
— Jacob Jans
BBC Worklife is “a BBC.com features site about the way we work, live and think in a rapidly shifting world, where the boundaries between the professional and the personal are increasingly blurrier.” They publish reported, narrative features of 1,200 to 2,000 words. They pay $600 for around 1,200 words. To learn more, refer to their author brief.
Teen Vogue is an online publication that offers the latest on fashion, celebrity style, entertainment, beauty, teen issues, etc. They accept pitches for reported and op-ed pieces across the following sections:
– Culture (covers TV, movies, music, internet culture, etc.)
– Identity (covers mental health, sexual health, body image, etc.)
– Style & Beauty (highlights trends, changemakers, celebrity styles, and more)
– Politics (covers social justice, politics, history, and education)
According to their news & politics editor, they generally pay $250 to $600 per piece. To learn more, read their pitching guide.
The American Gardener is the American Horticultural Society’s official publication. They publish pieces that appeal to experienced amateur gardeners, and topics range from garden design to environmentally appropriate gardening. The magazine is mostly written by freelancers, and they accept article pitches for feature articles and department sections. They pay $300 to $600 for features and $150 to $200 for departments. To learn more, read their submission guidelines.
Long Now is a non-profit organization that fosters long-term thinking. Their pitch guide says, “Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.” They want stories that explore the ‘long now’ of climate change, the rise and fall of civilizations, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, economics, architecture, and more. They accept pitches for essays (1,200 – 3,000 words), reported features (1,200 to 3,000 words), interviews (2,000 to 3,000 words), book reviews, shorter articles, fiction, and poems for Ideas, their living archive of long-term thinking. Rates begin at $600 for features and essays and range between $300 and $600 for interviews, reviews, science journalism, and news articles. Rates are $100 for science fiction stories and $25 for poems. For more information, refer to their pitch guide.
PublicSource is a news organization serving Pittsburgh and the region. They welcome story pitches from journalists and community members. They pay $300 for first-person essays (800 to 1,200 words); $300 for event coverage (600 to 1,000 words); $400 for resource guides/explainers; $600 for enterprise stories; and $1,000 for investigative stories. They usually pay a 25% kill fee. Learn more here and here.
The Objective is a nonprofit newsroom that publishes articles on communities journalism in the United States has typically ignored. They pay $200 to $600 per article to freelancers. For more information, read their pitch guide.
Wellbeing is an Australian publication about holistic health, sustainability, and spirituality. They look for articles that are empowering, informative, and entertaining. They pay AU$600 to AU$700 for feature articles 2,000 to 2,500 words long, AU$750 for travel articles, AU$150 for shorter pieces, and up to AU$1750 for special reports. To learn more, read their contributor guidelines.
World Nomads provides travel insurance to independent travelers from over 150 countries. They are looking for personal stories regarding life-changing trips and experiences. They want stories that fall under the categories of love, fear, discovery, connection and transformation. They pay $0.70 Australian per word for written, with most articles between 800 and 1200 words. For details, visit this page.
Amazonas Magazine is a freshwater aquarium magazine. It is read by people who are passionate about keeping freshwater aquariums in their houses, offices, businesses, and schools. They pay $100 to $600 for an article, depending on the author’s experience, the length and the complexity of the article and whether it has images or not. First-time contributors are generally paid $100 to $300 per article, including images, which (frankly) seems rather low. For details, refer to this page.
Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) is a quarterly print magazine and website that covers “cross-sector solutions to global problems.” They are based at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. They aim to inform leaders of social change. For the print magazine, they accept 6 types of editorial articles: book review (1,700 words), case study (4,000-6,000 words), feature (4,500-6,000 words), field report (1,700 words), viewpoint (1,700 words), and what’s next (700-800 words). For the website, they look for shorter works (1,200-2,000 words). According to their editor, they pay $600 for 800-word articles and $1,500 for 1,700-word articles. They pay $600 for 1,700-word book reviews. For more information, refer to their submission guidelines.
