Pitches wanted (breakthroughs, technology) | $1 to $2 per word

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

Deadline: 23 July 2024 

Rachel Courtland, Commissioning Editor at MIT Technology Review, is looking for pitches:

MIT Technology Review is at the beginning stages of planning its January/February issue. The theme is Breakthroughs. We’re looking for big swings on that general theme: narrative features, essential profiles, investigations, and sharp essays to go in the feature well of the magazine.

The pitch deadline for the issue is Tuesday July 23. Article drafts would be due in late September/early October.

If you are new to magazine writing and/or haven’t written for MIT Technology Review before, please take a moment to read these notes:

• Feature pitches are special things. It’s not enough to have a topic you want to write about. The pitch should be for a specific story/approach, with a sharp top line—a clear expression of what the story is about and what readers will take away from it.

• The pitch should showcase your writing ability. Show us how you will grab and retain readers’ attention. Sometimes a writer comes up with a great idea, but we can’t commission the story, because the pitch doesn’t demonstrate the writer’s ability to carry it off.

• The pitch does not have to be long, but it should be long enough to lay out the kind of story you want to tell and how you’d tell it. Typically that can be done in a few paragraphs.

• If you haven’t seen it before, please have a look at our pitch guide before writing your pitch. It includes general pitching advice, word rates, and other helpful details.

Pitches can be sent to both me and Allison Arieff. For the best visibility, please send the pitch to us with “Breakthroughs Pitch” in the subject line.

PS: We are always on the lookout for other items for print, including short profiles, news stories with good shelf life, Q&As for “Job titles of the future” (here’s an example), reported essays, historical essays, book essays (rounding up 3 to 4 recent/upcoming books on a topic), and photo-led behind-the-scenes stories. None of these need to be tied to the theme of the issue, and you can pitch them whenever you’d like.

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CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

• Questions/submissions: rachel.courtland@technologyreview.com and allison.arieff@technologyreview.com

• Website: https://www.technologyreview.com/

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: MIT Technology Review is an independent media company whose insight, analysis, reviews, interviews and live events explain the newest technologies and their commercial, social and political impacts. MIT Technology Review derives authority from its relationship to the foremost technology institution and from its editors' technical knowledge, capacity to see technologies in their broadest context, and access to leading innovators and researchers. More information here.

• Read through a selection of recent articles/stories on its website.

• Review the submission guidelines here.

• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.

• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile. 

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