Pitches wanted (innovation) (worldwide) | $350+ per article

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: THE DAILY BEAST 

Neel V. Patel, Science and Innovation Editor at The Daily Beast, is looking for pitches:

New year, new call for Innovation pitches for The Daily Beast. See our pitch guidelines in the document linked here. Send questions over to neel.patel@thedailybeast.com.

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

• Space: Including astronomy / astrophysics / cosmology; astrobiology and SETI; the future of space travel (robotic and human missions alike); the commercial space industry / space tourism; answers to growing problems like orbital debris, space traffic, space militarization, etc.
• Transportation: Tell us about the future of how we’ll get from Point A to Point B. Driverless cars, high-speed trains, new breakthroughs in aerial vehicles like eVTOLs, jetpacks (yes, jetpacks!), etc.
• Robotics: That includes drones and other autonomous technologies.
• Longevity and aging: This can include new research areas, but can also be stories that speak more to our cultural obsession with age—and what might be some of the unintended or understated consequences of that obsession.
• Internet culture: is there something strange making waves on TikTok? Are social media platforms encouraging the emergence of some new behaviors or ideas? Is there something fascinating happening in other parts of the internet? We want to know what’s going on—and why it matters for life in the digital world.
• Artificial intelligence: The term is often thrown around as a buzzword, but the rise of A.I. and algorithms that can learn over time is changing nearly every science and tech field. We’re especially interested in A.I. stories that have more practical value and relevance to the average person—and that includes concerns over privacy, security, and the negative pitfalls to A.I. tools.
• Climate change: Ambitious ideas for reducing carbon emissions that are worth taking seriously (like carbon capture and geoengineering); resiliency plans to protect people and animals and crops from worse weather, storms, flooding, etc; lessons from abroad; glimpses of how nature is changing and what the major implications are; ambitious plans that could help us in the fight against climate change. *We want to avoid doomerism in our climate change stories, so come to these types of stories with a solutions angle in mind.*
• Energy: What’s new in the development of renewables like solar and wind? What other renewables should we pay attention to? What is the battery of the future going to look like? Should we start taking fusion energy more seriously? Is nuclear energy poised to make a bigger comeback?
• Brain science / neuroscience: including new insights into how the brain works; new ways to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s; the role of new technology on the modern human brain (brain implants and neurotech); drug science and new trends in the drug space.
• Health and medicine: We love new breakthroughs in improving health and combating disease, but you can also stretch this out to include policy stories, mental health, case studies, etc.
• Biotech and biomedicine: What’s the future of using specific new technologies and cutting edge strategies to improve people’s health? Can encompass developing new pharmaceuticals; biohacking and DIY projects; medical psychedelics; gene-editing and CRISPR tech; etc.
• Cities: including transportation (how to improve aging infrastructure, what kinds of solutions are needed to accommodate the swell of urban populations this century, more high-tech solutions like autonomous cars and VTOLs and what kind of impact they can realistically have etc); international stories; food stories (how is the way we are feeding people changing); the role of urban tech in creating and exacerbating equity / inequity in cities.
• Web3: We don’t want to cover technology like a business magazine, but crypto and NFTs and the metaverse are becoming bigger parts of the technology sector in ways we still have trouble wrapping our heads around. If you have an interesting story about Web3 that hasn’t been told yet—and that would appeal to a general audience—we’re open to hearing it.
• Food science and tech: Fake meat is the future. So are GMO crops. So are insects as a substitute for protein. Tell us about what the future of food is supposed to be like—and why we should be excited.

(Stories don’t have to be limited to these topics; if you have something outside of here that still feels like a Beast story, pitch me!)

Our starting fee for reported stories is $350. We’re happy to offer higher rates based on length, reporting, exclusivity, original media, etc.

Open to international writers? Yes!

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

• Submissions: neel.patel@thedailybeast.com
• Website: https://www.thedailybeast.com/

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TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: The Daily Beast delivers original reporting and sharp opinion in the arena of politics, pop-culture and power. Armed with irreverent intelligence, it seeks out scoops, scandals and stories about secret worlds. More information here.
• Read through a selection of recent innovation-related 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 Database and at SuccessfulPitches.com.
• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a paragraph 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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