Pitches wanted for student journalism newsletter | up to 50 cents per word

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: THE LEAD

Taylor Blatchford, Editor of The Lead, is looking for pitches:

Students and recent grads: I’m looking for pitches for The Lead, the student journalism newsletter I write with Poynter. This is paid work. Your writing will be emailed to an audience of thousands and published on Poynter. Here’s what I’m looking for: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJgSSTxDKPXWDkn2t_7KcRN2bZQzIq1VFvjthFcXUgulBO8w/viewform

I'm especially interested in pitches on a few specific topics right now:

• Things I wish I learned in journalism school
• Editing + managing
• Changing ethics of student journalism
• More info on those topics here.

The most successful pitches are specific, concise and show your understanding of The Lead's purpose and audience. Think about lessons other student journalists can learn from your personal experience. And read the newsletter archives: https://blatchfordtaylor.medium.com/full-archive-the-lead-a-newsletter-for-student-journalists-161ac25d6b08

A lot of the work highlighted in The Lead has been from large public universities. I want to continue to broaden the newsletter's scope, so I’m especially interested in hearing from student journalists at community colleges, HBCUs, liberal arts colleges and high schools.

Submit pitches (via Google Form) and encourage students you know to submit. Elevating student voices in the newsletter is a priority and I'm excited to read these.

The rates vary by story format, topic and length. Poynter pays roughly 50 cents a word for reported pieces.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

• Submissions: Via the webform
• Website: https://medium.us19.list-manage.com/id=8233cc18d0

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: The Lead is a weekly newsletter providing resources and connections for student journalists in both college and high school. It offers discussions on issues relevant to students, like investigating your own school, leading other students and covering activism; as well as features of innovative work from student publications. 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 Database and at SuccessfulPitches.com.