Pitches wanted (business, tech, South Asia/diaspora) | $250-$400+

[This opportunity was posted 30+ days ago and has expired.]

Starting in January, I'll be the Business and Tech editor for a publication I adore. I gotta get a section up and running, so please send me pitches.

Below is a guide on how to pitch the Biz/Tech section, which includes answers to all your burning questions on rates, areas of coverage, etc.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR

For our new business and technology section, I’m interested in a broad range of topics, including but not limited to:

• Big tech and big media’s arms race in India. Who are the major US players pouring money into the space? How has it changed the business and tech landscape in India? How has it affected Indian’s media and tech habits?
• Silicon Valley and the South Asian diaspora. Who are the South Asians changing the face of tech in the US and abroad -- as founders, investors, employees? How are they changing tech/business for the better? Where are they falling short?
• South Asian diaspora and entrepreneurship. How are South Asians changing industries they work in? Have South Asian products in [insert industry here, and feel free to get weird!] finally gone mainstream? How has the diaspora dream changed over generations? We’re not just looking for “tech” companies here, but also entrepreneurship in its purest sense (building something with few resources). This includes industries such as hotels, and more!
• Trends. Have certain regulations (whether immigration or the legality of home kitchens) changed businesses? Are there more Indian-origin CEOs in the US? Are there more South Asian-origin VCs? Is Bangladesh’s tech scene exploding because of a slew of new investors? How is anti-China sentiment fueling app growth?

The above topics should serve as a springboard and not as your pitch -- in each case, I’m looking for original reporting that digs past softball interviews and fawning profiles of people, and instead focuses on the impact of their endeavors. Your reporting should be smart, nuanced, and skeptical. Common formats I’ll be assigning are reported features (shortform and longform), profiles and Q&As, and the occasional column -- but feel free to pitch photo essays, audio stories, and other formats! We love that!

While covering business and tech will generally require a bit of previous reporting experience, please reach out even if you’re an unpublished writer with a great story to report. I’m here to help you build out your idea into a reported story!

Below are some examples of recent coverage that made for great business and tech stories, but please make sure to read the publication and doing typical Google searches before pitching us to have some familiarity with our tone and style of coverage as well as what has been reported before and how you’re building on that story.

HOW TO PITCH ME:

Please include a (brief!) description of the story you want to tell, as well as a few sentences on how you plan to report it out, and links to your portfolio or previous articles you’ve published. Pitches that do not include this information will be much harder to approve quickly.

Pitches can take up to two weeks to respond to -- please let me know in the subject line if your pitch is truly time sensitive.

Because of the volume of pitches we tend to get, please do not get disheartened if you do not hear back in two weeks and feel free to take your story elsewhere. That said, even if the first pitch didn’t work, the second pitch might so please do not hesitate to pitch us again!

FAQs

What are your rates? For reported features and profiles, the business and tech section’s rates start at $400 and go up from there based on scope of reporting. For columns and essays, rates begin at $250. We do our best to increase compensation for freelancers with whom we work with regularly and grow with us.

Can I submit fully written articles before a pitch? Of course, but we can’t guarantee publication. There may also be a heavier editing process than for newly pitched and vetted article ideas.

Can I submit my pitch (or fully written article) to multiple places at the same time? We only print stories that are exclusive to us. If, by the time we get back to you, someone else has commissioned the story, please tell us as soon as possible since we can no longer commission it ourselves.

What can I expect in terms of editing? Most stories get two rounds of edits — the first focuses on whether the right information is there, while the second focuses on structure, flow, clarity, and engaging lede/conclusion. We’re here to deliver quality journalism, which means that your submission may have very few edits or a heavier editing round — or more rounds than expected. We also believe in no-surprises journalism. If we need you to follow up on certain sources, this may add reporting time even after a piece’s submission.  We’re on the same team here — we want to ensure your writing is stellar so please be patient with us during the editing process. We will run all edits by you before we publish.

Once my story is accepted, is it guaranteed to be published? Like all newsrooms, we reserve the right to kill a story if it isn't executed the way it was pitched and — despite editing or sourcing — doesn't land at the quality level we expect of our published features. We do pay a kill fee in these instances.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

[This opportunity was posted 30+ days ago and has expired.]