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Pitches wanted (culture, life) | 50 cents to $1 per word

Added 2020-10-07 19:13:05 +0000 UTC

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: VICE

The Culture/Life/Magazine side of the VICE Features Team has pitch guidelines now and we would love to hear from you.

WHO ARE WE?

The VICE Features team is composed of Kate Dries, Editorial Director; Sarah Burke, Special Projects Editor; and Ellis Jones, Editor-in-Chief of VICE magazine (currently out on parental leave—Clover Hope, Senior Features Editor is on board in the meantime). Our remit is to handle digital Culture and Life features, stories for VICE magazine, and editorial events, interactives, and multimedia projects across the company, for the diverse group of young people that make up the VICE audience.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Stories that require more time or resources than a faster turnaround piece, which usually (but not always) means pieces that take longer than a day or week. Resources can mean anything from money for travel or expenses, to handling scoops, to the support sensitive or legally tricky stories require, to experimental ideas, to in-house reporter support, to fact checking, research, or art and design. We are not necessarily looking for what's commonly considered "longform"—i.e. something in the realm of 10,000 word investigations that win awards—though we certainly publish those, too. Rather, we look at features with a broad lens, bringing in new writers and sources to our fold to ambitiously inform, challenge, entertain and amuse our audience.

We also welcome pitches for editorial projects that are unconventional in approach, format, or presentation. In the past, we’ve created an original stock photo library representing trans and gender-nonconforming people, a limited-edition print zine accompanying an art exhibition about the racial sleep gap, and a data-driven guide to the next decade. For the coming year, we are particularly interested in reporting-driven multimedia projects. If you have a project that you’ve always wanted to do but weren’t sure how you could pull off, try us.

SOME TOPICS WE'RE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN EXPLORING RIGHT NOW INCLUDE:

On the culture side: profiles of up-and-coming and established artists, performers, and celebrities; smart investigations into celebrity culture; interrogations into the world of fame; nuanced food stories not being tackled elsewhere. On the life side: stories about college and academic life, and of the lives of people that age not in school; coverage of the underbelly of influencer and wellness culture. In both: lighter fare, investigations, and thoughtfully reported essays, personal and otherwise.

THE MAGAZINE

The origin of VICE Media Group as a whole, VICE magazine is released quarterly, with each issue centered around a different theme. It aims to represent the best of what VICE has to offer and the ideas that are percolating across the whole company across all coverage areas. Pieces range from short "front of the book" articles to Q&As to longer, deeply reported features to photo spreads. We're no longer accepting pitches for 2020 themes, and will update this space once 2021 themes have been settled on.

EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK

Digital Features

Recent issues of the magazine; all past issues can be read here

2020

2019

WHAT ARE WE NOT LOOKING FOR?

If you have a shorter, faster turnaround piece, direct your pitches to the Culture and Life desks, respectively: culture.pitches@vice.com and lifestyle.pitches@vice.com (you can read the Life desk's pitch guidelines here). If you have a digital News/World News feature to pitch—their purview is national and international features and investigations on gender, inequality, development, colonialism, religion, security, health, misconduct, extremism, climate change, and more— contact ED Tim Marchman (tim.marchman@vice.com) or Senior Editor Leah Feiger (leah.feiger@vice.com).

While we often love to read and discuss "takes" with our friends and colleagues, we don't typically publish them. Personal essays are published sparingly, and involve some degree of reporting.

WHAT DO WE PAY?

Our rates for digital pieces start at roughly 50 cents per assigned word and range depending on intensity of reporting, timeline, etc.
Magazine pieces are similar; 50 cents a word for pieces under 3000 assigned words, and $1 a word for a range of 3000-5000 assigned words.
The base rate for illustrations is $350 and goes up depending on turnaround and scale of the project.
For photography, our day rate is $500, while commissioned and existing portfolio projects vary.
Fact checking: $25 an hour.

HOW DO I PITCH YOU?

Probably the way you would pitch most places: Send an email that includes "Pitch" in the subject line with a few paragraphs to kate.dries@vice.com, sarah@vice.com (particularly for project pitches) and/or clover.hope@vice.com on your idea and why it's a fit for VICE generally and at this moment. Things we'd love to hear: a brief rundown of your background (with relevant clips), your familiarity with the subject at hand, any reporting you've done so far, and who you'd like to talk to that you haven't yet, ideas you might have about length or timeline, any possible issues you see arising, and overall thoughts about format, packaging and multimedia opportunities. And thank you for thinking of us!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions / submissions: kate.dries@vice.com, sarah@vice.com or clover.hope@vice.com
Website: https://www.vice.com

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

Learn more about the publication: VICE is a global media channel focusing on investigative journalism and enlightening videos about everything from world news, travel, art, drugs, politics, to sports, fashion and sex. More information here.
Read through its selection of recent articles/stories, categorized into: Features, Culture, Life
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.