Pitches wanted (technology, science, innovation) | $250 to $3,000++ per piece

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: WIRED 

Pitch ⁦WIRED⁩ your stories! Our editors put together a guide on what they’re looking for, how much we pay for freelance stories and more.

HOW TO PITCH STORIES TO WIRED

Back in 1993, WIRED's founders published a manifesto offering some guidance. "Our first instruction to our writers: Amaze us … tell us something we've never heard before, in a way we've never seen before. If it challenges our assumptions, so much the better."

All these years later, that still sounds pretty good to us, if incomplete. We want to encourage a broad set of writers to amaze and challenge us. So here's a more transparent look at how we assess and assign stories.

WHAT MAKES A STORY WIRED?

WIRED is a publication about change—about the ways science and technology are reshaping the world and what it means to be human. While the subjects of WIRED stories run the gamut from deep dives into the biggest tech companies to Hindu extremism to space food to true crime, every story has technology, science, or innovation as one of its key variables.

The science fiction author William Gibson once said that the future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed. WIRED stories are often about those places where the future seems to be welling up in the present. We are always on the hunt for faint signals of change that have the potential to become strong signals later.

WHAT KINDS OF STORIES DOES WIRED ASSIGN TO FREELANCERS?

There are three main areas where we assign stories to contributors from outside our staff: Long-form print features, long-form online features (for the Backchannel section of our site), and online essays (for our Ideas section). We also assign a smaller number of freelance stories for our business, science, and service sections.

HOW MUCH DO YOU PAY FOR FREELANCE PIECES?

Fees vary, but features that run in print generally pay more—from about $3,000 for short “minifeatures,” with the rates rising from there. Backchannel features start at $1,000. Other short, online-only content starts at $250 and rises with time commitment and reporting intensity.

HOW WELL SHOULD I KNOW WIRED BEFORE I PITCH?

Please take a look at recent issues of the magazine and read WIRED online to gauge whether your story idea seems like a match. And please check to see if we have run similar stories recently. (It’s also a good idea to make sure the story you’re pitching hasn’t been covered elsewhere. If it has been, please tell us how your proposed piece will advance existing coverage.)

Read the full submission guidelines here.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

• Submissions: See list of editors in the submission guidelines
• Website: https://www.wired.com

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: WIRED seeks to illuminate how technology is changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to design. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation.
• Read through its selection of recent articles/stories, categorized into: Business, Culture, Gear, Ideas, Science, Security, Transportation
• 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.