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Service journalism pitches wanted from POC journalists | $1+ per word

Added 2020-07-10 19:52:21 +0000 UTC

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

POC journalists: I am still looking for service journalism pitches. Payment starts at $1/word. Generally still Covid-focused, but not necessarily.

TWO IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

Please check the archives before pitching!
Don’t ever submit a completed draft as a pitch, anywhere, period. Ever. Really! Ever! (The only time a freelancer might do this is if you’re submitting an opinion piece or a personal essay, and even in those cases, check with the editor. For the purposes of this doc, I don’t run either of those, so please don’t send me a draft)

WHAT IS A SERVICE JOURNALISM STORY?

Service stories help readers better navigate and/or understand the world. They offer advice and insight to readers in practical ways that let the reader leave the story with new knowledge about how to do something, a new way of looking at something or a new practical skillset. These stories are evergreen, meaning they’ll generally always be relevant and the information in them won’t go out of date for a very long time (broadly speaking).

WHAT IS NOT A SERVICE JOURNALISM STORY AND WHAT ARE YOU NOT LOOKING FOR?

In general: Personal essays (personal experience ≠ expertise); stories about topics (“X is popular these days, I’d like to write about it”); trend stories (“Now more than ever people are doing X”); listicles (“10 ways to do X”); generally anything with information/advice that won’t stand the test of time.

SO, UH, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

Everything else that could be a service story! Unique ideas and concepts you can’t find anywhere else that offer something truly insightful and/or have an especially useful angle.

That’s too broad. Give me an example.

Sure, here are the headlines of some of my favorite recent service stories I’ve published: