The latest call for pitches from Upworthy is below. Also, the formatting of my last email got all screwed up – sorry about that. Here's a quick list of what was in that post in case it was impossible to read.
- FIJ Now Accepting Grant Applications, deadline Feb 1
- The Power of Narrative 2016 conference, April 1-3, Boston
- Detour seeks EPs in LA, Chicago, and NYC
- resource for budding filmmakers
- call for pitches from new BBC show, The Culture Frontline
And here's the Upworthy stuff. Happy Friday!
-mia
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Hi Upworthy freelancers,
Happy holidays, welcome to the month of December, and thank you for all of your great work last month!
It was a good month. We published stories from you about everything from Black Friday, to sharks, to moving companies that help domestic violence victims.
We're also getting more and better pitches from you each week. In fact, this is how your editors are starting to feel as we sort through those pitches:
So far, your work has helped us drive millions of views to stories that matter. Bravo!
As per usual, we'd like to call out some of our most viewed and most shared stories from November 2015:
2. "He wrote a song about his mom's cancer. That's when famous musicians sent him their version." by Maya Kroth
3. "McDonald's might not be the king of fast food for much longer." by Jon Comulada
4. "From winemakers to neurosurgeons, these 15 former NFL players got a second chance and a new career." by Nathan Sorensen
5. "Sexual harassment is a big problem in the entertainment industry. Just ask Taylor Swift." by Natalie San Luis
Cheers to these pieces, which checked all four major boxes: surprising, visual, meaningful, and shareable!
On that note, we have some other big-ish news: we've switched our pitching platform!
Moving forward, we'll be using a Google Form to collect your pitches (instead of email). It would be best if you could submit your pitches using that form from now on. And once you've done that, we'll do our best to get back to you within 7 days, as always. Questions can still be directed to pitches@upworthy.com!
On that note, here are the topics we're looking for this month:
1. Holidays: We'll be picking up about 20 extra stories this month for holiday coverage. So if you have any amazing holiday stories, we want to hear them!
2. Climate change: We're running a few climate campaigns this month, so we'd love to hear stories (not topics) related to climate change. These stories should be surprising—something we haven't heard about before — and very visual. (And yes, we have a staff writer in Paris at the moment for the climate talks… so no, please don't pitch us coverage of that event!)
3. Humanity FTW: Are there businesses that make you think "wow, more companies should be like that"? What about people who restore your faith in humanity, even if it's just for a moment? That. We want to read about that.
4. Food: Our readers love food, but writing about food in an inclusive, systemic, Upworthy way can be difficult. Do you have ideas about things we should cover? Something like this, maybe? Or like this? Send them to us, please. Bonus points for fantastic food photos.
[We're also still interested in stories about personal finance, prisons, aging, and military life…. we need more coverage in those areas!]
Alright. That's it for today, folks.
Remember: We're always looking for stories not topics. Climate change is a topic. Gun control is a topic. A story, on the other hand, has characters, drama, great photos, surprising details, and a narrative arc. Check out our pitching packet to be reminded of this!
Now, go get 'em.
We look forward to hearing from you this month!
All of the best,
The Upworthy Freelance Team
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