Writing for Politics.co.uk

Politics.co.uk is always looking to discover and nurture new voices and welcomes pitches from anyone, regardless of experience or viewpoint.

We take pitches for blogs, news stories or interviews. Pitches from new writers should take the following form:

Briefly outline the argument or story in two or three sentences. If it’s a blog, what is the news hook? What is your argument? What conclusion will you draw? Try to make this as arresting as possible. Imagine the type of thing you would click on on social media and attempt to frame the piece with that as a headline. The pitch should either cover a story we haven’t seen anywhere else or have a new take on a story we have. If it’s a news story, why is this newsworthy? What information does it bring to the table which wasn’t out there before? If it’s a subject off-the-beaten path, please explain why it’s important and why readers would be interested.

Write three to five bullet-points laying out the article. This shows us how the article will be structured and what issues/arguments you’ll cover. It also suggests you’ve considered the logic of the argument, or that your news story has enough supporting detail to stand it up.

And finally, the first 100-200 words of the article. This is a chance to show off your writing and demonstrate that you are up to a standard to be published for a mainstream audience. Occasionally, if we are still of two minds about the piece, we might ask to see the finished piece before publishing. This is inconvenient for the writer and you are under no obligation to do so, but it gives us the chance to try something out where otherwise the risks would be too great for us to do so.

Aim to make the piece between 500 and 1,500 words.

We will edit the article you write and send it back so you can approve the changes before publication. We do not pay for articles from political parties, charities or pressure groups, but articles from freelance writers will be paid for and promoted online. We will discuss fees with you before the piece is commissioned.

Send in your pitches to editorial@politics.co.uk

We’re sorry, but we receive many pitches and can’t get back to every one. We do read every submission, however and will write back within 48 hours if we think we can proceed with it.

Good luck,

The Politics.co.uk team.