Pitching stories to Raconteur
At Raconteur, we’re interested in what connects business. From the rise of the four-day week to supply chain risk to the journey to net zero, we want to tell the stories impacting leaders and driving change in the business world.
We encourage writers from any background to pitch to us. We’re keen to hear from a wide array of people that can offer a new perspective or approach a topic in a different way.
When we work with freelancers
We work with freelancers on our ‘special project’ reports, which are published in The Times and The Sunday Times. These reports are on specific subjects, such as the Future CMO or Digital Transformation, and are published in print on specific dates. The C-Suite Agenda is typically made up of content from Raconteur.net and so we don’t accept pitches for that.
We receive a lot of pitches and so we look for some particular things when deciding what to pick up. First, what story is the person going to tell, rather than what subject are they going to explore? Second, why is this person telling the story; what is their experience or expertise? Third, how does it inform, educate or inspire the reader? Fourth, will it help business leaders make key business decisions?
How to pitch for reports
We only accept pitches on topics that are in upcoming reports. These cover a broad range of subjects and are usually commissioned around four weeks ahead of publication. Pieces tend to be between 1,000 and 1,200 words, although they can go up to 2,000. We’re looking for a variety of formats, from profile interviews to listicles, for and against debates to more standard features. What is important is that we’re informing, inspiring or educating business leaders on the subjects that matter to them.
If you’d like to write for our reports, you’ll need to be on our journalist database. We’re after people with experience of writing for a business audience whether as a specialist or a generalist. To find out more details on signing up as a freelancer, how to hear about upcoming titles and sign up to receive updates, please email [email protected]. We try our best to respond to all enquiries so if you don’t hear back within a couple of weeks, please do follow up with our special projects editor.
Payment terms
We pay on a per-word basis, based on the commissioned word count. All freelance writers are required to sign a contract.
Other freelance opportunities
We are always in need of freelance writers to work on commercial content. If you’d like more information about this, please email [email protected] and pop ‘commercial content’ in the subject line.
Submitting an opinion
Raconteur accepts a limited number of op-ed submissions a month for publication on our website on topics relevant to our senior business audience. For an idea of the topics we cover, check out the tab in the menu on our website. Op-eds in our reports in The Times and The Sunday Times are not open for general submission.
Submissions must be original and should be between 600 and 1,000 words. They must have a specific point of view and should usually be in response to a recent event, trend or topic that has captured the attention of the business world. It should seek to analyse, educate or illuminate our readers on this topic, not to promote a product or service (if you’d like to do this, please speak to our commercial team).
When deciding whether to run an op-ed we will consider whether the piece is:
- Of interest and relevant to senior business leaders
- Educates or informs
- Is important and/or timely
- Is exclusive
How to submit an op-ed
Please send op-ed pitches with a complete draft to [email protected]. Please include information on the topic in the subject line.
Within the pitch, please detail who the writer is, their experience, a brief summary of the article and the argument it is making/opinion it is sharing, and why the writer is qualified to speak about it.
We try to respond to all pitches but sometimes this is simply not possible. If you don’t hear back from us initially, please do follow up but if we still don’t respond please assume we are unable to publish the piece.
All accepted op-ed pitches will be edited to ensure they match Raconteur’s tone and style, and meet our high standards. Some may require reworking by the writer. We will most likely ask you to provide links or sources for any facts or assertions. While we will work with you on this editing, we have final say over the published piece, although we will show it to you before publication.
While we have a budget for opinion articles, this is reserved for regular columnists or people we have approached to write for us. Unsolicited articles are usually unpaid, although we will require contributors to sign a contract.
We must be informed of any potential conflicts of interest or any other information that a reader should know about the writer. As previously noted, we will not publish pieces promoting a company or service or criticising its rivals.