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LAist Is Looking For Contributors
Fishing for stories (Photo by Culture Shlock via the LAist Featured Photos pool)
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LAist is expanding and deepening our coverage of Los Angeles, and we're paying. We are also looking for writers with blogging experience who can fill in for full-time shifts, particularly on weekends.
For freelance pitches, we want original, compelling, heartbreaking, funny, enraging, enlightening work, written clearly and with an eye towards stories that cut through the dull hum of the internet—stories that help the reader better understand L.A. and the people living in it. It should not have been published anywhere else in print or online. Here are some recent examples from our NYC site, Gothamist.
A well-sourced, 1,500-word indictment of governmental incompetence is just as welcome as a 500-word profile of the people who perform death-defying stunts on the Venice boardwalk. We want the gems buried at the bottom of Kafka-esque municipal board meetings and the life-affirming acts of kindness often obscured by the relentless crush of humanity; the joys of working for a dog-walking marijuana delivery service and the hazards of being a mechanic for Angels Flight.
We're also interested in buying short video clips or photo features along the lines of the topics mentioned above.
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You should be as excited writing or pitching your story as we are reading it. The only thing we don't want—at the moment—is fiction. Pay depends on experience, quality, and length. Please go here to share a submission or pitch. (Due to the high volume of pitches we receive, we regret that we are unable to reply to every submission.)
For contributors interested in filling in, please email us at tips@laist.com with the subject line "Fill In." Let us know any relevant experience you have, what shifts you would be available for and send us links to at least five clips. No attachments.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
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