Freelance guidelines – LiveWire Calgary
We’re looking for Calgary voices!
In order to best represent our city, we are actively seeking alternative journalistic content that helps us reach into the corners of Calgary where the spotlight is rarely shone.
We want you to join us in building a different media voice in Calgary. We’re a news media organization run by journalists, delivering news for the community. To accomplish that, we need all of Calgary represented.
Here’s what we’re after:
- More stories between 350 and 500 words (consideration given to stories of greater length)
- Video packages of between 3 and 5 minutes
- Photos essays with brief write-up / description
- Insightful, nuanced opinion pieces (We prefer to call them ‘perspective’ pieces)
- Potential podcast pitches
- Potential videocast pitches
While there are a lot of great ‘big-picture’ stories out there, we want to get granular. Community is critical to us and we’re pushing hard to get into Calgary’s individual communities the way no one else can. Everyone else is covering those big-picture stories anyway.
There’s only two rules: 1.) We want unique content; Stories that only you’ve told.
2.) Must be Calgary-area (no more than Calgary or its immediate bedroom communities.)
Here’s the topics / story types we long for:
- Civic issues from a different, unreported perspective
- Profiles of Calgarians doing amazing things
- In-depth looks at social issues
- In-depth looks at different facets of Calgary’s economy
- Quirky, upbeat stories
- Breaking news (this will only be considered if it’s exclusive, breaking content)
- Specific community issues, right down to the neighbourhood
We’re willing to work with journalists / writers with a basic level of experience. You bring the ideas, we’ll help you research it, source it, write it and publish it. Don’t let fear of inexperience stop you from contacting us!
What topics will get rejected: Anything that would be widely regarded as offensive. This includes stories that have a specific goal highlighting a business and/or service, and the sole purpose of the piece is to help generate revenue and/or profit for said business. (Trust us, we have a good sniffer for stuff like that disguised as a story.)
These are the guidelines for greatest pitch success. But don’t be afraid to pitch us something outside the box. We’re experimenters, too.
Pitches:
Keep the pitches tight and hit us in the jaw with the idea and why it needs to be told today. Include expected word length and availability of photograph or other art options. Also include who you’d expect to speak with as sources or if you have exclusive access to specific sources on hot button issues.
Send pitches to darren.krause@livewirecalgary.com
Pay:
At this time, we’ll pay a flat rate of $125 per 500-word piece – accepted submissions only. In some cases, per-word payment is negotiable but will be determined upon accepted pitch. (Updated October 18, 2019)
We pay journalists as quickly as we can. Sometimes 24 hours. No more than a week from invoice. (Right now, at least).
Video / photo / podcast content – pay negotiated.