Fees: Feature stories are typically 1,500 to 3,000 and occasionally 4,000 words long. Feature fees depend on scope of writing or assignment.
Submit to: News & Features Editor Currie Engel at currie.engel@hearst.com for features, profiles, essays and investigations.
Website: womenshealthmag.com
Owner: Hearst, a global, diversified media, information and service company with more than 360 businesses.
Readership demographics: Readers’ median age is 43.4, and includes Gen Z, millennial, and Gen X readers. Check the publication’s media kit to see the calendar for special projects, demographics and more.
Frequency of publication: The print magazine is published four times per year, with several new digital issues on Apple News. Women’s Health publishes digital features several times a month. As a digital-first magazine, most pieces go live online before going into print.
What the editors look for in pitches: The magazine covers health and fitness, sports, beauty and more.
Engel says she and colleagues look for “the newest, most innovative stories in the women’s health sphere,” whether it’s a story on surprising, burgeoning trends, innovative new tools reshaping an industry, an investigation into a troubling new health issue, stories of women pushing boundaries in sport and society, a profile on (or essay with) a trailblazer in the women’s health (or sports) space or a fascinating story of medical progress.
“I also think it can be super helpful to include some sort of data or quantitative measure to show the editor what this looks like in the real world,” Engel says. “We also almost always want to feature the voices of real women, so that’s important to think about if you’re pitching a health condition or trend-related story.”
Each pitch should also include a service element — like in a proposed sidebar or under a subhead — in order to fulfill the magazine’s mission to help women live happier, healthier lives.
Do editors welcome pre-pitches? Typically only if the writer already has a relationship with the editor.
Most common mistakes that editors see in pitches: Queries that are too broad, too vague or that pitch a topic instead of a story.
“We want to tap into the moment with the biggest, brightest, newest ideas in the women’s health landscape,” Engel says. “It’s also important to make sure other outlets haven’t covered this story, or that you’re presenting a unique look at an issue that is already out there in the media.”
Lead time: Unless an idea is pegged to a really timely hook and the writer can turn it around quickly, stories usually take about three months to publish online from the time a pitch is accepted. Try to pitch for awareness months and weeks, as well as seasonal stories, at least three months ahead of time.
Best place to break into the publication: Any great pitch can help you break into the publication, Engel says, but sometimes, pitching a shorter profile/news-pegged story is easier to approve.