Fees: Mia de Graaf, who oversees health coverage and features for Business Insider’s Lifestyle division, says she generally commissions two types of stories: quicker-turnaround trend pieces, which run up to about 1,000 words, and features, which tend to be closer to 2,000 to 2,500 words.
She typically pays $0.50 a word for the former and $0.75 to $1.00 a word for the latter, depending on the scope of the story and the writer’s experience.
Submit to: Mia de Graaf, deputy executive editor, at mdegraaf@businessinsider.com.
Website: businessinsider.com
Owner: Business Insider’s parent company, Insider Inc., is owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer.
Readership demographics: The company describes its readers — a reach of 100 million unique visitors globally a month — as “disruptive go-getters,” de Graaf says. That generally means professionals in their 30s and 40s who are proactive about their health, finances, personal development and hobbies like travel.
What editors look for in a pitch: Writers should keep that “go-getter” audience in mind when pitching Business Insider, which does not exclusively publish business-centric stories. “We have a lot of stories about ‘how to harness your fitness,’ ‘how to harness your health,’ ‘here’s a fitness hack that you didn’t realize was going to transform your gains,’” de Graaf explains. “It’s definitely more of an active audience than a mindful audience.”
So while pitches on, say, loneliness and sleep aren’t off-limits, they need a hook, like a market trend, plus a strong personal angle. For example, de Graaf recently published a story that, on the surface, looked like it was about how Life Time Fitness’s CEO takes 45 to 50 supplements a day. In reality, it was also a trend piece about precision medicine and longevity. “If you’ve got a really good detail from an extraordinary person, that’s an original way into doing a trend piece,” de Graaf says.
Pitches should also reflect Business Insider’s voice, which is savvy, witty, and relatable, and also includes “sharp analysis.” De Graaf describes the tone as “your smart friend at the pub or the dinner party who says, ‘Let me break this down in a way that isn’t going to bore the entire table.’”
In terms of format, it helps to include relevant clips or a link to your personal website and potential sources for the story.
Pitches versus assignments: It’s a mix, de Graaf says. “I’ve constantly got a list of ideas that I wish I could take a couple of months to work on, but I can’t, so I try to find someone who I think would really run with it well,” she says. That usually involves a phone call with a writer she already knows or admires, and a discussion to find the right assignment for them. “I tend not to have a story and then just farm it out to whoever’s available. I try to find someone who would really connect with that story,” de Graaf says.
When it comes to features, though, de Graaf says she “loves a pitch.” “That’s where I’m going to find a really unique story that I wouldn’t have heard of, or something that someone’s got a tip about,” she adds.
Frequency of publication: While Business Insider as a whole likely publishes upwards of 100 stories a day, de Graaf aims to publish one feature and two trend pieces from freelancers each month.
Time between pitching and publication: Typically about a week for trend pieces and one to two months for features.
Common mistakes in pitches: De Graaf often receives emails that are thinly-veiled public relations pitches. Ask yourself: “Have you just repackaged what this PR has said, or is there critical thinking? Are we challenging this, and is there something new to be told?”
Another mistake: Pitches that seem to “debunk something just to debunk it or hype something just to hype it” without considering if there’s a larger trend or issue to explore.
Both freelancers and in-house reporters can make the mistake of pitching a topic or a theme, not a story. For example, “psychedelics” isn’t a story; a personal essay about psychedelics being the secret to a long-term marriage is one. “Make sure your analysis has tension,” de Graaf adds. “I want to feel like this is something that’s unique, intriguing and/or subversive to an extent.”
Health care writers used to a more medical tone and audience may struggle to land a pitch if they use too much jargon. In Business Insider stories, “you really want the reader to be hopping from paragraph to paragraph, thinking, ‘This is juicy, fun, entertaining, insightful,’” de Graaf says. “If there is a technical term, it needs to be explained.”
Best way for freelancers new to the publication to break in: Try pitching a personal essay to deputy editor Conz Preti, who publishes freelance pieces at a higher frequency than de Graaf, first. “We’re constantly in communication,” de Graaf says. “I might ask her, ‘Have there been any writers who had a particularly good voice that may be able to take on something complicated?’ That’s a nice way into the universe at BI.”