Fees: Cosmopolitan pays between $150 to $300 for digital e-commerce articles, like “The Seven Best Foldable Treadmills,” depending on length. The base fee for 600- to 800-word digital health explainers, like “How To Check Your IUD Strings,” is $400, depending on the writer’s experience. The pay for personal essays of between 600 to 800 words in length starts at $400. The fee for 800- to 1,000-word health features for the print edition starts at $1,200.
Submit to: Lifestyle Editor Christen Johnson, christen.johnson@hearst.com.
Website: cosmopolitan.com.
Owner: Hearst Communications, Inc.
Readership demographics: Generation Z and Millennial women.
Frequency of publication: The print magazine is on a quarterly schedule. Health content on the website is updated monthly or more frequently for newsy topics.
What Johnson looks for in a pitch: She’s not really looking for e-commerce pitches because those are mostly done in-house. She is looking for pitches for digital health explainers, health features for the print magazine and personal essays that show some personal growth.
- Health explainers:
- Recent examples include when is the best time of day to take magnesium and what is pelvic floor therapy. “The pitch should obviously be something relevant to our audience, something that we have not done yet and something that ideally is central to our brand ethos — like abortion, birth control, anything around reproductive rights,” said Johnson. “And I love a good TikTok health trend explainer and debunking those.” Johnson wants to know why this story is right for the Cosmopolitan audience, and she’d like the writer to include data in the pitch.
- Print health features:
- “This is where we highlight women’s health issues that don’t necessarily get the limelight they deserve,” Johnson said. In other words, a topic that has a whisper network and isn’t talked about widely would be ideal. Again, she wants to see data that shows how this story impacts Gen Z and Millennial women. “And I want to know the experts you’re thinking about using.” In addition, the writer should explain why this is the right story to tell now.
Writers should link to clips and, if pitching a print feature, briefly explain their print experience.
Does she accept re-pitches: No.
Lead time: Johnson responds only to promising pitches. E-commerce pieces usually take a month from assignment to publication on the website. Explainers take between one and two months. And a print feature usually take one month from assignment to publication.
Common mistakes in pitches: Not giving a complete pitch or taking too long to get to the point, said Johnson.
Best place to break in: Pitch a personal essay or a health explainer, she advised.