Fees: General features, profiles and Q&As run between 800 to 1,000 words and pay between $250 and $600. The fee for guides, which are 1,500 to 1,800 words long, is between $500 to $900.
Submit to:
- For health and wellness, email editorial director Melinda Carstensen at mcarstensen@everydayhealthgroup.com.
- For emotional and mental health, skincare, fitness and sleep, contact executive editor Sarah DiGiulio at sdigiulio@everydayhealthgroup.com.
- For women’s health, sexual health, digestive health and heart health, contact senior editor Linda Thrasybule at lthrasybule@everydayhealthgroup.com.
- For all other health condition content, email editorial director Suzanne Marmiom at smarmion@ehgroup.com.
Website: everydayhealth.com
Owner: Ziff Davis, Inc., a digital media and internet company
Readership demographics: The average reader is female and in their late 40s.
Frequency of publication: The website is updated several times a day.
What editors look for in a pitch:
Features are typically explainers, for instance about something trending on social media, like anxiety.
“What does it mean? How are people using the term? What’s the science behind it?” said DiGiulio, explaining what the content would cover, adding that it would also include “some service journalism on how to cope with it and what to do about it.”
“We run a lot of profiles, so we are always happy to get profile pitches from writers,” DiGiulio said. The editors also welcome pitches around holiday themes, like Mother’s Day. Those kinds of pitches should be sent several months in advance.
The guides focus on a health condition or disease, like heart disease, digestive conditions and cancer, or on a health and wellness topic such vitamin D or a particular food. The publication is seeking writers who can report on these topics with authority, whether it is reporting on advances in cancer treatments or debunking a weight loss myth. Everyday Health has templates for writers to follow for the different types of guides and articles.
“When getting a pitch from a writer, I want to see that they have looked into the topic and that they are telling me people or types of people they might interview,” she said. “I want them to show me what they are bringing into the story that hasn’t been reported before.”
That said, Everyday Health’s content is increasingly driven by its internal editorial team, and it is publishing less and less from freelance pitches. Nevertheless, they are always looking for good ideas and strong health and science reporters to grow their base of freelancers that they assign, said DiGiulio. Writers should be able to distill complex information into content that is understandable for a general audience, especially for chronic condition and disease articles.
Editors welcome emails from writers simply to introduce themselves. DiGiulio advises writers to explain their expertise and to include clips.
Do editors accept pre-pitches?: Yes.
Common mistakes editors see with pitches: One would be pitching an idea that Everyday Health recently covered. Another mistake is pitching just a headline, said DiGiulio.
Lead time for pitching: Editors try to respond to every pitch. Once a story has been assigned, the turnaround time depends on the project. A feature or guide might take three to six weeks to publication, longer if it is tied to a holiday or seasonal event.
Best way to break into Everyday Health: “Speak to your strengths,” said DiGiulio. Everyday Health has writers who are clinicians, reporters who specialize in a disease and others who are better at news or at features.