National Geographic Freelance Market Guide

Fees: The standard digital contract is $1/word for up to 2,000 words. Stories are capped at $2,000 unless the editor has asked for more reporting and a longer length. Print fees for the magazine can be substantially higher and depend on the reporter’s experience, qualifications and whether the writer has written for the magazine before. A digital story that gets a great response can evolve into a print story.

Submit to: Senior Science Editor Bijal P. Trivedi, Bijal.P.Trivedi@natgeo.com

Website: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science

Owner: National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society.

Demographics: National Geographic serves a general audience. In the science category, health, medicine and nutrition are some of the best performing digital stories, according to Trivedi.

Frequency of publication: The magazine is published monthly. The digital platform is updated multiple times a day in different subject areas. Trivedi is looking for two to three strong science stories every week.

What Trivedi looks for in a pitch: The science desk at National Geographic is interested in health stories about new medical technologies or concepts, human biology, disease susceptibility, infectious diseases, new treatment areas, nutrition, health and exercise, said Trivedi. “When I’m talking about exercise, for example, I’m talking about the molecular mechanisms behind exercise that lead to better physical health and mental health. I’m not talking about how many miles you should bike each day or why you should do 10,000 steps, unless there is a biochemical difference between 10,000 steps and 15,000 steps that you can cite,” she said. “We’re looking for depth with these stories.”

The pitch itself should be a couple of paragraphs. “We’re looking for news and analysis and insights that you wouldn’t find any other place,” Trivedi said. Writers should explain what the story is about, why it needs to run now, what is unique about the story and how it fits into the NatGeo universe. “Maybe you have an exclusive one-on-one with a scientist. Maybe there are exquisite photos to accompany the story. Maybe it’s a photographically rich topic where the photo editors here would want to send a photographer with you for the story,” said Trivedi.

Reporters new to National Geographic should include a few sentences about themselves and links to a few clips and to a professional website, if applicable.

What editors look for in reporters: The editors work mostly with experienced reporters. It is unlikely that they would assign a story to a reporter just starting out in journalism.

Does Trivedi welcome pre-pitches: She does, as long the writer includes some specifics. “Then I can even help you because I can say, ‘That sounds interesting. We covered XY and Z in the past two years, but I would be interested in this angle,’ and then you can craft a more targeted pitch,” she said.

Most common mistakes Trivedi sees with pitches: “My biggest pet peeve is when people don’t look at our website and check what we’ve done,” Trivedi said. If a writer is pitching for the magazine, she recommends going through six months’ worth of issues to make sure the story has not been covered and to understand the magazine’s style.

Lead time for pitches: Trivedi gets back to reporters quickly if she is passing on the idea. If she wants the story and it is newsy, she often responds within a day. It might take at a least a week to respond if the pitch is for a more detailed feature story or if the reporter is going to need travel costs and other expenses covered. Deadlines for the magazine can be longer. “We have magazine meetings every couple of weeks to review pitches,” she said.

Best place to break into NatGeo: “The best way to break into digital is just pitch,” Trivedi said. “And the best way to break into the magazine from scratch would be to write for the front of the book.” Those stories run anywhere from a few hundred words to 1,400 words.