Fees: This publication pays $1 per word for feature stories in the print magazine, which typically run 2,000 words or more. Freelancers are rarely used for the online articles.
Submit to: Bradford (Brad) Pearson, features editor, at bpearson@phillymag.com
Website: https://www.phillymag.com
Owner: Metro Corp, which publishes Philadelphia and Boston magazines
Readership demographics: Readers are residents of Philadelphia and the suburbs of Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties.
Frequency of publication: The magazine is published monthly.
What Pearson looks for in a pitch: Each month, the magazine typically runs four stories in its feature well, each running more than 3,000 words. Two are related to news, with one being an investigative or trend piece and another being some sort of profile. Those are the kinds of stories that health care reporters should focus on pitching, said Pearson. The other two long features are usually lifestyle packages, for instance about food.
“Because we have so many hospitals and research institutions in our area, I think that health care is something we write about more often than most city magazines in the country,” said Pearson. “We are always looking to find ways to give a decent amount of pages to longer health care stories every couple of months.”
There is also a section closer to the front of the book that runs 2,000 to 3,000 word features that are more closely tied to the news and have a quicker turnaround time.
For the pitch itself, Pearson is looking for three or four paragraphs. “Tell me what the story is and who the characters are,” he said. He also wants to know why you are the right person to write this story, and why Philadelphia magazine is the best place for it. “Every story that we run is connected to Philadelphia in some way,” Pearson said.
Writers should include links to a few clips and a short bio.
What Pearson looks for in writers: It is not absolutely essential that the writer live in the Philadelphia area, but it certainly helps. It would be difficult to justify spending money on flying someone into Philadelphia to research and report a story.
Do they welcome pre-pitches: No, Pearson would rather that writers send the full pitch.
Most common mistakes editors see with pitches: “I immediately get thrown when there is a spelling error,” Pearson said. “It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s always such a red flag.” Another common error, he said, is sending him a 1,000 word pitch. He is too busy to read such a long pitch. “I always tell writers who are new to pitching or new to pitching our publication to just tell me the story as if you were telling it to a friend over a drink,” said Pearson.
Lead time for pitches: Pearson prides himself on responding to every pitch. The longer feature stories are assigned many months before publication. For example, stories assigned in October and November would run in the spring issues. Writers need to turn stories in at least six weeks before the magazine is sent to the printer to allow time for editing, fact checking and the graphics team to create the art. There is some flexibility if a story needs to run earlier.
Easiest place to break into the publication: It might be easier to pitch a newsier, shorter feature for near the front of the book, Pearson said. “We make assignments on longer features all the time with new writers, but I do think that there is a higher success rate on those shorter stories.”