How to Write for The Analyst:
The Analyst welcomes pitches from freelance writers.
To help smooth out this process, we’ve put together a short pitch document that explains how to go about pitching a story idea.
Before You Pitch:
Our best advice for deciding what to pitch: Read the site. Get a feel for the types of stories we run. Don’t pitch stories we’ve already written. Don’t pitch opinion pieces. Be creative.
Think: Is this just something I want to write? Or is it something people will actually want to read?
What Makes a Good Pitch:
The Analyst’s strap line is ‘data-driven storytelling.’ Every pitch should contain:
— A compelling story. Talk us through your narrative. Why does your story idea matter and why do you think people will be interested in reading it?
— A sense on how data interacts with that story. Maybe it’s something that you’ve seen from your own research. Maybe it’s a hunch that you want to confirm, a myth you want to dispel. Whatever is it, we want to make sure data supports the story.
The best pitches have a blend of both of these factors.
The pitch should include a working headline and 150-word summary of the idea. In that summary, show us your personality. We want our content creators to be informative and entertaining. Don’t shy away from the drama/jeopardy/humour/excitement that will make an idea appeal to our audience. Even if you’re using advanced concepts, they need to be presented in an approachable way.
Please also mention how soon can you deliver your first draft, the word length you’re aiming for and whether any graphics or data visualisations are required.
We accept pitches across multiple sports. If you can see we’ve covered a sport on the site before, then it’s likely we’re accepting pitches for it.
If you haven’t written for us before, include a short paragraph about yourself with links to recently published work.
What’s next?
We will read all pitches, but please note we are unfortunately not able to accept all of them.
We pay on a per-article basis. Our freelance rates vary depending on a variety of factors including the amount of reporting and research involved, as well as the length of the article. We as editors have also lived freelance lives, so we aim to pay fairly for all accepted work.
Please email all pitches to editors@theanalyst.com.
For all other enquiries, use the form below.