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July 2023 – Pitches currently on hold
Please note that we are not accepting new pitches at this time. Please check this page again in the future, or sign up for Freelancer Updates. Thanks!
Making Contact accepts freelance pitches on an ongoing, rolling basis, so we encourage you to get in touch if you have a story that fits our show!
ABOUT MAKING CONTACT
Making Contact is an award-winning, 29-minute weekly documentary-style public affairs program heard on over a hundred radio stations in the United States and across the world.
Making Contact tells stories that go beyond the breaking news to showcase voices and perspectives often excluded by corporate media. We focus on the human realities of politics and the connections between local and global events through a social justice lens. We are committed to uplifting the voices of people and movements who are doing the work on the ground and to the practice of movement journalism as a means of social change.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
- We are seeking pitches for sound-rich, narrative audio features with in-person reporting on these issue areas:
- Environmental justice and the climate crisis
- Economic justice, labor and workers’ rights
- Immigration and migration
- Indigenous sovereignty and rights
- Housing and homelessness
- Racial justice
- LGBTQIA+ and gender issues
- Health disparities and justice, including reproductive justice
- State violence, policing and the prison-industrial complex from an abolitionist perspective
- Any other story you think would work for us based on our show! Please review our archives here.
- Experience: We are primarily looking to work with reporters who have some experience of producing narrative audio, though we are open to considering some special cases.
- We are especially looking to work with BIPOC reporters, particularly those from within impacted communities, though all are welcome to pitch us!
- Location: Reporters can be based within the United States or internationally. Our editorial process is fully remote.
- Submission guidelines are listed here.
- We are open to pitches for stories that are not yet produced and that are to be developed in collaboration with our team.
- Rates: $1,200 plus travel reimbursement up to $100 for a 9-12 minute piece that will:
- Involve research and original reporting
- Require the reporter to have substantial subject matter expertise
- Involve time-consuming reporting
- Have a sophisticated narrative
- Might require travel by the reporter
- Have sound that does not involve phone tape
- Be rich in a variety of sounds demonstrative or supportive of the story.
- Please inquire for rates for projects of longer lengths.
- For deliverables, reporters are required to submit a fact-checked script, a rough mix via Descript and necessary audio assets, including the tracking for the story. Reporters are not required to submit a final mix.
- Tech requirements: Our editorial process requires access to the internet, Zoom and Google Drive. We use Adobe Audition, but you don’t have to! We can walk you through any of these platforms if you’re not familiar.
- Pitches will be selected on an ongoing basis. We encourage you to submit early as we plan out the rest of our 2023 calendar!
HOW TO PITCH
Please email pitches to pitches@radioproject.org and include the following:
- For the email subject line, put “Making Contact Pitch” plus the title of your pitch (i.e., a few words about the topic)
- Explain your story idea, the angle you want to take, and why it’s important to tell this story now.
- Describe the voices, interview sources, scenes and other tape you plan to get and/or have already recorded, including what you see as the narrative arc or how you envision telling the story.
- A brief bio of yourself including any work you’ve done in this area and your contact information. Include links to 2-3 examples of your previous audio work.
- We are a small team of people reviewing your pitches, so we ask that you please allow up to a month for us to respond.
