Content Guide and Contact List
Want more detail on the kind of things we're looking for? Here's an in-depth guide to the kind of stuff we're keen to commission...
Music: New music in most contemporary genres and from all over the globe, a look at the Music section will give you an idea of the general area we’re working in; we’re particularly keen on pieces looking at emerging Scottish bands and musicians from all genres and backgrounds
Film and TV: Mainstream and arthouse cinema in English and other languages; short film and experimental cinema; film festivals; streaming series and one-offs; new perspectives on both new releases and ‘the canon’; films that have slipped under the radar and are due for a reappraisal
Clubs: Features looking at different aspects of club culture, as well as pieces looking at individual DJs, nights and labels
Comedy: Emerging Scottish/ UK stand-up and live comedy, with some coverage of TV and streaming comedy; we're also open to retrospective pieces and articles that aren't all about the absolute newest thing on the block
Food and Drink: Mainly interviews and profiles, with a focus on small, new venues and Scottish producers. We don't do much on ‘trends’ in a diet/'this ingredient's very trendy' sense, but we do aim to discuss broader movements within the food world
Intersections: Features on LGBTQIA+ issues, workers’ rights, social movements, sexual politics, race, human rights, mental health, etc - the way that these issues interact and intersect with the topics we cover, and with our lives in general
Travel: Interesting reported stories from around the world; guides to living in cities across the globe; travel within Scotland/ the UK
Theatre: Interviews and features on new writing and brand-new works, a focus on Scottish companies or those coming to Scotland on tour in the very near-future
Art: Emerging artists, grassroots galleries, a focus on working and exhibiting artists across various forms of contemporary art
Books: Interviews with emerging authors and authors from diverse racial/geographical backgrounds; profiles/ interviews with small or independent presses; spoken word and live events
This is what we cover at the moment. None of these areas are set in stone, and if you have interesting ideas that fall within these broad topic areas but approach them in a different way, we’re particularly keen to hear from you!
Sending Us A Pitch
In the first instance, send your pitch to pitches@theskinny.co.uk or the relevant section editor
Our section editors have commissioning responsibility within their sections of the magazine, so they’re among the first people to get in touch with if you’re looking to pitch. A look through the monthly magazine will give you an idea of roughly how much content they’re looking to commission in a given month, and a sense of their favoured topics and tone. You can find their details here.
There’s also a separate (but smaller) pot for web commissioning, which is handled by our Digital Editor Peter working alongside those section editors; this can be more ad-hoc, so it’s worth cc’ing Peter in on pitches if they’re specifically for the website or fall outside the print timeframe.
A lot of our section editors are freelance, and the rest are staffers with other tasks besides commissioning, so you might not get a reply straight away. If it’s particularly time-sensitive, a follow-up email after a week or so is a good way of bumping a pitch up the inbox.
We aim to reply to everyone, but ultimately we may not respond to every unsolicited pitch. Our budgets and time are limited and we simply cannot take on every single pitch. One of your ideas might not be suitable, but the next might be right up our street, so don’t be disheartened by a pitch rejection.
For info on the timescales we work to and the rates we pay, go to Deadlines, Timeframes and Payments
If this is all seems a bit vague and hypothetical and you want some real-world examples, go to Sample Pitches, And Why They Worked
For details of the kind of article ideas we're looking for, go to our Pitching Guide