Episodes is “a newsletter focused on smart longform writing about the moments that make pop culture.” They’re open to pitches:
“We're a cultural criticism and culture journalism website, and all pieces pitched should reflect that. Generally, we're looking for more thinkpiece-y or essayistic writing rather than straight reviews. Pieces in the 1,500–2,000 word range are ideal for our readership.”
Rate is $200 per piece (ideally 1,500 to 2,000 words). For details, refer to this page.
The New Transsexual publishes reported pieces and cultural criticism about how trans lives get covered, narrated, weaponized, and lived. They are looking for essays and op-eds from trans and allied writers, roughly 800 to 1,500 words, on culture, media, and politics. Arguments, reported observations, first-person essays with a point. According to their pitch guide, they pay $150 per published essay. To learn more, refer to this page.
Byline is an online editorial that covers culture, life, romance, style, internet behavior, and New York City. They center their issues around a theme, which each story, article, and column reflects. They accept pieces from writers that they feel reflect current culture and creative thinking. Complete published pieces are usually 500-1500 words, and longer for fiction and specific in-depth commissions. They pay all writers; rates depend on length and topic. To learn more, refer to this page.
Wander With Wonder is an online food, wine, and travel magazine. They welcome writer pitches from storytellers who want to become part of their story. They rarely accept time-sensitive articles, preferring evergreen content, and they want first-person narrative stories. Word length for articles is typically 1,200 to 3,000 words. Payment varies. To learn more, refer to this page.
The Agenda is an online travel magazine from Tablet Hotels. They occasionally work with independent writers on a per-story basis; they accept story pitches and decide to move forward based on the strength of the submitted idea and the experience of the writer. While the Agenda is predominantly focused on travel, they don’t believe that travel writing is a genre or style of its own, or that it’s limited to any specific type of subject matter. According to their pitch guide, their standard compensation ranges from $400-$500 USD per story. To learn more, refer to this page.
Fansplaining is a weekly media outlet devoted to savvy writing about fans and fan culture. According to their pitch guide, they pay $300 per piece. Their articles tend to run long; around 2,000-3,000 words is normal, and some pieces are even longer. Reporting costs and incidental expenses are negotiated when the pitch is accepted. To learn more, refer to this page.
The Infatuation's mission is to bring readers the most honest and trustworthy opinions on where to eat around the world. They are on a mission to create the most trustworthy and useful restaurant recommendation platform, and are looking for pitches from freelance writers to expand their coverage throughout the US and around the world. They're looking for smaller guides that highlight particular cuisines, types of establishment, or popular neighborhoods. All of their assignments are paid; they base final rates on the length of a guide, amount of additional research required, and experience. To learn more, refer to this page.
BuzzFeed is committed to making the internet better: providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content on the internet more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring their audience to live better lives. They welcome pitches for lists (with a minimum of 15 items in each list), how-to guides or explainers, super timely or trending news stories, first-person stories about trying something interesting, and more. Rates vary depending on amount of reporting or research, turn-around time, and topic expertise. To learn more, refer to this page.
Abyss & Apex is a speculative fiction magazine. According to their guidelines, they pay USD $.08/word up to 1,000 words, and a flat payment of $80.00 for longer stories. To learn more, refer to this page.
The Cincinnati Review is a literary magazine published by the University of Cincinnati. It features poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. They welcome submissions from writers at any point in their careers. According to their guidelines, they pay $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry in the print journal. To learn more, refer to this page.