The Dial is an online magazine of culture, politics, and ideas with a focus on locally sourced writing from around the world. They publish reporting, essays, fiction, and poetry, and welcome pitches from writers based in the places they cover. According to their pitch guide, they pay $800–$1,000 for pieces of 2,000–2,500 words, and $250–$400 for literature. To learn more, refer to their pitch guide, or visit their website.
MagNorth is a digital magazine writing a cultural narrative for the North of England across social, natural, and cultural beats. They commission thoughtful, reported features on environmental action, social infrastructure, and community change across Northern England—typically about 750–1,000 words. They have previously indicated a fee of £150 per commissioned feature. To learn more, refer to this pitching guide, or visit their website.
GraveSite is an independent publication covering death and life in its shadow—planning and grief, death politics and policy, death tech and longevity, belief traditions, and death in culture. They welcome freelance journalism, personal essays, and other nonfiction across those beats, primarily with a U.S. focus (and elsewhere when relevant to an American audience). According to their pitch guide, journalism pays $400 for quicker news and trend pieces under about 800 words, and $1,000 for deeper features of about 900–1,300 words; personal essays, criticism, and commentary pay a $200 honorarium. To learn more, refer to their pitch guide, or visit their website.
The Whorfian welcomes pitches from writers, artists, translators, scholars, and close observers of everyday life. We look for clear, attentive, fresh pieces that show how language shapes what people notice, understand, make, or miss—across culture, translation, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, art, music, literature, and lived experience. They welcome concise pitches for features, which are their usual commissioned format, as well as shorter Traces, essays, and edited conversations. Send a brief pitch with your central idea, proposed format, key examples or sources, and a short bio. Our previous research indicates that they pay $75 to $250 per piece. Send a pitch on their website or email their editor: anu@whorfianarchive.com
Shadowbanned Magazine is “unapologetic media for the next generation of the political left — independent, people-powered, and rooted in the worlds of politics and culture.” They’re seeking contributors committed to speaking truth to power. They publish “work rooted in anti-establishment, decolonial, and liberation-focused perspectives.” According to their pitch guide, they pay $75 for 800-1,000 words; $125 for 1,100-1,500 words; and a flat rate of $60 for poetry and artwork. For details, refer to their submissions page.
Cosmos Institute is an academy to develop philosopher-builders and equip them to steer AI toward human flourishing. They're looking for pitches about how AI can support human flourishing. They're interested in writing that helps us make sense of our current moment, organized around five core themes: Truth-seeking, Human autonomy, Decentralization, History, and Philosophy and AI. According to their pitch guide, they offer $1,000 for essays around 2,000 words in length to be published on their Substack. To learn more, refer to this page.
The Humanist is a quarterly publication of ideas and action focusing on the philosophy of humanism—a naturalistic and progressive outlook informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. They are interested in receiving pitches for pieces that explore specialized topics (from politics to pop culture) relevant to humanism, columns recounting life experiences or “deconversion” stories, editorials, and book and film reviews. They have a limited budget for compensating authors. To learn more, refer to this page.
FUSION aims to publish fresh, informed writing about politics, society, and culture. They are particularly interested in submissions that demonstrate serious (which need not mean uncritical) engagement with classical liberal, conservative, and libertarian ideas. Their formats are a Monthly Essay of 3000-4000 words and a Perspective of about 1500 words. Contributions are paid at a competitive rate. To learn more, refer to this page.
Aeon’s mission is to explore and communicate knowledge that helps us make sense of ourselves and the world. They ''ask the big, existentially significant questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on philosophy, science, psychology, society and culture.'' They are on the hunt for essays pitches, and want pieces that explore the economics of everyday life, take a deep dive into one of the ‘hard’ sciences, illuminate the history of agriculture and husbandry, among other themes. Essays are generally 2,500-5,000 words. For writers whose principal income is from their writing, they pay a freelance fee. For all others, they pay an honorarium. To learn more, refer to this page.
Hammer & Hope is “a magazine of Black politics and culture.” Their aim is to “build a project whose politics and aesthetics reflects the electric spirit of the protesters who flooded the streets in 2020, a project that breathes life into the transformative ideas pointing us towards the world we deserve.” They have previously indicated to pay $1.00/word for commentary, $1.33/word for reported features, and $300/25 lines or less, with $6 each additional line for poems. To pitch them, refer to this page.