Pitching non-travel mags | FREE webinar
Steph ponders a question most of us should be asking ourselves
Last chance to sign up for Thursday’s webinar hosted by Meera Dattani of Travel Writing Webinars. It’ll be an open discussion between writers and editors on pitching, ghosting and following up, and the state of working in travel media right now, and will be streamed live on 5 December at 3pm GMT. It’s free to join; sign up here. The recording will be made available to attendees.
A few months ago, Lottie wrote very relatably about why she should be pitching more airline magazines. But, in a similar vein, have you ever actually pitched a non-travel magazine, à la GQ or Elle? What about those magazines you probably walk past while doing your weekly shop, such as Sainsbury’s? In researching this month’s newsletters, I’ve realised we’re all leaving serious money on the table.
I’ll admit to having my pitching blinkers on. Never have I ever pitched one of the above, nor one of the dozens of other titles that publish travel content. Call it ignorance or sheer laziness, but when I’m plotting out exactly where a new pitch could land, I just don’t think beyond the usual suspects.
But, many of the biggest magazines in the world publish travel content. And, with big band recognition comes huge readership, too. According to readership stats from 2022, GQ had a circulation of over 200,000, which I suspect vastly surpasses the numbers for most of the travel publications I write for. But I wonder whether PRs forget this potential too; whenever I’ve requested a list of target publications after being invited on a press trip, I’ve only twice been given a list including travel-adjacent titles
As we’ll learn in our editor interviews this month, pitching these publications isn’t really that different from those sitting entirely within the travel sphere. Sure, angles can be a little different: Architectural Digest, for example, goes heavy on beautiful hotels around the world and Esquire seems to love travel pieces tied to trending TV series. However, others publish pretty standard travel content. Robb Report — which pays $1 a word, no less — caters to extremely high-net-worth travellers around the globe and wants your uber-luxury pitches.
Travel intersects perfectly with food and drink, which is why the countless publications in the UK and abroad that cover these topics should be on your target list, too. Wine Enthusiast, for example, has extensive pitching guidelines for online and magazine content; for the former, it’s looking for destinations with “significant search volume” or that feature on-the-up drinks destinations. For the latter, they’ve got a standalone travel edition publishing in April according to their handy 2025 print edit calendar (although I suspect we’re too late to pitch it).
But can you write for a women’s magazine if you’re a man or a men’s magazine if you’re a woman? From the research I’ve done, it seems plenty of women write for the latter, while few male writers appear in the pages of the former — but whether that’s because the latter don’t think to pitch them is hard to deduce.
So what’s the downside to pitching these publications? Most have limited space to commission travel content, typically just one feature per edition. But, given they’re might on fewer travel writers’ radars, it’s possible that the competition is slightly lower, too.
Ready to ping your brilliant ideas out to these publications? If you’re a paid subscriber, we’ve got deep dives into three non-travel publications coming this month. Buy your subscription now so you don’t miss out on:
Tues 9: Sainsbury’s Magazine editor Helena Lang tells us how to pitch this supermarket title.
Tues 16: Editor Amy Wislocki gives the lowdown on writing for Decanter Magazine.
Tues 23: Rebecca Donlan, who leads on travel content for GQ, talks us through their commissioning process.
Tues 30: In this bonus fifth newsletter of the month, we’ll give you an extensive list of non-travel publications to pitch.
Post of the week
As the great Twitter exodus continues, we’ve signed up to Bluesky. For the sake of our sanity, we hope this will be the final platform we have to join for a while. And, if you’re fed up with trying to hunt down the people you previously followed, the Sky Follower Bridge Chrome extension is a handy tool. This list can also help you find mostly UK-based travel writers (and you can even ask to be added if you’re not already there):
Who to follow
Realistically, the only people you certainly should be following are us:
Industry must-reads
We’re digging this new guidance for how organisations should work with freelance journalists, which is the result of a collaboration between Women in Journalism, Freelancing for Journalists and our friend and author of A-Mail, Anna Codrea-Rado. A real Christmas treat for us all would be to see publications adopting this framework.
Complete the State of Freelance Journalism survey for Freelancing For Journalists to have your say on what it’s like being a freelancer today. We’re very intrigued to see the results.
The Baubles revealed its winners last week in a glitzy ceremony that included a choir, a beautiful dedication to the late Melissa Tilling, and a magician who gave Lottie nightmares after guessing the exact person she searched for, seemingly unprompted, on Wikipedia. This man is a witch.
This is the first in our December series on pitching non-travel publications. If you want to receive all five editions of this month’s newsletter, subscribe today for just £7 a month. Paid subscribers get access to our entire archive of editor interviews, tips and insights, as well as weekly newsletters that promise to help your career grow.
Don’t forget to check out the back catalogue of Travel Writing Webinars by Meera Dattani for extra tips about pitching, networking, and writing award-worthy features.