How to Pitch Us

Sentient Media is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet publishing stories and solutions for a changing world. We’re the only nonprofit news outlet solely focsued on factory farms and their impacts on food, climate, animals, health, workers, policy and rural communities.

A successful pitch will fit within at least one of our verticals: food, science, climate, health or policy and one of the types of stories described below.

Types of stories we publish:

Accountability Journalism: investigative reporting that aims to hold powerful actors accountable.

Examples:

How U.S. Taxpayers Bailed Out the Poultry Industry, and Helped Entrench Avian Flu

Recent Graduates Were Told They Were Coming to the U.S. for Cultural Exchange. They Ended Up Trapped in a Factory Farm.

Iowa Dairy Manure Spill Kills Over 100,000 Fish in 10-Mile Stretch of Dry Run Creek

Solutions Stories: rigorous journalism on responses to an impact of factory farming. Solutions stories follow these four pillars from the Solutions Journalism Network: (1) response to a problem (2) evidence the response is working (3) limitations of or challenges to implementing the response and (4) insights (e.g., can this scale, what doesn’t the response address, how might we apply this solution somewhere else?).

Examples:

For Siċaŋġu Nation, Taking Food Sovereignty Back Means Eating Climate-Friendly

Farmers Markets Can Be a Form of Climate Action. Here’s How

How an Oregon Community Group Fought a Factory Farm and Won

Disinformation Debunkers: Fact-checked reporting that debunks misinformation and disinformation, especially on the blockers to eating more plants and less meat.

Examples:

RFK’s Promise to Take Farming Back 80 Years Isn’t Plausible

Joe Rogan & Other Top Podcasts Spread Climate Disinfo, Research Finds

Nitrates Pollute Waterways, but the EPA Is More Concerned With…Fluoride?

Fact-checked Explainers: Explainers that break down complicated topics in a science-driven way for curious readers.

Examples:

Is Beef Consumption in the U.S. Headed in the Right Direction?

Why Eating Local Isn’t a Climate Solution

Is Organic Food More Sustainable? It’s Complicated

How to Submit:

Please send your pitch with the following elements to [email protected]:

• One short paragraph with the big takeaway of your story and why it’s important to cover this angle right now. Tell us what’s new that hasn’t been covered elsewhere. Note:
• 3-5 short bullet points of the main points.
• What are your sources: interviews, research, evidence — what backs up the main points of your piece.
• If you haven’t written for Sentient before, send a few links to your published work.

What NOT TO PITCH:

An idea not a story.

Stories outside the food system, including zoos, marine parks or other animal entertainment and animal testing (unless tied to food production).

Opinion pieces or essays. We’re looking for reporting.

Stories or essays that are aimed entirely at a vegan audience.

Our rates start at $300 but we frequently pay more, as each story will go through at least one round of edits and a check by our fact-checker. We pay higher rates for experienced journalists, and for stories that require significant reporting or research. Our contract for journalists is available here.

Keep in mind that our stories include the experience and treatment of animals, but just as with our other stories, these elements of the story are grounded in facts and are fact-checked, not theory or opinion.