Pitch to us

Most of the articles in Trinity News are written on the basis of ideas from our editorial staff that we then offer to contributors. We are, however, interested in accepting more cold-pitched ideas on an ongoing basis. We welcome submissions from all Trinity students and staff. This page is a guide to how best to format and send us your ideas for articles, but is not a strict set of rules.

The process

We’d generally recommend that you send your pitch to us for discussion before beginning to write the article in question, just to make sure that we’re all on the same page and you don’t waste your time writing something that might need to be edited a lot later. The pitching process therefore looks like:

  1. Send your pitch to the relevant section editor via email
  2. They’ll look at it, and perhaps ask some questions or make some suggestions
  3. If they think the pitch is a good fit, they’ll ask you to start working on it and give you a time when you should aim to have a first draft done
  4. Go write the pitch. If you need advice or have questions along the way, editorial staff from that section (or the paper as a whole) will be delighted to help
  5. Bring it back to the editor. They’ll look over it and probably make some suggestions for edits. You and they work together to edit and improve the piece.
  6. Once everyone is happy with the final version, it goes to our copyediting staff, and then up on our website (and potentially in print too)!

Your pitch

A good pitch includes:

  • A summary of the article you want to write
  • Why it will be interesting/relevant to a good number of our readers (who are mostly Trinity students, but also staff and members of other Irish universities)
  • Why your article will be particularly important or good on this subject (e.g. it’s on something that’s very topical at the moment, you can offer a fresh perspective on it that’s not available anywhere else, it’s an under-examined topic, you have great interviewees lined up)
  • Roughly how long the article will be in words (most of our articles are in the 800-1200 range, but we regularly deviate from that. If you think your piece merits more length or would ideally be short and sweet, don’t be afraid to say that!)

Sections of Trinity News

It’s important to consider which section of the paper you’re interested in pitching to. If you’re not 100% sure, talk to the editor of the section which seems most closely suited, and they can advise you on whether their section is right, or what other one might suit your idea better. Trinity News’ sections are:

  • Features: Long-form pieces examining a topic in depth. These can be investigative or interview-based, and can potentially be on a wide range of topics; they do not need to be directly student-centric, but if they cover a non-student issue it should be one which is relatively under-examined in wider media or on which you think you can bring a new perspective.
  • Comment: opinion articles. Again, these can be on a range of issues, not exclusively student-specific ones, but should be of some interest to a fair number of our readers. Opinion articles by their nature express subjective viewpoints and we welcome fresh and diverse takes on all kinds of issues, but articles should be well-argued. If your piece relies on statistical or factual evidence to make its argument, that evidence should be well-founded.
  • SciTech: articles on science and technology, whether it’s research that’s going on in Trinity or other Irish universities, or general reportage/opinion/features on these subjects. As always, subject matter that would be interesting and relevant to our readers is preferred, but that can take many forms.
  • Sport: A wide range of content related to sport. We particularly focus on Trinity and student sport, but also cover wider issues of sport. Features, opinion writing, match reviews, featured sports clubs etc are all welcome. We would ask contributors to disclose if they are affiliated with a sports club or team they’re writing about.
  • Gailege: Articles as Gaeilge on any number of subjects. They can cover things that are specifically related to the Irish language and Irish culture, or pieces that would fit in to one of our other sections.
  • Life:
    • Sex and Relationships: writing on romantic, sexual and platonic relationships. These pieces can be personal or general, opinion or reportage.
    • Societies: Coverage of the activities of societies in Trinity. For obvious reasons, we would ask contributors to be upfront about any personal connections they may have with societies they’re writing about.
    • Food & Drink: All things relating to eating and drinking. Restaurant/bar reviews around Dublin, home cooking, general food/drink writing, etc.
    • Arts & Culture: Everything related to all kinds of art; drama, literature, music, visual art, film etc. Reviews, features, news are all welcome. We do not exclusively write about Trinity/student-based art, but do particularly welcome pitches on those subjects. (Note that Trinity News generally does not directly publish literature in our pages; consider submitting to our sister publication Icarus instead. We are, however, always looking for photographers and visual artists!)
    • Student Living: articles related to the general experience of being a student. This includes but is not limited to accommodation, work, leisure/going out, college work itself etc.
  • News: We generally don’t operate our news section on the basis of pitches, though there may be exceptions to this. We are always, however, still looking for new News writers and welcoming the submission of tips and other information.
    • News Analysis: Analysis writing takes a wider view of the news, studying trends or explaining complex topics. If there’s something topical happening that you think would benefit from such an examination, we’d love to hear your pitch.

 

If you have any questions about any part of this process, feel free to reach out at [email protected]. If you don’t have any big ideas for articles right now but would like to contribute to Trinity News nonetheless, we’re always looking for contributors to work on staff-generated pitches and other content. We look forward to hearing from you!