Contributing to Gotham Gazette

GUIDELINES FOR WRITERS

Gotham Gazette (www.gothamgazette.com) is an on-line Web site about the issues facing New York City. All of our articles are about New York City. We look for clear, compelling writing that will attract readers with an interest in New York but not necessarily any expertise in the topic being covered. As a result, we avoid jargon, go easy with technical details, and ban acronyms.

The best source for how to write for Gotham Gazette is the Web site itself, but here are some basics.

We run several types of articles:

Issues of the Week: These are articles of about 1,500 words that examine a key issue of interest to New Yorkers. Ideally these should be tied to some current event. A list of past Issues of the Week is available in the archives.

Commentaries: These are articles of about 1,000 words, taking a position on a current debate or suggesting a policy for the city. These articles should present a reasoned argument, bolstered by facts, and not be a harangue or a campaign speech.

Features: These share space on our site with commentaries. (A list of both types of articles is in the archives.) These are articles on a topic of concern that do not lend themselves to an issue of the week, often because they do not involve a policy debate. Recent examples include articles on how public transportation is inaccessible to the disabled and why teachers quit the New York City school system.

Topic Pages: Each of the topic pages -- arts, crime, environment, parks, etc. -- is overseen by an individual contributor with expertise in the field, who updates the links, and writes a monthly article that reports, analyzes and/or comments upon the most important developments in the topic in New York City over the past month. Occasional opportunities available for one-time contributions, or to take over a topic page.

The Citizen: This subsite features articles that originally appeared in the ethnic and immigrant press, mostly translated by our partner, Voices That Must Be Heard. In addition, the site runs original feature stories related to the immigrant experience in New York.

The Community Gazettes: This newest and most ambitious of our sections offers the best opportunity for writers to break into our publication, because, with 51 different Community Gazettes covering every neighborhood in the city, we are in real need of well-reported articles about the issues facing each neighborhood. Unfortunately, we have no budget at this time to pay for articles that are posted on the Community Gazettes; we can only offer a byline.

Pitching Stories

Send a brief summary of your article, explaining why it would be of interest to our site and why it is timely. Please tell us where your writing has appeared; we do not require a formal resume. Send this as an e-mail (NOT an attachment) to info@gothamgazette.com. We would also appreciate seeing samples of relevant work.

We will read unsolicited manuscripts but strongly advise sending a pitch before taking the time and effort to write a piece. Most of the unsolicited stories we have run have been commentary articles.

Writing for Gotham Gazette

We need clear writing in standard English that seeks to explain complicated issues and interest readers who may be unfamiliar with the subject at hand. Articles should make it clear how policy decisions affect ordinary New Yorkers and if possible should include quotes or anecdotes documenting this.

Issues of the Week and Features (although not Commentaries) should present both sides of the story. All articles should be fair and reasoned.

Any views expressed by the topic page writers are their own, and do not indicate any official position of the publication or its parent organization. Analyzing an issue often requires that a writer offer interpretations and opinions with which other people might disagree. We will not censor such views, but as a non-partisan site dedicated to the free exchange of ideas, we expect any opinions to be backed up by facts and, when possible, that credible alternative arguments be presented as well.

Because we are a Web site that serves as a portal site, we need links to other relevant sites and to reports and other material cited in the article. Articles should have quotes and include reporting. We do quote from other articles but cite the source and, if possible, link to it.

Our logo proclaims us a site of "NYC News and Policy." This means that some articles report an issue; others make an argument or express a point of view. But all should meet the accepted standards of journalism in terms of accuracy, fairness and clarity.

Once a story is accepted and a deadline set, we expect that deadline to be met. Finished stories should be e-mailed to the assigning editor in the e-mail, not as an attachment. To ensure the quality of our site, we edit vigorously, and expect writers to be available during the editing process, responding to our editorial suggestions, rewriting when necessary and providing additional information that we request. Writers should be aware that changes in events may also require additional rewriting.

Payment varies depending upon the length and complexity of the story assigned, and where the article is posted. (Writers submitting commentaries do so pro-bono). Writers will receive payment within a month of posting of the story on the site. We do not pay kill fees but work hard to try to make stories work on the site. We have killed very few stories since we began in 1999 but certainly cannot guarantee that a story will be posted.

Questions & Comments?

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