Write For Us

Uncommon Journalism wants to be a home for both professional and non-professional journalism that tackles hard hitting social issues and phenomena in unique, non-traditional and unorthodox ways. Whether you're a pro reporter who wants the freedom to cover a story or topic the way you see fit or an up and coming journalist wanting to test your mettle and get your work noticed, Uncommon Journalism would love to give you an opportunity to showcase your best multimedia reporting. We're especially interested in international stories; as a site housed in the United States, Uncommon Journalism offers a legal harbor for writers abroad who may be unable to publish the works they want due to governmental or legal restrictions. There are no subjects or topics considered off-limits. As long as your writing is sound, inventive and free of partiality, we're game to publish it. And if traditional journalism isn't your thing, we're also open to accepting photojournalistic essays and multimedia productions - i.e., documentaries, short nonfiction films, etc.

Our site's ground rules are straight forward. We're willing to publish just about anything as long as it meets the following criteria:

• The work meets basic journalistic ethical standards and is devoid of pronounced political/ideological biases.
• The content isn't too niche or too rudimentary and has some sort of larger social significance. For example, a story about a local city council meeting would be too narrow while a story about new federal legislation would be too broad. However, stories about how local city council or federal government actions are impacting people would be right up our alley.
• The work contains at least two cited sources. 
• Associated Press style is strongly preferred but not required.
• Human-driven stories are a major plus - we're suckers for a good personality-driven feature.
• Don't worry about your work being "too offensive" or "too unconventional." The more daring, challenging and unorthodox the story, the more likely we are to print it.

At the moment, we cannot pay for submissions, but we do promise to print your work with as few edits as possible and promote it vigorously (and if you're an aspiring reporter, we might even be able to give you a few pointers on the craft while we're at it.) Keep in mind that all Uncommon Journalism articles are published under a Creative Commons license, so others would be free to reprint and republish your work without financial reimbursement.

If you're interested, feel free to send us a story pitch or completed work at UncommonJournalism@gmail.com, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.