If you have a story that you think would be right for LabourList, reach out to us with your pitch at [email protected].
LabourList prides itself on publishing interesting views, ideas, critique and commentary from across the Labour Party and wider labour movement. We publish comment from everyone Labour – from grassroots voices to the Prime Minister. We also publish pieces from think tanks, business and campaigning organisations*. You do not have to be a Labour member to publish on LabourList (though it helps) but if you are publicly associated with another UK political party this is not the space for you.
So if you have a burning policy issue you think Labour members should discuss, a revolutionary campaigning idea or thoughts on how the party could be better (or in praise of what Labour already does) we want to hear from you.
We get many pitches every day and do not have the capacity to publish everything. So below you will find a set of guidelines on how to pitch and – if your pitch is successful – write for LabourList.
LabourList, sadly, has no budget for one-off op-eds. We do pay freelancers on occasion but only when LabourList needs surge support. We do not generally accept pitches for news coverage as we have exceptional in-house journalists for this.
* We welcome a range of voices. However, if your content is promoting a specific product, service or campaign or is promoting policy with an obvious commercial benefit, this can only be platformed as sponsored content.
How to guide
DO – check what we have published recently. If we have already published something similar to your idea we are unlikely to take another piece.
DON’T – send us a whole piece. We don’t have the capacity to read lots of pieces we won’t be able to publish and you will have spent time on something that doesn’t get published. Lose/lose!
DO – make it clear how this piece is relevant to the Labour Party or union movement. We do not publish general interest pieces.
DO – distil your argument into a couple of succinct paragraphs that make it clear what you are proposing or arguing for/against.
DON’T – pitch us a time sensitive piece at little notice. It is highly unlikely we will have the capacity to deal with your pitch and piece so you will miss out.
DO – send over a headshot and one or two lines on you. Include why you are the right choice to write this piece, your relationship with Labour or both.
DON’T – Send us a whole CV.
DON’T – pitch a direct argument with another piece. If you want to put the alternative – great! But we have no interest in tit-for-tat op-eds.
DO – expect a bit of a wait before we are able to respond. We are a small and exceptionally busy team. Be patient with us and DON’T chase too soon!
DON’T – lose heart if we say no. We can’t publish everyone all the time. So don’t give up but do take on board any feedback we are able to offer (though we can’t do this all the time).
DO – choose your pitch wisely! We tend to only publish external authors (including MPs) every 2 – 4 months. So think carefully about what you want to prioritise.
- A standard LabourList op-ed is around 600 – 800 words. If you send us more than 1000, we will send it back to you for editing before we can approach it.
- We ask that all copy for LabourList be exclusive to us and written by a human.
- If your piece is time-sensitive let us know, be clear and send us copy at least 48 hours in advance to give us time to edit it.
- We will edit your copy. If these edits are minor and stylistic or grammatical we won’t come back to you. If we have any questions, issues or major edits required we will come back to you and be clear about any suggested changes or areas where clarity is needed.
- Feel free to suggest a headline, but we reserve the right to choose our own if we think it will drive more traffic to your piece.
- We will not publish anything likely to bring any kind of legal action against LabourList. We reserve the right at all times to edit your copy to protect ourselves legally. We will always let you know what we are changing in advance but will not debate copy we think could put us in jeopardy.
- LabourList does not publish rumours, personal attacks on Labour politicians or gossip. It is fine to say “I think Emma Burnell is wrong about XXXX and here’s why” it is not OK to say “Emma Burnell is evil because she is wrong about XXXX”
- If you use any statistics or make any claims, PLEASE source these by hyperlinking to a reputable source (this would usually include any regulated charity or newspaper or an established research body such as a university or think tank).
- DO NOT use footnotes. This is an op-ed, not an academic essay. We need the information presented in the most readable format. THIS MEANS HYPERLINKS.
- There are very rare occasions when we have to spike copy as it is not publishable for any of the above reasons or others. LabourList reserves the right not to publish op-eds for any of the above reasons or others. We will try to work with you where we can to avoid this outcome.
- When you send your copy, please include a HEADSHOT and a SHORT (1 or 2 lines) bio.