We publish long-form stories and photo-essays about New Zealand’s people, environment, culture and wildlife. We’re always on the lookout for story ideas and new contributors.
If you have a story idea, the first question to ask is whether it’s a story or a subject. The type of story most commonly pitched is that of a wildlife release, but we almost never cover these, unless they occur in the context of a broader story. See an example of this in our feature on kakī/black stilts.
Do you want to send us a really great photo? New Zealand Geographic publishes stories rather than individual photos. We often discover new photographers through Photographer of the Year, our annual competition and exhibition. If you have individual pictures you’d like to submit, we suggest entering them in the competition.
Would you like to contribute to the magazine? We’re interested in submissions from experienced journalists and photographers who have previously published long-form work. New Zealand Geographic isn’t the right place for newcomers to journalism. Please see the pitching guidelines below.
Are you a scientist and you’re interested in having your research covered by New Zealand Geographic? Please see the pitching guidelines below, plus the additional guidelines for scientists. If you’d like to know more about pitching your work to the media, we recommend the Science Media Centre’s excellent media training courses for scientists.
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Our pitching guidelines:
- Search this website to see if we’ve already published anything similar to what you’re pitching. We won’t return to a subject we’ve already covered, whether it’s Māui dolphins or medical cannabis, until significant new developments have occurred.
- The best guide to New Zealand Geographic’s style is the magazine itself. If you haven’t read the magazine or website before, please don’t send us a pitch. If your story doesn’t have anything to do with New Zealand, please don’t send us a pitch, we focus on New Zealand content only.
- Include examples of previously published work, ideally at a similar length and depth to the story you’re pitching. It’s not possible for us to consider pitches from people who don’t have experience in journalism or photography.
- What is the story within your story? If your pitch sounds like a Wikipedia page, it’s probably missing the most important ingredient: a narrative. What’s the arc of the story, the stakes, the characters? Where does the tension or suspense come from? What scenes will tell the story? Why does this story need to be told now, as opposed to in a year, or five years’ time?
- Please inform us if the story has been pitched to other media. This is especially important if you are representing an organisation and have pitched an idea widely.
- We rarely publish opinion pieces or personal essays. We never publish trip reports, product reviews, or stories which can be summarised as “I travelled here and did this”.
- New Zealand Geographic pays competitive editorial rates, which vary by department and experience. For photography, we buy a license to publish pictures but you retain copyright of your work throughout. We’ll consider previously published photography.
- In addition to features, there is a special photography department for which we welcome submissions: ‘Viewfinder’ is a photo-essay of 10-20 pictures which must be linked in terms of subject matter but sufficiently different in terms of composition.
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Scientists: additional guidelines
- We need to know about your research while it’s in progress, not after it has been published (even though this goes against your instincts as a scientist). New Zealand Geographic is highly photographic, which means that we need to cover fieldwork when it occurs. We will want to send a journalist and a photographer to your frog survey, your controlled burn, your sampling trip or your fungal foray. (It is extremely unlikely that your photographs of these events will be suitable for our needs.) Some of our stories take years to produce: this is because we’re covering long-term fieldwork, awaiting its results, or delaying a story until the eventual publication of research. But we need to get started early.
- Published research is most likely to become a short news story. In-progress research may become a long-form feature.
- Writing about your own research isn’t an option. New Zealand Geographic commissions independent professional journalists.
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The submission process:
Please send all pitches by email to editor@nzgeographic.co.nz—it isn’t possible to assess pitches or portfolios over the phone.
Once submitted we will assess the pitch and come back to you within 10 days if we are interested in taking it further. If we are not interested we usually find time to send a note, but we receive literally hundreds of pitches and have very busy periods, so if we do not get back to you within 10 days, assume we are not interested.
Do not take rejection personally or as a slight upon your work. There are many reasons we do not proceed with pitches—similar work in production, similar work in the recent past, timing of other features, the suitability to our title and kaupapa, the mix of content currently in production, etc. If conditions change and we have renewed interest, we’ll get in touch.
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