GraveSite Media Pitch & Partnership Guide
Get in 6 ft under GraveSite’s ground floor.
To prepare for launch, we’re seeking journalism, personal essays, and other non-fiction writing on death and all its intersections with life, especially — but not exclusively — in our five core coverage areas:
Life: Service-focused reporting on planning and anticipating death, dying, grieving, handling the logistics of death, supporting a grieving person, and related health and wellness topics. Personal narratives from deathcare workers and everyday people — think NYT’s “Modern Love” but for death.
Power: In-depth narrative, investigative, and data-driven reporting on death politics and policy (e.g., bereavement leave, medical assistance in dying), movement and justice work, and corporate greed and overreach in death work and adjacent fields.
Futures: News, deep-dive analyses, explainers, and probes into research and advances in dealing with death and grief (e.g., in the death tech and longevity spaces), as well as evolution in death attitudes, practices, and roles.
Belief: Perspectives, news, and features on religious and spiritual beliefs, philosophies, traditions, and practices surrounding death and grief. Think Aeon/Psyche’s galaxy-brain explorations but for death.
Culture: Perspectives, analysis, reviews, and commentary on death’s interplay with film, TV, music, sports, gaming, fashion, celebrity, the internet, and pop culture. Like Vulture, but — you guessed it — for death.
We love stories that are surprising and specific, ambitious yet approachable, and helpful but not didactic; tones that are vulnerable as appropriate, funny as possible, and respectful — always — of sources and subject matter; and prose that are pretty or spare but never precious.
Your pitch should be submitted through our dedicated form here (or else we’ll delete it) and include:
A clear, compelling headline and (optional) dek
A concise paragraph or two on your story angle — not just the topic — that shows off your writing and/or reporting chops and explains how you see your story fitting into or expanding GraveSite’s core coverage areas
Any news peg, data, credentials, or other information that helps us understand why this story is important, why you’re the one to tell it, and why it needs to be told now (or for more evergreen pieces, why it’ll be relevant for the foreseeable future)
Any specific or unexpected audiences who might be drawn to your story
An idea of your reporting plan, including, as applicable, the format, your sources (or types of sources), and any other original reporting you expect to do
We focus primarily on the U.S. (for now, at least), though are open to stories from and about elsewhere, as well as those grounded locally or regionally, if they are (or should be) relevant for an American audience. You can write for us from anywhere in the world as long as you can accept payment via BILL.com or ACH.
For journalism: For professional journalists, we pay a flat fee of $400 USD for quicker-turn news and trend pieces (fewer than 800 words; at least one original source); and $1,000 USD for more deeply reported features (about 900 to 1,300 words; 3+ sources). We’re also very interested in commissioning ambitious, reporting-intensive investigations and narrative features that’ll be compensated accordingly. Please don’t send full drafts for journalism pitches; we want to shape the story with you.
For personal essays, cultural criticism, and opinions: We pay an honorarium of $200 USD for personal essays, criticism and analysis, commentary, and related opinion-based writing (fewer than 1,000 words; interviews not required but welcomed) by writers, both emerging and established, and non-writer humans, as well as death scholars, researchers, clinicians, policymakers, lawyers, and other workers. If you have a pulse, we want your POV on death. For this type of contribution, we consider both full, previously unpublished drafts and pitches, with a slight preference for the former.
For art: Occasionally, we commission illustrations, graphics, photography, video, data visualizations, and other art to accompany or complement our reporting. If you’re an artist or designer who’s interested in partnering, please use our submission form to share your information and portfolio.
For misc: We’re interested in original games (e.g., crosswords and other word-nerd entries), as well as interactive experiences, co-publications, reprints, guest editorships, partnerships, and other collaborations we haven’t yet thought of. Get in touch to discuss your ideas.
Please pitch us through our dedicated form here; to ensure our inboxes remain clear for questions and collaboration, we’ll delete any story pitches we receive by email. We’re a small but mighty team, so while we can’t promise a response to every pitch, please know that we review each with care and do our best to get in touch within two weeks if we have questions for you or are interested in commissioning your work. If you don’t hear from us, feel free to pitch us again as soon as four weeks from your original outreach. There’s no need to resend pitches and/or follow up by email as our editorial team collectively reviews all form submissions.