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How To Pitch: Smithsonian

Use stories about history, nature or science as a springboard into the pages of this venerable pub

- July 1, 2010

Background: When the search for a new editor of Smithsonian magazine ended in 2001, the man who wound up with the top job was Carey Winfrey, an alumnus of a very un-Smithsonian magazine, People. Winfrey, a former New York Times and Time reporter and a self-styled "news junkie," brought his newsman's attitude to the magazine. "I'm just trying to make it a bit more of a compelling read, a little livelier, a bit more topical, more fun," says Winfrey.

From the beginning, the goal was to be "of the [Smithsonian] Institution but not about the Institution," and Winfrey says that is still operative today: the magazine is "interested in everything the Institution is or ought to be, and in that area of 'ought to be,' we have pretty broad license." Coverage includes history, particularly American history; the arts; nature; science; and what the editors call "cultural travel," which Winfrey considers "visiting places and dealing with all those things -- the history, the art, the science in some cases."...

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