The FADER prides itself on being first on the scene when it comes to up-and-coming artists and music trends. Among the musicians who got their first mag covers at The FADER include Kanye West, MIA, The Strokes, Drake, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean and more. The magazine also holds the distinction of being the first publication to be distributed as a PDF through iTunes.

“We’re always interested in hearing more ideas from outside of our immediate field of vision. If you live outside of New York City and something unusual is happening local to you, that is what’s exciting,” said editor-in-chief Matthew Schnipper. “We’re interested in what we wouldn’t know about otherwise.”

For more, read How To Pitch: The FADER.

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Over 70 percent of Wired is freelance written, and, once you’ve scored a byline, you’re well on your way to landing more assignments. Senior editor Sarah Fallon urges writers to think of Wired‘s coverage as a continuum: “Science leads to technologies. Technologies spawn businesses and whole industries. Businesses flourish and end up influencing and changing culture,” she said.

Based in San Francisco, Wired has a laid-back but focused West Coast feel and a sensibility that welcomes everyone from the worldly generalist to the Vine junkie. There’s plenty of room for freelancers, too, so long as you’re pitching fresh meat. “We want to cover stories that you wouldn’t find in any other magazine,” Fallon explained. “If you’re going to pitch something mainstream, make sure you have a unique angle.”

For more info, read How To Pitch: Wired.
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Environmentally savvy freelancers can snag bylines at one of the oldest continuously published mags in the country: Audubon. The pub gets 90 percent of its content from freelancers, and editors are very open to working with new writers.

The advocacy magazine promotes the mission of saving birds, wildlife and habitat and serves as the flagship publication of the National Audubon Society, one of the oldest environmental groups in the country. Audubon is the only pure nature magazine on the market, but it aspires to the reach and commercial success of National Geographic, while still maintaining its commitment to the thought-provoking, long-form type journalism of The Atlantic and The New Yorker.

For more, read How To Pitch: Audubon.

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Matthew T. Hall, public engagement editor for U-T San Diego, is chuckling this morning about the woman who appears at, ahem, #69 on Maxim magazine’s latest Hot 100 list. And who can blame him? It’s the girlfriend San Diego Charger Manti Te’o never had:

Hall writes that it will be interesting to see if the gang at Maxim gets as much flack as his own paper did for recently running an editorial cartoon poking fun at the same insignificant other. The bottom line is Te’o better get used to this: at every away-game, one can only imagine the taunts that will come from the tailgate-fueled crowds.

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Still going strong after 13 years, Dwell sets itself apart from other design magazines by providing insights on modern design and architecture that are as fresh as they are practical . “We don’t want people to create an artificial idea of how they live in their home,” said editor-in-chief Amanda Dameron. “We tell the owners to clean their house as if they’re having a good friend over. Don’t go buying pricey flowers!”

Dameron says that even though her team receives more than enough pitches, one of the best ways to distinguish your submission is to get behind a camera. ”We put a lot of resources behind how we tell our stories visually. So when we’re reviewing initial ideas, having good pics always helps.”

Get contact info, pitch suggestions and more at How To Pitch: Dwell

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– Nick Braun

Editors at Latina love getting thoughtful pitches. The mag has a small staff and relies on outside contributors for a whopping 80 percent of its content. Although the pub often assigns articles out to freelancers, executive editor Damarys Ocaña says she would “love to get really informed, specific pitches… that would make my life a lot easier.”

Ocaña is always looking for great writers who know Latin culture and are familiar with the publication. But do the writers, themselves, have to be Latin? “No, definitely not,” said Ocaña. “We have plenty of freelancers who aren’t.”

For more info, read How To Pitch: Latina.

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

As Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancer’s Union, once said, “One of the challenges for all freelancers, though, is it can be feast or famine.” Sometimes you could be raking in the assignments; at others, editors could be strangely silent when you want to hear from them the most.

In the latest Mediabistro feature, magazine veterans give tips on how to foster your relationships with editors to keep the assignments, and the paychecks, rolling in.

Read more in 6 Tips for Landing Repeat Writing Assignments.

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Prevention is known for being on the cutting edge of breakthrough science and alternative and complementary medicine, and its commitment to quality reporting is known as the Prevention Pledge: “The reader can count on the recommendations that they find in the magazine to be checked very, very thoroughly for accuracy,” said executive editor Siobhan O’Connor.

No sections are closed to freelance pitches at this health-minded pub, and those writers with a knack for translating science into accessible prose are good candidates for the mag. Even if your pitch doesn’t get the green light, you may be on your way to landing assignments from the editors. Plus, the pay isn’t shabby either.

For more info, read How To Pitch: Prevention.

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Although this year’s print version of the TIME 100 features, for the first time, a total of five different domestic (Elon Musk, Jennifer Lawrence (pictured), Rand Paul, Jay Z, Malala Yousafzai) and two international covers (Li Na, Aamir Kahn), FishbowlLA’s favorite aspect of this must-read annual compilation remains the bylines.

This year for example, the ode to Justin Timberlake was composed by one Stevie Wonder; Timberlake returns the favor by praising Jimmy Fallon. And, for the bow-down to Steven Spielberg, the magazine enlisted Tom Brokaw:

However different their subjects, Spielberg’s productions have a common thematic DNA of humanity, so we are enlightened as well as entertained. His work on Lincoln alone was worthy of enduring acclaim, for it brought to life as no other film has this quintessential American President struggling with the greatest moral dilemma of our history.

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In Mediabistro’s latest So What Do You Do? interview, Star editor-in-chief James Heidenry tackles his newsstand nemeses head-on, calling People and Us Weekly “the mouthpiece of celebrity publicists” – and he didn’t mean that in a positive way.

Some of his other beefs with the mags? They pay celebrities for stories but don’t admit it, and they get most of their biggest “scoops” right from the pages of Star.

“Even Bonnie Fuller, who used to run Star magazine, doesn’t give us credit at HollywoodlLife.com. But Us Weekly, I think, is the biggest culprit of hypocrisy,” Heidenry said. “Us Weekly has Kim [Kardashian] on the cover saying ‘Don’t Call Me Fat,’ and when you open up the issue, it points out our cover and says ‘Look how these tabloids are making fun of her’ when they are doing it on the cover themselves — not making fun of her, but using Kim’s pregnancy to sell magazines and trying to take a holier-than-thou attitude. To me, it was just a lack of respect for their readers.”

For more of Heidenry’s thoughts on the competition plus what he looks for L.A. reporters, read So What Do You Do, James Heidenry, Editor-in-Chief of Star?