Our mission? To inspire, inform, and compel women to live life to its fullest through outdoor adventure and travel. The best way to break in? Pitch us inspiration and information in the form of juicy, newsy tidbits that you’re able to write about with evidence, authority and style. Between our chock-a-block front of the book departments and our 3-story feature well (sometimes more!) we’re always looking for ideas that fit these criteria.
The Dirt: Our dynamic up-front department combines afternoon adventure advice with travel tips, news, and media relevant for our audience of socially-conscious and active outdoor women. These are some of the stories in it that we’re always trying to fill.
Travel (200-500 words)
Know your city’s hidden adventures? Slept in a tree-house lately or a runway-parked airplane hotel? Or is travel trend-spotting your thing? The travel-related pieces in The Dirt are short, sweet, and packed with useful service. We’re looking for “Urban Escape,” “Out There,” “USA on a Budget,” and “Travel Trend” pieces with adventure in mind.
Action (450-600 words)
Environmental efforts and socially-conscious business practices are increasingly important to consumers. Who is doing what—above and beyond the token recycling program or “local” label—to really change the way the sporting industry thinks, approaches, or affects the world? Brooks is winning awards for innovative green midsole technology and New Belgium Brewing is encouraging an eco-conscious commuter bike program. What positive business trends are you seeing?
Around the World (450-600 words)
The stories, triumphs and trials of world-class female athletes can illustrate their countries’ attitudes about women in sports. Does the hijab hold back Iranian women? Did Castro’s politics put Cuban women ahead of the game? How does a country’s government policy, religion, poverty, or proximity—to waves, for example—affect its women athletes?
Roar (600-800 words)
Who’s the most amazing woman you know? Dr. Jessie Stone is a whitewater kayaking doctor fighting malaria along the Nile’s world-class rapids, and Anne Mahlum is harnessing the endorphin rush of a good run to help the homeless in Philadelphia. These are just two recent examples of women combining their love of sport and adventure with a Roar-worthy sense of compassion and drive. We’re always on the lookout for others.
By Design (700-900 words)
Things change, and technology and design change with them. This gear-focused section takes a close look at the innovations of interest to our readers and highlights the advancements of three or four companies or products leading the way. Funky foot beds, battery innovations, and the next big thing in… you fill in the blank.
Psychobabble (700-900 words)
An opportunity to combine the mental and physical elements of adventure and sporting—and explain the mysteries of the feminine mind. This department highlights a physiological angle to shed light on the how, why or why not behind our desire to hit the trail. Whether it’s our chemical aversion to risk-taking, the grief-recovery process of a bum knee, or the psychology of a sore loser, this department seeks to combine personal experience with scientific research and authoritative sources that can help us make the best of our brains.
Whole Health (700-900 words)
The tiny-tidbit coverage of health issues in other women’s mags makes us sick. In this department, we’re looking for in-depth reporting on an issue affecting the lives of active women. We want expert advice, doctors’ analysis, scientific study info, and the personal story of one or more specific women to form a comprehensive look at how this health-related topic—sleep, anemia, knee strength or skincare—can affect your adventures in the outdoors.
Full (700-900 words)
In addition to fueling our hikes, bikes, and paddles, the food we eat at home and on the road can also be an adventure. While we’re not foodies, we love the stuff. This department explains a food type, trend, or taste in an effort to stock our cupboards with knowledge about nutrition that will give us a boost toward longer lives, better workouts, or healthier families. Expect to include a sidebar or additional web content adding service.
Try This (500-700 words)
Ever been intimidated to try something new? Admit it. We all have. This service-based department is meant to demystify an adventure activity—landing a 180 on the snow, kite surfing, slacklining. In partnership with an expert, this illustrated department introduces our readers to a new activity and gives specific advice about form, technique and the tools they’ll need to include it in their adventure resume.
Features (1,000-3,500 words)
We print a wide variety of feature stories from 1,000-word personal essays to hard-hitting, 3,000-word investigations of environmental or women’s health issues. We avoid topics covered in our pages within the last several years, but we’re open to innovative angles to familiar stories, and a voice that invites, inspires or informs our readers. We get lots of pitches for feature-length profiles and personal essays, so if you have a harder-hitting story we’re more likely to be interested—and in need. Though we appreciate service information in sidebars and accompanying web material, we’ve found that our readers crave an emotional and personal connection with adventure. That’s what we try to deliver.
In addition to sending thoughtful pitches, you can also catch our attention with a few other details:
- Know our magazine. Though we’re a work in progress, you can check out examples of our style and voice through our digital issues online. Easy to find at www.womensadventuremagazine.com
- Follow up. Like everyone else, we’re super busy and our urgency about pitches is directly proportional to the timing of our in-house assignment meetings. If you haven’t heard back in 2-3 weeks, e-mail your pitch again.
- Include ideas for sidebars, web extras and multi-media in conjunction with your story. Our budget doesn’t (yet) include payment for web-specific content, but a multi-platform pitch will catch our attention.
- Make it timely. We plan 3-6 months ahead for most stories, even longer for seasonal features. Don’t pitch old news unless there’s a new angle and suggest a time peg (or two). Is Congress making a decision? Is there a big race or event? Why is your story right for any given month or season?
- Tell us who you are. Include a short bio telling us about your experience and why you’re the right person to write this story… don’t forget to include it when you follow-up, too.
- Suggest an alternative angle. It shows us you’ve researched the story and are capable of being flexible with how we might use it.
Send all queries to us at edit[at]staff.womensadventuremagazine.com
Here’s a sample issue to get you started:
