Margin & Matter commissions reported features, essays, interviews, photo stories, and short field notes. We welcome first-time contributors as well as established writers and image-makers.
A good proposal begins with access: a person you can speak with, a place you can enter, a process you can observe, or an archive you can examine. Tell us what you have found and why the story needs reporting now.
1,800–3,000 words built from observation, interviews, and a clear central question.
600–1,000 words from one revealing visit, object, routine, or small piece of research.
A coherent visual argument of 10–16 images, accompanied by captions and a short introduction.
Edited conversations that make a practitioner’s methods, decisions, and experience useful to the reader.
We license first publication in English, online and in one print issue, followed by a three-month period of exclusivity. Copyright remains with the contributor. Translation, syndication, and reuse are agreed separately.
Necessary reporting expenses are agreed before work begins and reimbursed against receipts. We do not ask contributors to absorb travel that forms part of an approved commission.
We prefer pitches because reporting and scope often develop with an editor. You may attach a draft, but we cannot promise to consider it as a finished commission.
Yes. The journal is edited in Europe but its subject is not bounded by geography. Local knowledge and credible access matter more than location.
We reply to proposals we want to discuss within three weeks. If you have not heard by then, you are free to offer the story elsewhere.
No. Submitted writing, reporting, illustration, and photography must be the contributor’s own work. Research tools should be disclosed when they materially shape the piece.