Pitch us!

Asia is too big and diverse for any one team to cover. If you have a story idea about our region backed by data, go ahead and pitch us!

Pitching your story

Things to consider in your pitch

Your story has an Asian angle.

Does it challenge existing assumptions about Asia or highlight aspects of Asia beyond the tourist gaze? More fundamentally, is your story about Asia? In a mediascape saturated with Western thinkpieces and reporting, even the act of writing about Asia can be radical.

Data is central to your story, not just an afterthought.

Does your story use data to explain, debunk, or add nuance to a topic?

Your story plan uses visual elements meaningfully.

Infographics, data visualisations, photographs, and other visual elements must not be superficial. They should simplify, encourage interactions, or add emotional depth.

Your story should have longevity.

We're not competing with newsrooms for breaking news; this frees us to publish evergreen pieces in topics that align with causes we care about.

We understand that data storytelling is a niche medium, so if you have a story idea that you’re not sure how to convert into a data story, pitch it to us anyway!

Pitch Guidelines

As a rule of thumb, first-time pitch-ers should check out our About page, where we’ve detailed our company mission and goals. This will help you better understand the types of stories we look out for.

Here are the guidelines for a story pitch:

Give us an elevator pitch.

In a nutshell, what is this story about?

What is the central message of this piece?

What question are you attempting to answer?

Give us three key sources for your topic.

Reports, articles, etc.

What are the data sources for your topic?

As Kontinentalist produces data stories, all story ideas should be data-led. If you are collecting the data yourself, please elaborate on your methodology.

If you already have ideas for how you would like to visualise the data, please share them.

What type of support do you require from our team?

Coding, design, illustration, research, writing, etc.

In your opinion, what makes this a Kontinentalist story?

Tell us more about yourself.

To what extent are you familiar with data storytelling or data visualisation? Is your background/experience/work relevant to the topic you are pitching?

When do you prefer for your story to be published?

Note that a data story minimally takes 3 months to produce, and we often have stories lined up for the next few months.


Please go through these guidelines thoroughly before sending us an email with your answers. Please also submit at least 2 pieces of sample writing and your portfolio website (if applicable).

Do note that we may consider your pitch for either a longform story (which is published on our website) or a microstory (which is published on our Instagram).

How to pitch

Send an email with the information above to

pitch@kontinentalist.com

Our editors aim to get back to you as soon as possible, but please note that delays can be expected as we’re working on multiple projects. Thank you for your time and interest in Kontinentalist!