have you pitched your idea yet?
Today is Friday and this is the 14th edition of Missed Pitches.
Thank you for subscribing to the Missed Pitches newsletter. And thank you once again for the feedback you gave to inform this survey.
If you’ve had a rejected pitch featured here and an editor has been in touch with you, let me know! Tweet at me or email me directly at pitches.newsletter@gmail.com. Pretty soon I’ll be looking for success stories and I want to know how this newsletter has made a difference in your freelance work.
Today, this newsletter is more than 1,300 subscribers strong and it’s a testament that the content you find here is worth reading. But to make this newsletter possible, it needs your contributions: turn in your rejected pitches to have them featured here and so that many others can see the glory of your ideas.
Again, use this Google Form to submit your rejected pitches. Give me a follow on Twitter at @MissedPitches for updates and shout-outs. Read the previous edition here. // rungomez
Contents:
How ‘the Bubble’ became the great American experiment (by Juwan J. Holmes)
Forget Tinder, singles are using Clubhouse for dating (by Adenike Fapohunda)
Are kosher hot dogs really better? (by Adina Solomon)
All the Darcys & Darcy spinoffs, ranked (by Suradha Iyer)
Artists have made coffee their canvas (by Pooja Shah)
Freelance opportunities
Writing jobs
NOTE: The following rejected story pitches have been lightly edited for space and clarity.
How ‘the Bubble’ became the great American experiment (by Juwan J. Holmes, holmes.juwan.j@gmail.com)
Twenty-twenty, among all else, serves as a crosspoint for the future of American society and will likely act as a starting point for which direction we will head, moving forward.
How that may happen can be extrapolated from the conclusion of the 2019-2020 NBA season, held in what's being referred to as “The Bubble”, a series of complexes in ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and Disney World Resorts in Orlando. Soon after, the WNBA season was scheduled and held in a similar fashion.
What we saw in the three months in which the league’s athletes competed in “The Bubble” was how an influx of changes had profound, sociocultural impact on some of the most influential people not only in sports, but the world. How this diverse group of entertainers dealt with inequality, unjust death, misinformation, safety precautions and the bidding of the status quo can be viewed as an examination for how our society can deal with these issues better.
Forget Tinder, singles are using Clubhouse for dating (by Adenike Fapohunda, nikefapohunda@gmail.com)
Dating has become notoriously difficult during the pandemic, a large amount of 20-something singles who lavished in the ability to find love or its adjacents before the pandemic have found themselves barred from human contact due to social distancing or willing to risk their health in an attempt to find love.
While traditional dating sites like Grindr, Tinder and Hinge all provide avenues for dating I can imagine that there is a reasonable amount of fatigue from singles who see these apps as part of the hamster wheel of dating. Now Clubhouse, a networking app that is somewhere between Twitter and Zoom but for voices makes its entry into the ever growing list of apps we're using to grasp at human contact. People have started to use Clubhouse to set up singles rooms that allow them to meet new people in an almost dating show-esque way.
Dating in a Clubhouse is interesting because there is almost no privacy. You have to shoot your shot and face rejection in a “room” that could be full of hundreds of people yet many singles still risk this rejection. I want to talk to the singles that have tried to find love in the clubhouse, those who have been rejected or those who have found affection and get a general feeling of what their experience was like.
Are kosher hot dogs really better? (by Adina Solomon, adinars9@gmail.com)
In 1972, Uncle Sam stood in front of a bright blue sky and sold Hebrew National hot dogs. The TV commercial assured would-be customers that Hebrew National doesn’t use artificial colors or non-meat fillers—even though the government doesn’t prohibit those things—because their hot dogs were different. They were kosher.
It didn't seem to matter that Hebrew National wasn't considered kosher by most Jews until the early 2000s. Nor did it matter that “kosher” is only a set of religious laws and has nothing to do with whether you can use artificial colors or non-meat fillers. The commercial struck a chord, and Hebrew National hot dogs sold with the assurance that its kosher pedigree denoted quality and health. Today, the company is one of the top sellers of hot dogs in the country.
More than 40 percent of packaged foods and beverages sold in the U.S. are kosher. Just about every non-Jew has unwittingly or not bought kosher food in their life. And for many years, the food industry has used “kosher” as a shorthand to communicate that their food is healthier or higher quality.
I want to use the story of Hebrew National, which touches on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, to talk about the use of kosher to market food, especially packaged grocery food, and how its perception of quality came to be.
All the Darcys & Darcy spinoffs, ranked (by Suradha Iyer, suradhawrites@gmail.com)
As of late I’ve been sort of besotted with Pride and Prejudice and I’ve gone through several versions of the story made and remade over the years. I wanted to pitch a listicle that covered eight of the famous Darcys & Darcy spin-offs in media and ranked them on their Darcy-ness. I was thinking of including Colin Firth’s BBC show, Death Comes to Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice and Vampires, The Lizzie Bennet show (a vlog style modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice on YouTube), Firth (Mark Darcy) in the Bridget Jones series, the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film etc.
Artists have made coffee their canvas (by Pooja Shah, shahp1130@gmail.com)
How do coffee artists — people who use coffee as a medium and tool for their paintings/art- represent how coffee is universally appreciated and utilized? How can this medium elevate the way the South is depicted?
When one thinks of a piece of art, often it is created by acrylics, watercolors, oil, or other similar mediums. Coffee, however, is rarely associated with creation of art. Tennessee born and Knoxville resident, Michael Aaron Williams is part of a rare group of coffee artists who demonstrate how coffee can be used to create stunning visuals.
Michael, especially, is seeking to “create ethereal portraits that reveal the ephemeral nature of people and society,” an illustration of how his art aims to work towards overall systemic change in his community.
I propose to write a 700-900 word essay in which I explain how coffee art represents the greater idea of how unifying and universally appreciated coffee is. Drinking coffee is a social, cultural, and physical experience that transcends all religions, genders, ethnicities or races.
Freelance Opportunities
via @EaterPhilly (Feb 22): Eater Philly is seeking new contributors. Here's how to pitch
via @Raven_Ishak (Feb 22): Hi there! I'm looking to connect with BIPOC video game writers for @hellogiggles. If interested, please send an intro and a few clips to raven.ishak@meredith.com. #writerscommunity TY!
via @ASJAhq (Feb 16): ASJA Magazine is accepting pitches for upcoming issues. We're looking for feature stories that would fall into one of these verticals: journalism, books, and content marketing. Send pitch to asjamagazineeditor@gmail.com. You must be an #ASJA member.
via @Borderless_Mag (Feb 23): Call for pitches: Borderless Magazine is looking for immigration-related stories with a Midwestern connection! Be sure to check out our pitch guidelines here: https://borderlessmag.org/pitch/
via @whatsnext_mag (Feb 22): Due to a change of plans, we are still looking for one solutions journalism story specifically about schools and alternatives to policing for March. Please email editor.whatsnext@gmail.com if you have a pitch! We pay .10/word
Writing Jobs
The Washington Post is hiring a Morning Mix Writer - Washington, D.C.
The American Prospect is hiring a Writing Fellow - Remote or D.C.
Insider, Inc. is hiring a Weekend Business Reporter - Los Angeles
The Guardian is hiring a Science Writer - Australia
Inside The Magic is hiring Writers - Southern California