How to Pitch: Eater

Basically surveys of American food culture. Some really stellar feature and essay writing, particularly with Features section.

TONE

Part of Vox Media’s “explanatory mission,” the biggest hits and most ambitious editorial packages are city guides, neighborhood guides, “I went to every rest stop on this stretch of highway,” guides. Basically surveys of American food culture. Some really stellar feature and essay writing, particularly with Features section under The Awl’s Matt Buchanan (although he recently moved up to executive ed.). Big on weird food news aggregation and SEO grabs, but can also be bloggy in a fun way (“The Pumpkin Spice Latte is just a hot milkshake,” for example).

STRUCTURE

Online-only.

Sections: Cities (Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Twin Cities, Washington D.C.)., Features, Travel, Pop Culture, Reviews, Tech, Books

Often do large editorial packages, like “The End of Flair,” a series in which a bunch of relatively well-known writers talked about the death of places like Olive Garden and Applebee’s one by one. Big into histories examining the politics or cultural implications of certain foods. Also DISNEY WORLD.

Important to note that features, longform, and first-person essay are the main places they’ll take outside pitches. The news operation and reviews system is a pretty well-oiled staff machine. Review pitches are very unlikely to be accepted.

FORMATS

• Life in Chains: Possibly being discontinued, but long-running recurring format which was basically personal essays that anything to do with famous restaurant chains. (E.g. this one about Pizza Hut Hawaiian pizza and a family tradition started in Beijing.)
• Essential [TKTK] Restaurants: A way to do “guides” but for more specific neighborhoods and usually tied to a personal angle. Like “Where to Eat in Little Saigon” but it’s written as a first-person essay.
• Profiles / Interviews: They love love scene reports — e.g. recent rise of three black-owned bars in newly-gentrified parts of Brooklyn.
• Eater Voices: Borrowed from Vox.com, general first-person essay vertical. Lots of participation in #MeToo and general power imbalances in restaurant industry, food racism, accessibility, body stuff and relationship to food stuff. Supposed to be “industry insiders” but that doesn’t seem rigid.
• Other sub-sections: Stadium Food, Food TV, Cookbooks (mostly staff roundups but some essay / interview).

EDITORS

Features Editor: Rafe Bartholomew
[email protected]

Previously a big sports writer, so… who knows! He apparently wrote a memoir about working in the NYC pub his dad owned. Just became the features editor in August, best known for his most recent editing gig, which was at Grantland. Pitch for longform.

Restaurant Editor: Hillary Dixler Canavan
[email protected]

Helped launch Lucky Peach but has been at Eater for a long time. Lives in L.A., manages reviews and big city guides. Unlikely to take a ton of freelance pitches for restaurant reviews but might be worth the time to keep in touch with.

Pop Culture Editor: Greg Morabito
[email protected]

For all “Food TV” related pitches! Previously Eater’s engagement editor.

Travel Editor: Lesley Suter
[email protected]

Very cool! Previously food editor at LA Magazine, and EIC of an LA alt-weekly. Pitch for international scene report pitches, anything that can fit into “Essential Restaurants” format.

Cities Editor: Carolyn Alburger
[email protected]

Previously a regional editor at Zagat, and food editor at San Francisco Magazine. Based in San Francisco, organizes a lot of the big editorial packages that are city-guide based. Like the summer guide to beach foods they just published. Pitch when there are calls for smaller stories within packages like these.

Senior Editor: Daniela Galarza
[email protected]

Comes from PR, now handles most of the tech coverage — e.g. How Instagram is affecting restaurants, or bioengineering, “hacking” the avocado, etc. Pitch for tech-centered reports.

PITCHES THAT WORKED

TK — If you have a pitch to include, email [email protected] or the Pitches That Worked thread on the listserv.

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