How to Pitch: Glamour

Cynically, it’s one of the big fashion and beauty glossies that was hemorrhaging money and underwent a redesign to make it look more like The Cut.

TONE

New tagline is “from pop culture to politics.” Cynically it’s one of the big fashion and beauty glossies that was hemorrhaging money and underwent a redesign to make it look more like The Cut, as well as an editorial overhaul to lean into “empowerment” in kind of vague terms. Not trying to be rude but it’s very lowest common denominator overall: “22 TV Shows You’ll Be Obsessed With This Fall,” “How These 6 Real Women Are Taking Control of Their Lives,” “5 Coat Styles to Try This Fall, According to Meghan Markle” and so on. But they do have lovely cover story photography and sometimes pay for interesting first-person essays about wellness / health / beauty, etc.

Still calls ITSELF a “women’s issues” magazine!!! The new editor-in-chief seems well-intentioned but also insists that she’s redoing a publication that used to be for “good girls” and making it for “smart girls.” Not sure why we’re using the word “girls” or sorting girls.

They don’t do weird.

STRUCTURE

Print and online.

Print version is published monthly, website updates daily. Print content often appears online first, in sections broken down into:

• Fashion: Shopping, Celebrity Style, Outfit Ideas, Style Your Size (this is just a tag for any news stories about petite or plus-size clothing lines, which seems…). Obviously the print magazine still has a lot of fashion spreads.
• Beauty: Skin Care, Hair, Makeup, Celebrity Beauty, Product Reviews, How-Tos.
• Entertainment: TV, Music, Movies, Celebrity News. Has the smallest team, so likely the most opportunities to pitch short essays and first-person reactions to things.
• Wellness: Healthy Recipes, Workouts, Sexual Health, Body Image, Healthy Living. Not really into reporting, more like tips and tricks and service-y stuff. Light science.
• News & Culture: Money, Politics, Tech (cool cool minor section). Lots of first-person as-told-to. Not a ton of reporting, but they have done some scene stuff and some interviews with liberal politicians and new editor-in-chief (as of 2018) Samantha Barry has talked a lot about how original reporting on “women’s issues” is the only way to make Glamour relevant again.

In general, particularly in print: Lots of short profiles of women doing interesting things, largely in fashion or entertainment space, but increasingly non-profits / organizing too

COLUMNS

• Celebrity Q&A’s structured as “TKTK Loaded Questions (used to be “Inappropriate Questions”).
• Real Women on [TKTK], lots of polling “real” women on hot-button topics, like “how their lives have changed since Trump’s election.” They also occasionally poll men on “what they really think.”
• Op-Eds: Largely how they’re beefing up their political coverage so far. They’re typically pretty mainstream and obvious.
• Women of the Year: Tied to their annual awards ceremony, they have to churn out a lot of celebrity profiles all at once. Could be a good opportunity.
• Fashion: Color Trends, You Need This, first-person outfit diaries, The Case For
• Beauty: Big Beauty Questions, Back to Basics (first-person how-tos, seem pitchable), very into the format that’s like “I Tried All of the Internet’s Most Popular Cat-Eye Tutorials” and those sorts of first-person things.

EDITORS

Fashion Editor: Amy Hou
[email protected]

Very traditional fashion magazine background, from Seventeen to Elle to Marie Claire to the last four years at Glamour. Primarily print, but coordinates some online editorial packages like “Denim Week,” which was mostly a shopping guide but also had some reporting and features. This Khloe Kardashian art on “The Big Business of Maternity Jeans,” wow!

For quicker turnaround, online-only fashion stuff: Digital Fashion Editor, Ana Colon
[email protected]

Features Editor: Justine Harman
[email protected]

Also a pretty traditional magazine background, going from People to Elle, where she was digital entertainment editor and assistant features editor. But she seems cool and ambitious, got Glamour the first sit-down interview with Cynthia Nixon after she announced her governor run. Writes a lot of the A-List celeb cover stories herself, but good to pitch for interior interviews with political figures or smaller scale celebs.

Digital Features Editor: Perrie Samotin
[email protected]

Comes from Stylecaster and AM New York. Assigns a lot of the “we asked TKTK women” or “what men really think about X” pieces. Also wrote a big feature defending “skin care” as a concept, and assigned a feature about the opioid epidemic. These science-based features are the longest ones on the site.

Beauty Director: Ying Chu
[email protected]

Big on beauty blogging and trying to get it into the print version of Glamour, responsible for the “Back to the Basics” expansion — making the online presence of the beauty section mostly first-person recommendations and tutorials. If you’re going to try to pitch anything slightly weird at Glamour this is maybe the place to try it.

For quicker turn-around online-only beauty stuff: Digital Beauty Editor, Lindsay Schallon [email protected]

Entertainment Editor: Alison Ward Frank
[email protected]

Really involved in celebrity booking for cover stories and spon con, but likely the person to pitch for celeb Q&As or pop culture-related profiles if you want them in print.

Health Editor: ??
It was Sara Gaynes Levy but she quit this past summer. May be in the hiring process, in the meantime the staff writer who is seemingly picking up the slack is Korin Miller. [email protected] She writes lots of SEO-centered (but not bad) sexual health and fitness FAQ or science explainer pieces.

Digital Entertainment Editor: Jessica Radloff
[email protected]

TV, film, and movie pitches, especially as they pertain to Hollywood as a place / cultural center. They do a lot of awards show coverage, a lot of reality TV coverage. Pitch for digital, news-peg stories in entertainment.

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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