We’re always looking for new contributors and new story ideas. We get a lot of questions about what kind of work we’re looking for and how to pitch a story.
Here’s a brief guide on how to pitch The Maine Monitor:
As a statewide, accountability-focused newsroom, we’re looking for news stories that dig beneath the surface: teasing out the broader implications of a particular policy decision or reporting on an issue or community that is often overlooked. We don’t publish commentary or personal essays, and we expect contributors to follow the same ethical guidelines our staff reporters do. You can familiarize yourself with our work and mission here.
Along with a pitch, send us at least one story you’ve written that you’re proud of and your resume. Please submit your materials via this form. If you have any trouble submitting this form or any questions email careers@themainemonitor.org.
Pitches should be no more than 500 words. The best pitches should show us that you’ve already done some pre-reporting and research.
Here are some guiding questions:
How would your story expose something new?
What’s the main question you’re trying to answer?
How do you propose to answer the question – i.e., how would you go about reporting this?
Here’s an example of a pitch:
The Callahan Mine, in the tiny coastal town of Brooksville, is well known as a Superfund site that has taken decades and tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to clean up. The mine, the only intertidal mine in the world when it was dug in the late 1960s, is frequently invoked to illustrate the perils of mining, and was instrumental in the crafting of the state’s mining laws. The EPA announced in August that the cleanup was slated to be finished by 2026, more than two decades after it first began.
What is less well known is that the mine pit had a second life as the site of one of Maine’s first finfish aquaculture operations. The project — raising salmon and oysters in the flooded mine pit — began just months after the last ore from the mine was extracted and the open pit was refilled with seawater. The fish were served in restaurants as far south as Boston.
I have spoken with the former director of the salmon operation and have written about mining in the past (see attached stories). The story would also incorporate information from the thousands of pages of historical documents that are publicly available online and an interview with one of the local people who worked in the mine.
I propose an 800-word story: Callahan Mine site home to one of Maine’s earliest aquaculture projects: Home to the state’s most notorious former mine and one of its first commercial aquaculture projects, the Callahan Mine cleanup is set to be finished by 2026.