Study Hall Sampler

This is a once-a-week sampling of Study Hall’s collection of tools and resources for media workers.

If you want to try out the new Study Hall, grab 50% off your first 3 months here. 

Opportunities:

This is a sample of the opportunities you can find with Opps Finder:

-Men's Health senior editor Chris Hatler is looking for pitches of "hot takes and personal essays about whiskey." He reshared his pitch call after initially looking for stories in January. Here's what his original tweet thread said: “Is there a cheap bourbon you like, or a well-kept secret tequila that no one knows about? I want to hear about it!” $250 flat rate for 600-800 words. Will prioritize snappy headlines and unique opinions. Send pitches to [email protected].

-The Drift's new associate editor, Saliha Bayrak, is always looking for pitches of cultural criticism, analysis, and other “Drift-worthy pieces” on culture and politics. These may include “sharp, surprising interventions; socially engaged cultural criticism; class-sensitive analysis; pieces that point out what’s being avoided or talked around in politics, media, arts, or even academia.” The rates are $2,000 for essays. Send pitches to [email protected]. 

-ProPublica is hiring a temporary newsletter writer to fill in for a staffer on parental leave. They will write the Big Story and Dispatches newsletters, “taking readers inside our process, going deep on findings and exploring the larger themes of our work.” Candidates should have at least three years of newsletter writing experience. The rate is $7,300 per month, and the position will start Nov. 18, 2024, and end May 2, 2025. Apply by October 21.

-The New York Times is hiring three data reporters to “contribute data-driven coverage on a variety of topics.” Candidates should have at least three years of relevant experience, including “finding, requesting, cleaning and analyzing complex datasets.” The salary range is $111,049.64 - $140,000.00, and the positions are represented by the NewsGuild of NY. Candidates based in NY are preferred, followed by candidates from Washington, DC, and then San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Chicago. 

-The Kenyon Review is accepting applications for its fellowship program at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH. The program aims to “recognize, publish, and support extraordinary authors in the early stages of their careers.” Fellows will undertake a significant writing project, attend regular individual meetings with faculty mentors, teach one class per semester in the English Department, and assist with creative and editorial projects. Fellows will receive a $42,000 yearly stipend, plus health benefits. Please note that housing is not provided. Apply by October 18.

-Texas Monthly senior editor Rose Cahalan is always looking for pitches of reported stories, visual stories, essays, and commentary “with a Texas connection.” Rose specifically handles the “Being Texan” section, which “seeks to explore identity, culture, and the traditions that make the Lone Star State stand out.” The section features “stories about history, quirky subcultures, the Best Thing in Texas and Meanwhile in Texas series, and other assorted stories that delve into what it means to be a Texan.” The rate is $0.50 per word for web stories and $1 per word for print. Send pitches to [email protected].

Start The Presses: Why Print Is Making A Comeback 

By Steven Melendez 

When delegates, journalists, and protesters converged on Chicago for the Democratic National Convention in August, they had an experience unknown since the days of the Obama administration: finding a new print edition of The Onion in bookstores, barrooms, and the hands of street corner distributors across the city.

The humor publication, which was acquired earlier this year by a firm backed by former Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, launched a new monthly print edition with some DNC-specific content, parody ads for brands like Ashley Madison and Chick-fil-A, and a pull-out centerfold poster of the "Sickos" guy of Onion comics fame. Future print copies will mostly be available only to subscribers paying at least $9 per month. So far, the company says (without disclosing specifics) that the membership program is going well. 

"I can't talk about numbers, but I can say definitively, we have gotten a lot of signups," says Leila Brillson, chief marketing officer at The Onion. 

The Onion is just one of a number of well-known outlets that have recently announced a return to print. Others include Nylon, Saveur, Spin, NME, Field & Stream, and Playboy, as well as more niche titles like Governing and Swimming World, and even some local and student newspapers. Vice, which famously filed for bankruptcy last year and later laid off hundreds, has announced a new quarterly print edition for $10 per month. 

It's a reversal that publishers and industry experts attribute to a mix of screen fatigue and the poor performance of digital advertising—along with the collector culture behind the vinyl revival displacing the minimalist mindset of an earlier internet age. After a couple of decades of bare walls and clean surfaces, people are ready to collect media they can show off, and flip through without sliding their fingers across a screen.

"A lot of people say that vinyl just sounds better than CDs," says Jennifer Rauch, professor and chair of the Journalism and Media Studies department at Linfield University. "A lot of people feel that the experience of both making and reading print magazines is preferable to websites."

New and resurrected magazines aren't just rehashing formulas from the past. Unable to compete with the internet on breaking news, they're often publishing less frequently. Swimming World, Spin, Field & Stream, and Playboy were all once monthly. Now, Swimming World and Spin are quarterly, Field & Stream appears in spring and fall, and Playboy plans to print just once a year. Even The Onion, now monthly, once hit streets every week. "If print is supposed to provide you with breaking news, it's not going to happen," says Swimming World publisher Jack Hallahan.  

This is a sample. To get more content and opportunities, subscribe.