Study Hall Sampler

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

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Opportunities

-The Atlantic’s new Senior Culture Editor, Allegra Frank, is now open to pitches of “TV/movie/internet/gaming criticism and trend pieces” — and the publication pays well! The rates range from $600-$650. Please “make sure you really familiarize yourself with [the Culture] section before reaching out.” Send pitches to [email protected]

-Business Insider's senior Life and Entertainment editor, Paige DiFiore, is looking for pitches of essays from “Americans who left the US after they retired (esp to places like Mexico/Japan) and are very happy or unhappy with their choice.” The rates are $230 for 600 words. Please do not email pitches to Paige. Send pitches via Twitter to @nuclearunicorns by October 12.

-TVO Today deputy editor Sarah Sweet is looking for pitches of short features on health care, LTC, education, housing, disability, or climate change from Ontario-based writers. The rate is $1 CAD per word. Send pitches to [email protected].

--Atmos Magazine's climate editor, Jason Dinh, is looking for pitches of reported features related to the COP29 conference. "Angles of interest include (but are not limited to): environmental justice, human rights, climate solutions, accountability, Indigineity, and frontline activism." The rates range from $0.50-$1.00 per word, depending on the extent of reporting. Anywhere from 800 to 2000 words. Send pitches to [email protected] “from now until November.” (Sept 24)

 -Talk Death's social media manager and staff writer, Sage Agee, is always looking for pitches of reported features, personal essays, reviews, and analyses on “all topics related to death.” According to info shared directly with Study Hall, they are “specifically looking for stories on death traditions from non-western cultures, religions, and regions (written by writers with a personal connection to said culture/religion/region). Also interested in essays and critical analysis of the funeral/death care industry. BIPOC, LGTBQ+ and disabled writers preferred.” The rate is $0.20 per word for 800-1,200 words. Send pitches to [email protected]. 

-Quartz is hiring a Markets and Finance senior editor to “drive hourly and daily coverage of market-moving developments across a range of business news topics, companies, sectors and geographies.” Candidates should have at least one year of experience assigning and editing stories for a digital news publisher, and “prior experience as a reporter or editor covering markets and finance is a must.” The salary range is $64,000 - $69,000, and the position is covered by the collective bargaining agreement with the WGA-E. (Sept 25)

Dispatch From Franchella: My Evening With Fran Lebowitz

By Daniel Spielberger

A writing workshop instructor once told me a story about how, years ago, he bumped into the late Philip Roth walking through Manhattan. He didn’t offer many details, other than the adage: never meet your heroes. And so, attending Fran Lebowitz’s talk at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in September was a considerable risk. 

Lebowitz isn’t my hero, but I have indulged in her mythology. She’s the acerbic truthsayer, the ultimate New Yorker, Andy Warhol’s frenemy, and, notoriously, a “writer who no longer writes” due to a decades-long “writer’s blockade.” During the darkest hours of the pandemic lockdown, I curled up in bed and consumed Fran’s digital footprint: the Netflix docuseries Pretend It’s a City directed by her old pal Martin Scorsese and dozens of clips of her weighing in on subjects from Jane Austen to bus drivers. I never got around to reading her books—I guess I’ll save that for the next pandemic. Like with any binge, it ended in dread. I loathed that as a writer living in Los Angeles, I was contributing to the cultural supremacy of someone who likely believes the media industry should be confined to ten blocks in Manhattan. 

Eventually, I summoned my dignity and moved on. But that didn’t last long.

As Dirt’s Daisy Alioto once wrote, “Fran Lebowitz might not be on the Internet, but she embodies the Internet’s practice of playing a version of oneself.” Attending Lebowitz’s talk, moderated by PBS SoCal’s Maria Hall-Brown, was a chance to study one of the all-time great personas. 

The evening began with nervous anticipation. Two zoomers, seated in front of me, giddily traded quips: “this is going to be so great, she’s a breath of fresh air,” “she’s blunt, she’s Fran.” I was amongst my people.

Lebowitz walked on stage with Hall-Brown wearing her usual, dark-blue blazer, rolled-up jeans, and Tecovas cowboy boots, specifically, “The Jamie.”

….