How To Contribute To The Pickup

This website isn’t going to write itself! Want to contribute to The Pickup? Here’s how to get your idea for a piece into our hands.

How we accept pitches

At The Pickup, we accept pitches one way: via email to pitches@thepickup.com. Please do not DM them to us over Instagram, leave them on our voicemail or rent a loudspeaker to blast them at our office like John Cusack. Our editorial team will look through them together, possibly over tacos, definitely with thoughtful consideration, and get back to you as quickly as we can.

What should I include in my pitch?

Headlines! We love to see suggested headlines. A good headline is often the main thing that’ll keep your pitch in front of our eyeballs. It's okay if your story (if accepted) goes another direction than you'd planned. But we need a solid starting point.
Sell us on your story! In a few sentences, tell us what’s relevant or interesting about it, and tell us what you know, what you don’t, and how you plan to go about gathering the information necessary to tell your story. Also, what kind of story do you think it is: a review, an op-ed, a guide, a reported feature, or something else?
A run date or peg if the story is time-sensitive, and a short explanation of why your story matters right now. A nice bonus here would be to include suggestions for how you might package your story for social media audiences.
If it’s your first time pitching, tell us a little about yourself and share any relevant clips.

What should I not include in my pitch?

Too much detail. Don’t give the entire story away in your pitch. You want to include just enough detail to draw our interest.

Your resume. We are not going to inquire about the gaps in your job history.

What kind of stories are we looking for?

Broadly speaking, we publish stories about Tulsa food, art, music, neighborhoods and public affairs, ideally from a hyper-local or otherwise thoroughly articulated perspective. That perspective could be deeply personal. It could be very knowledgeable about a particular Tulsa neighborhood or creative genre or way of life. Or it could be one that just doesn’t surface very often in the Tulsa media ecosystem.

If you’re familiar with the work of alt-weekly publications, (The Tulsa Voice and Urban Tulsa Weekly were the local ones, once upon a time) then you know what we’re looking for. We’re interested in arts and culture, food, music, neighborhood-level news, explorations of hyper-local trends and movements, and Tulsa oddities, among other things. We publish features, reviews, investigations, explainers, guides, personal essays, op-eds, profiles, service journalism, columns … and the occasional comic. Basically, anything that wouldn’t have a home elsewhere in Tulsa media.

Here are a few particular coverage areas that we’re interested in.

Pulling on new threads of Tulsa culture (food, art, music, neighborhoods)
Spotlighting the people, places, and conversations redefining Tulsa and pushing the city forward
Bringing niche Tulsa lore out of the vault to fill out our historical memory
Helping young Tulsans make decisions big and small
Asking thoughtful, critical questions about everything from public affairs to gallery shows

The best way to get a sense of what we're looking for? Hang out and read the site! We look forward to hearing from you.