Contribute

Vashti is always looking to commission new features, reviews, op-eds, interviews, photo essays and more. We currently publish one new article per week, in addition to our newsletter.

Reading the site will give you a good sense of the kinds of pieces we publish, but don't hesitate to send through ideas that are new and unusual, too. We're not solely interested in the Jewish world, but also in what it means to be a Jew in the world. Talk to us about antisemitism and annexation, but also trade unions and the climate crisis.

You don’t need to be Jewish to contribute to Vashti, nor do you need any journalism experience. We want to hear from you whoever you are, but particularly if you’re:

• a woman
• gender non-conforming
• working-class
• BAME
• Mizrachi & Sephardi
• Charedi
• LGBTQ+

Once you’ve got your idea, email pitch@vashtimedia with the subject line ‘Pitch: [Pitch title]’. Include up to 250 words about the proposed piece, and a few more about yourself. We're not able to respond to every pitch we receive, but feel free to follow up if you haven't heard back from us in a week.

Pay rates

Vashti is a small, not-for-profit media organisation, but we're committed to paying people fairly for their labour. All Vashti editors are freelance and paid a flat rate of £15/hour. We use the same hourly rate with external contributors.

Our standard rate for an article is £120, on the basis that it should take about one eight-hour day to complete. With longer or more in-depth articles, we will negotiate a higher fee that reflects the time required.

If during the writing process you realise that a piece is taking you significantly longer than expected to produce, contact your editor before completing any additional work to discuss re-negotiating your fee.

If a piece is filed to brief and on time, but we decide that we cannot publish a piece for whatever reason, we will pay the fee in full. If a piece is filed but we decide we cannot publish it since it is not to brief, or since it has been filed late, we will pay a 50% kill fee.

We appreciate that while typical of journalism fees at least in the UK, our fees are not at present high enough to compete with larger publications. We understand if you cannot afford to write for the rate we offer for any reason, and hope you will return to us in the future when we are able to pay more.

We ask that those who are able to consider donating their fee to Vashti. We do not pay politicians for their contributions to Vashti.

We are committed to regularly reviewing our pay policy to ensure that it aligns with our financial position and values. If you have any questions or concerns about our pay policy, please contact finance@vashtimedia.com.