Exeter Observer welcomes contributions from writers, editors and photographers who share our values and want to help produce our independent public interest journalism.
We offer support to help regular contributors develop story ideas and enhance their skills.
We also offer community journalism training courses designed to help potential contributors quickly develop core journalism skills and produce publication quality content, with support from our experienced editorial team.
If you are interested in holding wealth, power and influence to account and are prepared to put time into reporting on issues that matter to local people then we’d like to hear from you.
Pitch a story to Exeter Observer
Exeter Observer is looking for compelling stories about issues affecting the public interest in Exeter and beyond.
These might be about major decisions, ongoing issues, the publication of data or reports, or community concerns.
Strong pitches will present something new or show people something in a way they might not have thought of before. Good quality accompanying photos, graphics or video are always a bonus.
The first step in putting together a story pitch is developing a brief. This provides a helpful basis on which to discuss the story’s potential with an editor.
Please take a look at the other guides we have produced to help our contributors.
Start with news writing: when you’ve outlined your idea in the form of a news brief please see our submission guide.
If the brief looks like the basis of a promising story we’ll give you feedback and guidance and invite you to produce a draft.
We’ll give you feedback on the draft then, if it looks like a story we can publish, we’ll invite you to refine it for final submission.
Submission does not guarantee publication. Submissions may be edited for style, clarity and length.
Editorial priorities, legal considerations and other factors may all also contribute to publishing decisions.
Exeter Observer guides
- News writing
- News brief
- What is news?
- Objectivity, neutrality, impartiality & balance
- Information sources
- Perspective sources
- Multimedia collateral & copyright
- Style
- Subediting
- Feature writing
- Research resources
- Data protection & media law
- Local government transparency & information access rights
- Exeter regional democracy & governance
- Exeter regional planning & place
- Exeter regional transport & mobility
- Digital information and communications security
Guides covering other Exeter regional policy and practice areas are also being prepared.
