The Revelator, a news and ideas initiative of the Center for Biological Diversity, provides editorially independent reporting, analysis and stories at the intersection of politics, conservation, art, culture, endangered species, climate change, economics and the future of wild species, wild places and the planet.

We aim to:

• Drive and deepen the conversation among the public, politicians, environmental groups, scientists and academics on the important environmental issues of our age;
• Pursue the very best ideas and strategies for saving wildlife, people and the planet;
• Shine a light on little-understood problems, emerging solutions and cutting-edge science;
• Add context to broaden the understanding of the critical issues of the day;
• Profile the best minds in activism, science, politics and the arts;
• Call out corruption, malfeasance, disinformation and incompetence;
• And celebrate wild things, amazing places and nature’s mysteries.

We adhere to the highest journalistic and intellectual standards and have an unapologetic love for the wild.

Staff

Editor: John R. Platt

The Revelator welcomes all correspondence related to environmental issues and our publication. All comments are considered submitted for publication.

Statement of editorial independence

The Revelator is funded by the Center for Biological Diversity, which does not influence our reporting or editorial content.

Reprints

We publish under a Creative Commons license. If you’d like to reprint our work, here’s how.

Writing for The Revelator

We are actively seeking both expert commentaries and freelance journalism. Guidelines for each appear below.

---

Freelance Journalism

The Revelator will open to pitches from freelance journalists from Nov. 21-Dec. 10, 2024. We will then open again on Jan. 6, 2025.

We run approximately one freelance story per week. Our current needs include approximately 2-3 stories each for February and March 2025. (Update: January 2025 has now been filled.)

Given the recent election, our primary focus in the first quarter of 2025 will be stories set in the United States along three major themes:

• What we’re losing: Stories about species, ecosystems, environmental justice communities, climate battles, or other aspects of life on Earth at risk.
• What we’re saving: How people are working to understand, stabilize, or reverse a major threat.
• The Trump administration: What damage was done the first time around that we’re just starting to understand? How did people and communities recover after the first Trump administration? What are organizations doing to defend against the second? (Stories about regressive state or local governments are also welcome.)

Got a story that doesn’t quite fit these three themes? Try us anyway. You’re the experts: We rely on our freelancers to bring us the stories they know need to be told.

In all cases, an ideal Revelator story should contain a narrative, interesting characters, and/or a sense of place. It should also aim to convey or reveal a core truth (that’s the meaning of our name). We write for an environmentally aware, active audience, so keep in mind that our readers will already know many of the basics.

Please note: We do not accept pitches about our parent organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, or issues in which they have an active involvement.

Here are a few other things we don’t need:

• Breaking or super-timely news (we tend to contract out 4-6 weeks ahead)
• Stories that have been heavily promoted by press releases or widely covered by other publications (we prefer stories that would otherwise slip through the cracks)
• Stories tied to a specific date, celebration or event (we like evergreen material that has a long tail)
• Q&A-style profiles (we do those in-house)
• Book, movie, or TV reviews
• Personal essays
• Content, SEO, or AI writing

Our stories usually run 1,000-1,400 words and pay $300-$500. We distribute them under a Creative Commons license.

Please send your pitches to editor John R. Platt. Include a few sentences about why the story is important, why you think it’s a fit for The Revelator, a rough list of the people you wish to interview, and an expectation of when you think you could complete the piece. If you haven’t written for us before, please provide links to some of your recent writing and let us know why you’re the best person to write this story. We’ll respond as quickly as possible.

---

Expert Commentary

The Revelator welcomes engaging, thought-provoking, quality think pieces, op-eds and other contributions from activists, academics, scientists, policymakers, attorneys and other experts.

Our readers tend to be both educated about environmental issues and personally or professionally involved in them, so our commentaries speak to that experienced, well-versed audience.

We value clearly written storytelling with a strong point of view, not academic-style writing. Humor is welcome; debate is encouraged; facts are required. Change is the goal. Accepted contributions are published under a Creative Commons license, allowing them to be reprinted by other publications.

We currently have a need for contributions in the following categories:

• Op-eds:
  • Add necessary context, or an opposing viewpoint, to current news.
• Ideas:
  • Challenge the status quo with “big thoughts” about the future;
  • Provide a roadmap or strategy for getting to where we need to be in a certain field or area;
  • Give us the details about newly published science and why it’s important — or what needs to follow;
  • Tell us what works and why — and how it can be replicated elsewhere;
  • Or tell us what doesn’t work and why — and how you think it can be fixed.
• Species Spotlight:
  • Profile a rare species you’ve worked with, the threats it faces, and what needs to be done to protect or understand it. (This follows a specific format, so check out the published examples.)
• Protect This Place:
  • Highlights a place at risk — it could be a neighborhood threatened by a corporate polluter, a forest at risk from logging, a river that’s drying up, or a mountain facing a potential mine. Or anything else, big or small. (This follows a specific format, so check out the published examples.)

Please note: Our Vanishing essay series is by invitation only and is not currently open to submissions.

Commentary submissions are typically unpaid.

Send us your submissions or feel free to drop us a pitch first to tell us what you’d like to write.