What is The Scavenger?

The Scavenger is a monthly online magazine/portal for alternative, progressive news, features and commentary that you’re unlikely to find in mainstream media. 

It features a mix of original articles, republished blog posts and author extracts. 

The first issue went live in November and since then stories have been referenced by Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited, as well as countless blogs and websites internationally and regularly come up on Google News.  

The editor-in-chief Katrina Fox is based in Australia, with readers, associate editors and contributors coming from across the globe. The Scavenger is very much international in focus with the aim of connecting communities by the things that affect us all. It has a strong social justice ethos. 

Categories are: 

• Feminism & pop culture
• Media & technology
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex sex and/or gender diverse, queer
• Social justice (people, animals, environment)
• Health
• Arts
• Book, DVD and music reviews

Vacancies for associate editors 

We’re looking for some new associate editors to come on board. There’s already a fantastic team of associate editors who have been with the project since the beginning but, due to time constraints, some have had to move on. 

Requirements for associate editors’ roles: 

• Write at least one original article per month (feature, interview or opinion piece).
• Source at least one article (original or republished) per month from other writers.
• Submit/share articles (yours and others) to social media sites including Twitter & Facebook
• Submit articles to Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon

Time commitment: Approximately 10-12 hours a month or 3 hours a week. 

The Scavenger is – like many online publishing initiatives – a non-profit project in which all positions are voluntary. 

Please do not apply unless you can commit the time to carry out the above on an ongoing basis. 

How to apply 

Please take a good look at the site to get a feel for the types of articles we run, and read the ‘about’ section if you’re not familiar with The Scavenger. 

If you like what you see, want to be involved, and can commit the time to write and source articles as outlined above, please email: 

Katrina Fox, editor-in-chief at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Please include a brief bio of who you are, your interests, writing/publishing experience including any links, and which category or categories you feel you would most likely be willing and able to contribute to. 

Please feel free to forward this callout to anyone you think may be interested. Associate editors can be based anywhere in the world. 

Would you like to write for The Scavenger?

We are actively seeking submissions for articles that fit into our categories. Please read the site in depth before submitting an idea.

Our categories are:

• Feminism & pop culture
• Media & technology
• GLBSGDQ
• Health
• Social justice (animals, humans, environment)
• Arts

The Scavenger features a mix of original articles, author extracts and republished blog posts (with authors’ permission of course).

We are looking for commentary and features that are challenging, thought-provoking, inspiring and informative – and that you’re unlikely to find in mainstream media. If when coming up with ideas you can see they would easily fit into a mainstream publication, you’re better off pitching to that place rather than The Scavenger. We’re looking for progressive, alternatives to the mainstream.

Send your ideas to the editor by EMAIL only: editor [at] thescavenger [dotnet], inserting the @ and .net in the relevant place.

We endeavour to respond to all queries of this nature within 14 days with either a yes or no. If we haven’t got back to you in that time frame, send a second email. If you receive a ‘no’ in response to your query or article, don’t let it put you off submitting other ideas.

Please also email a brief summary of your writing experience along with SAMPLES of your work if you have them, or a website link where we can view them.

Rights

You own the copyright for original articles that are exclusive to The Scavenger, although we ask that you wait 3 months after the piece has appeared on The Scavenger before placing it in other media. If your article has been published on your blog, a link will be provided in your bio to your blog. Author extracts are welcome and of course credited accordingly.

Pitches

Pitches should include the general idea, the main focus or angle you plan to take, plus who you envisage talking to.

Word length

If you have an indepth piece, 2000 words is the maximum people are likely to read on the web. Most articles should fall into the 800-1000 words category, including profiles and interviews. Q&As can go up to 2000 words.

Attachments and formatting text

Please email your articles in Word documents. Please do NOT use any formatting ie bold or italics or underline. Please do NOT use tabs. Use a simple font like Times or Arial and in black and use single line spacing.

Style and demographic

Our demographic is broad in the sense that it crosses all ages, genders and geographical locations. The Scavenger reader is curious and seeking content that challenges, inspires and motivates action for social change. We welcome contributions from all over the world. We welcome expert and academic contributors, but please write for a layperson and not in ‘academese’! For web writing, keep paragraphs short.

Headline & intro

Please include a working headline and short introduction to your piece. We may not use it exactly but would like your input.

Checking

Please check through your article before submitting it, for spelling (especially people’s names, places, book titles etc), grammar and so on. Please see the Terms of Service section on our website before submitting your article.

Remuneration

Because The Scavenger is new and not-for-profit, we do not have the resources to pay contributors – sorry! Everyone involved is doing it outside their paid work. Your bio will appear at the end of each of your articles, with links to your website and/or blog.

Email your ideas and/or submissions to editor [at] thescavenger [dotnet]