Write for Planetizen

Planetizen has led the city and regional planning discourse for more than two decades, offering intrepid thinkers an opportunity to write and publish for an established platform with a large, passionate audience. At our core, we are a community of planning intelligence that seeks to cut across political and disciplinary boundaries while expanding, informing, and empowering the community of people working to improve the built environment.

Quick links:

• Who can contribute to Planetizen?
• What types of content are open to contributors?
  • Newsfeed stories
  • Features
  • Blog posts
  • Book reviews
  • Planetizen Courses
• What guidelines should pitches follow?
• What doesn’t Planetizen want in our content?
• How do you submit a pitch?
• What do we pay?
• Does Planetizen ever publish reprints?

Who can contribute to Planetizen?

We welcome pitches from urban planners, scholars, and professionals in the fields of design, development, and any of the numerous other fields that intersect with the world of planning. We also occasionally accept pitches from freelance writers.

What types of content are open to contributors?

There are multiple ways to contribute to the Planetizen content ecosystem. 

Newsfeed stories

Planetizen accepts newsfeed stories from across the Planetizen community. Our newsfeed is populated with brief summaries (250-500 words) of the latest reported planning-related events, policy developments, and resources from media outlets across the United States. 

Community-submitted news items should adhere to our content guidelines, focus on what is most important to planners and the urban planning community, and be no longer than 500 words. Authors are encouraged to incorporate broader urban-planning context than provided in the original source article, when applicable, to add value for Planetizen’s users. 

It is not necessary to pitch Newsfeed stories; you may submit them directly. To submit, simply sign up for a Planetizen user account, go the “My Posts,” and click the blue “Submit News” button.

Examples of excellent community-sourced Newsfeed articles:

• California is Updating its Climate Adaptation Strategy
• Public Transit Alternatives to Rideshare Offer Affordable and Accessible Mobility
• Is 'Hacking' a Planning Commission a Good Idea?

Note: Planetizen editors reserve the right to reject, edit, or request the writer revise Newsfeed submissions that do not meet Planetizen’s style or editorial standards.

Features

Planetizen feature stories are longform (1,000–2,500 words) content that cover a single planning-related topic in detail. Planetizen features are narrative-driven, supported with facts, examples, and stakeholder/subject matter expert quotes, that focus on entertaining, educating, informing, and engaging an urban-planning audience. They are factual stories that are not hard news but rather a more narrative report about a topic, event, or person/group of people. Planetizen features should dig deeper than just facts and recent news to answer why and how. 

Examples of strong features Planetizen has accepted:

• Rural New York Explores Creative Housing Solutions
• How Can Urban Planning Address the ‘Loneliness Epidemic’?
• Paris Is Great, But Here's Where the Green Mobility Revolution Is Happening

If you're interested in pitching features for our 2024 editorial calendar, here are the story themes we have planned for the rest of the year:

Blogs

Planning experts are welcome to apply to become one of Planetizen’s regular bloggers. Our bloggers are encouraged to provide their commentary and thought leadership on planning topics of their choice and are welcome to nerd out and dig into the nitty gritty, planning-specific details as they like. Our current roster of bloggers includes Michael Lewyn, Todd Litman, Irvin Dawid, and Devin Partida, and Alan Mallach.

Planetizen bloggers must commit to writing at least 5 blog posts per year, which are subject to editorial approval. To be considered, please reach out to [email protected] with at least 3 writing samples and a paragraph or two on why you want to write for Planetizen and what areas of planning you specialize in.

Book Reviews

Planetizen occasionally publishes book reviews of 500-800 words. We prefer to highlight only books that reviewers feel advance the practice of planning or conversation around a specific topic or practice. Reviews should summarize the key points of the book and highlight the takeaways and implications for planners and the planning profession.

Examples of the types of book reviews Planetizen is looking for include:

• New Book, 'Land,' Searches for Solid Ground
• Book Review: Shifting Focus from Car-Free to Car-Lite Cities

Planetizen Courses

Interested in teaching a course for Planetizen Courses? Planetizen Courses subscribers are committed to improving their careers and their communities. We accept applications from planning subject matter experts to teach one-hour online training courses in the skills and concepts necessary to thrive in planning and related fields. If you have at least 3 years of planning or related experience and are comfortable delivering a presentation in front of a camera in a studio, please get in touch. 

See our Teach for Planetizen page for more information.

What guidelines should pitches follow?

Relevant. Your post should be broadly related to the issues of society and the built environment covered on Planetizen, and be of interest to Planetizen readers. That said, drawing on lessons from other fields is encouraged.

Original. Planetizen articles and blog posts should be original and not have been previously published elsewhere. Direct quotes from other sources should comprise no more than 50 percent of any post. If you do include quotes (direct and/or paraphrased) and excerpts in your post, make sure to clearly cite the material you have taken and provide a link to the source if possible.

Fresh. Try to have a different point with each post, or a fresh angle on a previous idea. Avoid posting similar messages on the same topic. While contributors may on occasion want to follow up on another contributors’ post with some related thoughts, contributors should avoid using Planetizen as a discussion forum.

Brief. Conciseness and brevity are conducive to good articles, particularly in an online format, and are the most likely to keep people reading. Overly academic writing or articles that have too broad of a focus risk quickly losing reader interest.

Polite and respectful. A good rule of thumb is to focus on ideas, not people. Avoid defamatory comments that might damage the reputation of a person or organization. Avoid posting inflammatory or meritless comments intended to provoke emotional responses. (Not to be confused with a meaningful and congenial expression of a sincerely held belief or opinion that might differ from the norm.) Racism, harassment, and discriminatory language are not permitted.

No AI-generated content. Planetizen strictly prohibits the use of generative AI in contributed writing and artwork.

What doesn’t Planetizen want in our content?

Avoid jargon. Try to avoid technical language or acronyms that may impede others' understanding. When using jargon, be sure to include a simple language definition with the first use of the term.

Nothing generic or unrelated to urban planning or urbanism. Our audience is comprised of urban planners, academic planners, related professionals, and laypeople with interest in urban planning, the built and natural environments, and how related policies, actions, and professional practice impact peoples’ lives.

No commercials. Planetizen does not accept pitches advertising products, events, or services. While we understand that contributors will write about their own work on occasion, self-promotion is discouraged. If you wish to promote your product, company, event, or services, we encourage you to post an event on  Planetizen’s Events Board, take a look at advertising opportunities and media kit, or reach out to [email protected] about advertising and sponsored content.

How do you submit a pitch?

1. Newsfeed: It is not necessary to pitch Newsfeed stories; you may submit them directly. To submit, simply sign up for a Planetizen user account, go the “My Posts,” and click the blue “Submit News” button.

2. Features: Pitch feature articles by emailing the Planetizen editorial manager at [email protected]. Feature pitches should provide a brief description of the article’s proposed focus as well as the sources, research, and art (images, infographics, etc.) that will provide the color for the story. 

3. Blogs: Urban planning experts should reach out to [email protected] with at least three writing samples and a paragraph or two on why you want to write for Planetizen and which areas of planning you specialize in.

4. Courses: See our Teach for Planetizen page for more information.

What do we pay?

We do not pay practicing urban professionals for newsfeed, feature, blog, or career-related content. For professional writers (i.e., those for whom writing is their primary source of income), we pay a standard flat fee of $500 per feature or career-related article. Planetizen Courses instructors are compensated $1,250 per 1-hour course and instructors from outside the LA metro region are provided a travel stipend to travel to our studio for filming.

Does Planetizen ever publish reprints?

Yes, Planetizen occasionally publishes articles previously published elsewhere, but on a case-by-case basis at the editors' discretion. For all reprints, Planetizen clearly attributes and links back to the original publication. Publishers or writers interested in reprinting content with Planetizen can reach out to [email protected].