Pitches (Alcohol Industry)

Pitch Guidelines
About SevenFifty Daily

SevenFifty Daily is an online magazine about the business and culture of the beverage alcohol industry. We analyze the issues people are talking about, uncover new insights and innovations, and explore the people, places, and traditions beyond the bottle. Covering the three tiers of the alcohol industry, we connect a global community of drinks professionals, creating a space that fosters conversation and a platform for showcasing the people and ideas moving the industry forward.

Categories
We publish a mix of shorter (400-600 wd) and longer (1,000+ wds) stories throughout the month. If this is your first pitch, we are more likely to assign shorter stories.
● Category developments
○ Example: Getting to Know Cava’s New Category
○ Example: What Buyers Need to Know About Gose
● Operational tactics
○ Example: Managing Customer Misconceptions About Wines and Spirits
○ Example: How Bars are Getting Ahead of Allergy Labeling
● Sales strategies
○ Example: 12 Tips to Help You Sell More Effectively
○ Example: Using Spirits Societies to Grow a Bar Business
● Science stories
○ Example: The Science of Orange Wine
○ Example: Three Wine Harvesting Myths Debunked
● Trend coverage
○ Example: Making the Case for Shochu
○ Example: Carving a New Niche in Cognac
● News
○ Example: Clairin Casimir Recalled for Lead Contamination
○ Example: Cheating Scandal Invalidates Latest Master Sommelier Tasting Exam
● Event recaps (note: these must be published within 48 hours after the event)
○ Example: 7 Tips from Jancis Robinson for Women in Wine
○ Example: The Science of Spirits Aging
● Profiles of interesting people and/or industry innovators
○ Example: Under the Influence of Larry Stone
○ Example: Becoming a Master of Roussanne
● Profiles of interesting and/or innovative businesses
○ Example: How the Wine House Stands the Test of Time
○ Examples: How the Trinchero Family Built a Wine Empire
● Companies showing a strong growth trajectory
○ Example: Schatzi Wines Fuels Growth With a Direct Approach
○ Example: Importer Vom Boden Finds Success By Championing Niche Producers
● Successful hiring / staff training practices
○ Example: Building a World Class Beverage Staff
○ Example: How a Boutique Wine Producer is Meeting Labor Challenges Head On
● Health and wellness
○ Example: Yoga for Bartenders
○ Example: Navigating a Booze Industry Lifestyle When Your Body Fights Back Ethics

SevenFifty Daily is owned by the technology company SevenFifty. To avoid perceived or potential conflicts of interest, we always detail this affiliation if we are covering our parent platform. Customers of SevenFifty, the platform, do not receive preferential editorial placement or treatment in SevenFifty Daily. Brands, companies, establishments, and individuals do not need to use SevenFifty to be considered for coverage.

Ethical Obligations for Writers
Before accepting an assignment, writers must disclose all beverage industry sponsorship affiliations, and/or financial arrangements that they may have with any businesses in the drinks space. This includes work performed for trade commissions, private labels/individual brands, and other potential conflicts of interest. We rarely approve stories pitched based on press trips or travel funded by alcohol businesses or industry
organizations.

We will consider stories that were inspired by a press trip only if the concept is your original idea and has nothing to do with the agenda of the trip's organizers (it certainly can't be a storyline they've suggested, as we want to avoid running similar stories as other industry publications whenever possible). Additionally, we require that you do independent reporting outside of the press trip and use no more than one single source
from the press trip.

We do not accept “pay-for-play” content of any type.

Unless approved by your editor, please do not pitch SevenFifty Daily ideas involving any beverage-related products, businesses, or organizations that you are affiliated with or have close connections to (such as through a spouse or immediate family member). Exceptions are made for industry professionals discussing strategies, tactics, and
insights related to their professional experiences.

General Tips
● We want timely, relevant stories. There should always be a hook as to why we're focusing on this topic/person/product at this time, for this audience.
● We appreciate esoteric bottles but don't limit our coverage to 1,000-case producers. If there's a compelling practice or new technique being spearheaded by a large-scale player, bring us that story.
● We want to hear about professionals and businesses around the country and internationally, not just the left and right coasts. And we want to hear new voices—not the same people and venues that are already covered extensively in the drinks media landscape.
● We go deeper than straight news, analyzing what new products or developments mean in the larger context of a category or the industry.
● Feel free to pitch multiple ideas at once, and please include clips or links to a few of your recent stories when submitting ideas.

Pitching
Please pitch your ideas via email to the editor you’re working with. Describe your idea and why it would be good for SevenFifty Daily. The ideas you pitch should clearly appeal to one of our three audience segments: buyers (retail/restaurant), distributors, or suppliers (importers/producers). Be concise, specific, and clear. Include a headline that suggests what the story is about, suggested word count, and the approach you’ll take in covering the story. The ideal SevenFifty Daily story is insights-driven and based on strong reporting, with relevance to our readership of drinks professionals. A new product isn’t a story, but the circumstances around its launch or its place in a broader trend landscape might be.

Business-focused stories must include numbers (market research statistics, sales numbers, growth forecasts, percentage growth, and other quantifiable data). Stats and figures must be obtained directly from reputable industry sources (SevenFifty Daily does not accept secondary reporting, such as figures or stats published in other journals).

We’re also interested in stories focusing on the culture of the industry—health and wellness, sustainability, staff training, technology, and advocacy and activism in the drinks space.

Unless explicitly discussed with your editor, the story you’re assigned must be objectively reported and written in the third-person. We do feature some first-person narratives, but these are the exception, not the norm.

Rates
Our rates start around $0.50 a word for assigned length, and go up from there based on assignment complexity, and other factors.

Sources
Stories should include multiple sources with direct quotes from the sources interviewed (SevenFifty Daily does not accept quotes that have been repurposed from other journals). You should always interview more than one source—a 600-word story will have quotes from 3 or more sources; a 1,000-plus word story should have at least 5-7 sources. Additionally, all facts and figures should be cited within the article (with links provided in the comments and all non-Internet sources footnoted and listed at the end of the article).

Our mission is to represent the full spectrum of diverse voices in the beverage space, therefore we ask our writers to make extra effort to source experts from a wide range of backgrounds and include women, people of color, and people from the LGBTQ community in their stories. We also seek to highlight people and companies from markets both big and small throughout the country—and internationally.