How to Pitch to Eater Portland

Eater Portland is a local news site based in Portland, reporting on restaurants and bars, chefs, dining and dining trends, food pop-ups and food carts, and the business of restaurants throughout Portland, as well as suburbs and towns in the surrounding area. It is part of the Eater network and under the Vox Media umbrella.

Eater Portland accepts pitches from freelance writers, journalists, and people who really care about Portland’s restaurant and food scene; experience is obviously preferred, but beginners should feel welcome to pitch with personal writing samples and an understanding that their work will likely be ripped to shreds (that’s how you learn, after all). Eater Portland does accept personal essay and features pitches from people within the restaurant industry, though those pitches are accepted on a case-by-case basis when there’s no potential for conflict of interest; our editors are particularly interested in opinion pieces and editorials by members of the Portland restaurant industry, especially regarding issues of policy, culture, and ethics within the Portland restaurant scene.

Eater Portland is currently seeking pitches along these lines:

• Reported features on local restaurants, chefs, food trends, etc.
• Op-eds, open letters, essays, and editorials regarding the Portland food and drink industry
• Stories that cover the intersection of food and technology, politics, or cultural identity

Eater Portland is also seeking freelancers with deep knowledge of:

• The restaurants, bars, and cafes within the Portland metro area east of Interstate 205
• The westside suburbs, including but not limited to Beaverton and Hillsboro

Eater Portland prioritizes stories that haven’t been told elsewhere. This site does not accept pitches regarding recipes, food holidays, and grocery products; additionally, we do not conduct formal restaurant reviews.

All pitches should include a subject matter with a clear angle or thesis — full sentences, not one-or-two-word “ideas to explore.” Bonus points go to those who include an outline or story structure within their pitch email. In every pitch, there should be a clear explanation of why a Portland reader should care about this issue. Please make sure the story doesn’t already exist on the site, unless you’re hoping to pitch a map update.

When submitting a pitch, please provide a short summary of who you are, your background, and why you are particularly qualified to write the story, as well as any previous relevant work via links or an online portfolio. If you don’t have traditional clips, that’s okay, but we should have some sort of sample of your writing — a relevant college essay, a personal blog post, or even a personal sample piece. We almost exclusively accept pitches from people who are based in our coverage area, which is primarily the Portland metro area, sometimes broader Oregon and Southwestern Washington.

Here are a few examples of what Eater Portland is looking for:

Features

• ‘Buy Black’ Was a Boon for Deadstock Coffee. It Was Also a Burden.
• Portland’s Quintessential Diner Serves Eggs and Bacon With Kimchi and Bindaetteok
• Behind the Corporation Buying Up Portland’s Most Famous ‘Independent’ Restaurants
• Portland Restaurant Workers Want to Keep Cooking. They Just Can’t Afford To.
• Portland’s Cafe Culture Is Changing. These Coffee Businesses Call It a New Wave.
• The Snow Didn’t Stop. Neither Did Chef Lex Grant.

Opinion and Essays

• Anti-MeToo Vlogger Needs to Take Ownership for Her Impact on Food & Beverage Employees
• #MeToo, Still
• Shanghai Cafe Fed Detroit’s Chinese American Community and Kept My Family’s Dream Alive
• As a Chef and a Woman, I Regret Joining the Boys’ Club
• Whatever Happened to Portland?
• Yelp Reviewers’ Authenticity Fetish Is White Supremacy in Action

Send pitches and links to previous work or portfolio to Eater Portland at pdx@eater.com. Please put the word “Pitch for Eater Portland” in the email subject line with a very brief description of the story. Tips are always welcome if you have leads for news stories. And for especially sensitive information, there are several secure ways to reach out.

Note: Eater Portland receives several pitches a week, and does try to respond to each. However, if we do not respond within a month, please feel free to follow up.