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“How do I know which editor to pitch at a travel magazine?”

There’s no hard and fast rule of who is the right editor to pitch at different travel magazines.

There are so many different titles. So, what I tend to try to do is, if there’s a travel editor, great, I’ll pitch the travel editor. If there’s a feature editor and you’re pitching a feature, great, pitch the feature editor.

Otherwise, look on the totem pole and—again there are different titles everywhere—make your decision based on the size of the magazine.

  • If it’s a very small magazine with three people, pitch the Editor in Chief.
  • If it’s a large magazine, I would pitch the Associate Editor.
  • If it’s a mid-size magazine with maybe six people, I would choose someone in the middle. Don’t choose the Editor in Chief, don’t choose the Editorial Assistant, choose whatever names come in the middle.

In some places, the Managing Editor is the assigning editor. In some places, the Managing Editor is just the business manager. It’s really hard to know from one magazine to another and it often changes internally.

I would typically pitch somebody in the middle. That’s my best advice for that.

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