Documenting discrimination and inequality | Paid writing opportunity | Call for pitches

The feeling of being trapped with a domestic abuser because there’s nowhere affordable to live. The creeping sense that security guards follow you around in stores because of the colour of your skin. Dangerous conditions on the job, or workplace harassment that goes unchallenged because workers fear retaliation. Unpaid bills stacked on the kitchen table. The hard choice between rent, groceries, and meds.

Inequality and discrimination come in many forms, with intersecting dimensions of class, gender, race, disability, immigration status, and more. But for many people in positions of power and privilege, these structural conditions are poorly understood or completely invisible. We want to change that.

We know that New Brunswick’s small cadre of professional journalists only manage to cover a fraction of these stories. And in their quest to appear balanced and objective, journalists too often pull their punches, obscuring the root causes of social problems.

The NB Media Co-op is seeking pitches for articles that document inequality and discrimination in New Brunswick and the larger region. We’re looking for true stories that illuminate the reality of these oppressive structural conditions, rooted in personal narrative. We want pitches that answer the question “why?” In other words, what is standing in the way of structural change?

It could be your story, or that of someone else with first-hand experience. We are seeking contributions from seasoned writers and newbies alike.

Writers who successfully pitch a story will receive editorial support and guidance from our team, and the final product will appear on our online publication, nbmediacoop.org. Stories may also appear in our print publication, The Brief/En Bref, and they will serve as learning materials for our educational partner, the Department of Sociology at Mount Allison University.

What we’re looking for

-True stories focussed on some aspect of inequality and/or discrimination in New Brunswick. Examples may involve poverty, gender-based oppression, racism, or other dimensions of inequality.

-Your story must feature a personal account or interviews with one person or more about their experiences dealing with unfair policies, practices, or laws.

-Your story should be situated here in New Brunswick or the Maritimes region, and the incident(s) in question should be recent. (For the purposes of this project, recent means 2020 or later.)

-Your article should try to get to the bottom of things, attempting to answer the question “why?”

-Completed articles should be about 750–1,000 words in length and should include a photo.

-Note: we will consider pitches that involve an anonymous source or an author using a pseudonym on a case-by-case basis

Contributor honorariums

The NB Media Co-op is a shoestring operation largely driven by volunteers, but we have a small budget for this project. We can offer $500 each for up to three feature stories, with payment issued upon publication.

How to pitch your story

Please send your pitches to info@nbmediacoop.org with the subject line: “Story pitch: Documenting Discrimination and Inequality.” We will endeavour to respond to every pitch, depending on how many we receive. If you haven’t received a response within a few weeks, we probably can’t use the submission.

A great pitch will outline the gist of your planned article, the main sources that you intend to consult, and why you’re the person to write it. Ideally, your pitch will fit all of that info in 150 words or less.

Please note that our readership is primarily located in New Brunswick, but we also have readers located out-of-province and outside of Canada. Please consider this in how you approach your story. Our goal is to publish three stories in this series by the end of May 2025. We will be accepting submissions on a rolling basis. You can find more info about writing for the NB Media Co-op here.

We look forward to your pitches!

Sincerely,

The NB Media Co-op Editorial Board
Tracy Glynn
Nathan Kalman-Lamb
Sophie M. Lavoie
David Gordon Koch
Celeste Orr