Guidelines for opinion pieces

We particularly welcome original and exclusive contributor pieces/features (opinion, how to's, articles about industry issues, views, news, trends) which must be written in first person. These are bylined with a two-to-three sentence bio on the writer, including contact details, social media links and a low res portrait picture.

Exclusive opinion pieces are generally kept for use as a headline/top story, and may be held back until there is a top-story slot available (if the piece is of a soft-news nature or not time-sensitive). Hard news/breaking news always takes precedence. Sometimes this means a delay of a couple of weeks between submission and publishing.

If we receive contributor pieces on a regular basis, we create a permanent profile for the author (see a list of our contributors here and click through to view the individual profiles).

SOME GUIDELINES FOR OPINION PIECES

600 - 900 words an article; if the piece is long but really good, the editor may allow a longer piece to be run or request that it be broken up into a series of articles
Each article must be relevant to the specific industry portal and its targeted B2B readership
Each article must be bylined and written in the first person and accompanied by a head-and-shoulders full-colour portrait pic (low res, less than 200KB, as we are not a print publication)
A bio of the writer with company title, contact details and social media links must accompany each article:

there may be both a short bio and an extended version
the bio is about the author, not the company, although accomplishments at the company may be mentioned
keep in mind that contact details and social media links will be made public, so only submit details that the author is happy to share with the world
The editors of each portal reserve the right to edit and rewrite headlines, intros and body of the contributor piece to suit the style of Bizcommunity.com, consulting with the writer where necessary
Editorial tends to be very busy and sometimes we are unable to get back to you immediately about if and when we'll use something. It is best to stipulate a date until when the piece is available exclusively to us and, if you've not seen it used by then, go ahead and send it somewhere else or to your press office.
If the piece is time-sensitive, then indicate this in the email subject line and in the cover email.
If you intend to write regularly, please submit roughly once every two weeks (for the Marketing & Media South Africa portal, only once every six weeks or so). More frequently than this may lead to a backlog. If, however, the piece deals with a hot topic that is current, submit immediately but indicate time-sensitivity in the email subject line.
Note that there are two sets of email addresses per industry, one for contributor pieces only and for general news/press releases
DO NOT SPRAY AND PRAY
Do not send to personal email addresses. We have set up mail filters rules to make the news-editing/copytasting process easier, and when editors go on leave or business trips, the email addresses are redirected to the person filling in.