Guide for contributors

How to pitch

To pitch or send us a finished piece, please email editor@brexitspotlight.org. Please read these guidelines before you do so. 

What is Brexit Spotlight?

Brexit Spotlight exists to ensure meaningful accountability in the post-Brexit era, and to build campaigns and initiatives which push back. We will:

  • Collate and investigate the consequences of Brexit as they happen, and tell a coherent story about them
  • Point to, and be an active part of developing, campaigns that seek to address the injustices arising from Brexit
  • Play a part in rebuilding an alternative vision for the UK’s future and a close, progressive relationship with Europe

In seeking to hold decision-makers to account on the fallout of Brexit, we will measure outcomes against:

  • Promises that were made by campaigners and politicians in the referendum of 2016 and subsequent elections
  • Impact on rights and protections that were once enshrined in EU law
  • Impact on livelihoods: jobs, pay and conditions

Your piece does not have to try to do all of these things, but it’s worth bearing them in mind. 

What subjects we cover

We will place any articles we publish in one or more of the following categories: 

  • The environment
  • Data and digital rights
  • Workers’ rights
  • Citizens’ rights and migration
  • Farms, fish and food
  • Northern Ireland
  • Human rights
  • Democracy
  • Trade deals

What we’re looking for

This is not the place for a general essay on the economy or society after Brexit. Neither is it the place for think-pieces or opinion pieces. 

We are looking for informative content, news, investigations and analysis on a specific issue within one (or more) of the subject areas we cover. For instance, we would be interested in a piece about a specific development, piece of legislation, statistic or personal story about post-Brexit migration. But we would not publish a general piece about post-Brexit migration policy unless it was of exceptional quality or originality.  

If the piece contains a lot of original research, great, but it can also be a bringing-together or highlighting of existing and publicly known information. Reports and news-style pieces are welcome, and can be based on qualitative data (i.e. interviews and personal stories) as well as quantitative data. 

Length

Where there is a lot of original research and data, we welcome longer pieces. However, in general we are looking for pieces that are about 500 words long including references. 

Format

You can be quite free-flowing with your format. We would encourage the use of anything that improves readability, including short paragraphs and bullet points. References can be hyperlinked or, where explanation is needed, footnoted. 

Additionally, there are two specific formats which you could consider using. “How it started, and how it’s going” is a format in which the author begins by citing either the promises made by Leave campaigners in the referendum or by the government, and then compares these to the reality either now or as a projection. “Expert interview” is a format in which our staff do a very quick interview with an expert in a field about a very narrow topic; let us know if you’d like to be interviewed. 

Do we pay? 

We don’t usually pay for unsolicited pieces, and any fee must be arranged prior to publication. Our usual payment is £100 per article for pieces which we commission externally.