Tip-offs and leads

A community newspaper is only as good as its community, because you are our eyes and ears on the ground.

Whether it’s a dispute with your bosses, a new development moving into your area, a council policy that’s making life difficult, or an issue on your mind, we’d like to hear about it.

Likewise if you know of people creating change or presenting solutions for the challenges facing Bristol, we want to know.

• Email Alex Turner, one of our team of journalists, at alex@thebristolcable.org with tip-offs, or to run a story idea past us before making a formal pitch.
• If you are concerned about security, send an encrypted email by using one of our public keys to send a message to one of the team.
• For documents, our postal address is The Bristol Cable, The Station, Silver Street, Bristol, BS1 2AG.
• There is more about submitting information anonymously here.

One-off pitches

Got a one-off story you’d like to write for the Cable? Or want to create some multimedia content (e.g. film/photography/podcast/illustration)?

Familiarise yourself with what we are looking for before submitting your idea using the ‘Make a Pitch’ form.

Before pitching:

• Please check if and how we have previously covered the topic at the Cable.
• We look for originality – please check how much coverage the issue has had in other local publications before submitting to the Cable.
• Do you have the time? Can you complete your piece while it is still relevant, including the potential time needed to redraft or do additional research if necessary?
• Depending on the story, you may need to work quite closely with a media coordinator to produce your content.
• Are you the best person to write it? If you’re reporting on a particular community, is it your story, or theirs? Have you considered working with them to tell their own story?

Unfortunately, we are a limited team with limited resources and can’t accept every pitch. Please note we receive a large number of pitches and are a small team; if you have not heard from us within three weeks, please assume your pitch has been unsuccessful this time.