"The pitch that was clearly generated with ChatGPT did not get a reply"
How to pitch WIRED magazine's features editor, Amit Katwala.
Hello! How are you doing this morning? I’m thrilled that my second editor interview is with Amit Katwala, features editor at WIRED. Read on for Amit’s pitching expertise, opinions on AI in a struggling industry, and some brilliant writing resources.
Tell us more about your role at WIRED.
I’m a features editor at WIRED, part of a global features team commissioning ambitious narrative longform journalism for print and digital.
I also look after Start, which is the front section of the print edition of WIRED magazine in the UK—that’s shorter profiles (c. 800 words) of startups and scientists, stories with a strong visual element and data visualisations. Most of my colleagues are in the US so I’m particularly looking for stories from the rest of the world—it’s a big place!
My specific challenge is to find stories from the rest of the world and present them in such a way that they’re interesting to a global audience and to readers in the US too. And then I try and write as much as I can around that, usually focussing on longform features about science, culture and where they collide.
How much do you commission each month? Do you take ideas to meetings or are they straight off the bat?
It varies quite a lot – for Start I’m probably commissioning five or six stories per issue (we do six issues a year). For features it’s more like one or two a month—but I spend a lot of time going back and forth with writers developing pitches before taking them to the other editors at one of our pitch meetings.
How far in advance do you work?
Usually two or three months, sometimes longer if there’s a lot of reporting or travel involved.
Do you have specific sections that are written in-house, and regular features that you always commission out?