Become a Contributor
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BECOME AN ORATO CONTRIBUTOR
Orato seeks journalists and photographers from around the world who want to be published on a global platform and be paid for capturing true stories about real people.
If you are interested in creating content in the first person that sheds light on world events and trending topics from the perspective of those living and experiencing the event – Orato will offer you professional experience and feature your name in international bylines.
Orato’s RATES are as follows:*
- International Feature Story (minimum 2,000 words) $200+ USD
- National Feature Story (minimum 1,500 words) $100-$150 USD
- Regional Feature Story (minimum 1,000 words) $50-$100 USD
- Science, Sports & Entertainment Story (minimum 500 words) $25-$50 USD
- Photo Gallery (10 Photos) $25 USD
- Photo Gallery (20 Photos) $50 USD
Orato World Media pays its journalists in the following currencies; Canadian, US or Euros, depending where they reside and through a variety of methods. Those with a U.S. account can be paid through ACH and in Canada through Interac e-Transfer. Outside of North America, we offer options such as PayPal and Payoneer. Freelancers from Canada will receive payment in Canadian funds, freelancers from the United States in US funds, freelancers from the European Union in Euros and all others will be in U.S. dollars or alternate currency as agreed to in advance.
READ OUR FREELANCER GUIDE
The guide, while written exclusively for journalists and professional writers, offers detailed quality and stylistic instruction. Whether you are interested in reporting and crafting first-person narratives, submitting photo galleries of major world events, sharing video interviews with compelling subjects, publishing a podcast episode, or illustrating an Orato story – this guide will help you.
WHAT CONSTITUTES AN ORATO STORY?
Every submission must take into account the following mandates. An Orato story MUST be:
Verified: This means it has been fact-checked by our journalists and contributors. Orato’s stories are verifiable world events and supported by researched evidence of the subject’s experience, or published news articles, witnesses and court cases, etc. Research verification content will appear in Orato’s ‘Background’ section to provide our readers the confidence that what they are reading are in fact “True Stories from Real People.”
A first-person account captured by a journalist on behalf of the interview subject who has experienced the event. *To avoid any conflict of interest or motivating subjects to tells us their story, Orato never pays subjects directly.
Event(s) and crystallizing moment(s): This means the subject themselves experienced something life-altering, relevant to trending or world news, or was part of a major event.
Contains an emotional anchor: Orato stories are unique from traditional news stories in that they allow the reader to appreciate the emotional toll(s) and or adventure(s) by accounting the interview subjects’ human experience. Orato stories allow the reader to understand what the interview subject felt, heard, and saw, not only emotionally, but circumstantially.
Unique: the experience of the subject is unique and offers valuable context to the headline.
Contains background context information: all Orato stories are supplemented with thorough background information on the event.
The best way to know what constitutes Orato content is to read our published stories.
GET QUALIFIED AS AN ORATO CONTRIBUTOR BY TAKING THIS QUICK ASSESSMENT (it’s FREE)
JOIN INSIDE ORATO & THE FIRST-PERSON NEWS SUBREDDIT
Once you’re approved as an Orato contributor, you will be invited by Orato’s leadership to join our “Inside Orato” Slack workspace. This is a private, online group where all our freelancers engage with one another and with our editors, foreign correspondents, publisher, CEO, and staff. Inside Orato is our virtual gathering place. Learn more here!
We also encourage anyone who is passionate about journalism to join our Subreddit community: r/firstpersonnews_. Be a part of the conversation about first-person news, stories, and story subjects we are pursuing.
PITCH A STORY
‘Pitch a Story’ is where you identify a compelling, newsworthy event that you’d like to cover with an interview subject through a first-person account. When you pitch a story you will need to provide a brief synopsis of the event which will be captured and most importantly, confirm the individual who will be identified as the interview subject and who experienced the newsworthy event personally.
Story claims are reviewed and approved if they meet our editorial mandate, at which time, the contributor will be formally engaged with a written offer to write the story BEFORE the freelancer even meets and interviews the subject(s).
‘’Pitch a Story’ is where you identify a compelling newsworthy event that you’d like to cover with an interview subject with a first-person account.’
SUBMIT A STORY
Once a pitch is approved and your freelancer contract is executed by both you and Orato’s editorial staff – you begin your work. Story drafts are submitted easily through our submit a story page. Stories are reviewed, edited, translated into English or Spanish as necessary, and when appropriate additional questions are posed by the editors to our contributors.
Once complete, stories go live on our website wherein you are credited, featured, and published, and where they access hundreds of thousands of readers in nearly every country in the world!
