Here’s our FAQ for writers. Please read before you pitch!
What is The Frisc?
We are a publication intensely devoted to San Francisco. We share voices and tell stories about our city in flux.
Well before COVID, San Francisco was heading toward a two-tiered state: a citadel for some and a purgatory for others, with little left in the middle. With every feature, investigation, and profile, we aim to foment ideas and influence policies that make the city more affordable, inclusive, and accountable.
We want stories and reports that have the bigger civic picture in mind, even when the subject is one person, one organization, one law or regulation. Our singular focus is a changing San Francisco. We don’t cover the greater Bay Area or Northern California. We don’t review new restaurants or update sports scores. The Frisc is issues-based, nonprofit journalism, entirely about the city, leavened with lively prose, curiosity, and adventure.
Hold up. I just need your contact info.
Email us at hello@thefrisc.com. But if you don’t know us well, we recommend you keep reading.
What’s with the weird name?
You know the old-school admonition “Don’t call it Frisco”? We call BS on that, just like we do with much of what passes for our city’s conventional wisdom. We embrace the old nickname — with a twist.
The Frisc covers San Francisco’s contentious civic issues: the housing and homelessness crisis, transportation and streets, schools, local business, racial and socioeconomic inequity, shared spaces, and more.
We strive to find original, compelling stories and make sure they speak to our rapidly changing city. We publish investigative features, hot-button analysis, reports from the street, and provocative commentaries. Here are samples of various forms of journalism we pursue.
Features and investigations
Housing Starved, San Francisco Looks West to Low-Rise Geary
How a Huge 1977 Drug Raid, Now Immortalized on a Plaque, Changed a Black Neighborhood Forever
SF’s Specialized Homeless Shelters Do Not Bring More Crime, No Matter What Angry Neighbors Say
Even the 142-Year-Old Dolphin Club Can’t Unplug from SF’s Tech Debate
Spot news
SF’s New Homeless Youth Center has an Unlikely Advocate: A Local Shop Owner
SF’s New School Board Members Will Receive a Budget Baptism by Fire
Profiles and conversations: The city’s unique and often unsung residents
SF State’s Russell Jeung Documents Pandemic Stories of Anti-Asian Hate and Racism
A San Francisco Life, a Woman Excelsior
Painter Ira Watkins, a Six-Decade San Franciscan, Is Opening His Studio Doors Once Again
Who are your readers?
First and foremost, engaged San Franciscans. We aim to be an indispensable read for anyone who wants to contribute to a better city. We also know that what happens in SF is often a national story. Pitch us stories that resonate here and beyond.
How much do you pay?
We do not have a set fee for most stories, except $215 for Q&As, which we call Conversations (here’s an example), and $267 for a city adventure like this one and this one. Otherwise, fees depend on story length, complexity, and your experience.
Who are you?
Editor in chief Alex Lash grew up in the Haight-Ashbury, the city’s parks, and public schools. Art director Jeremy LaCroix has helped create and refine the look of legendary local magazines like Wired while making his own art and playing punk rock. Senior editor Lisa Plachy is a Berkeley School of Journalism graduate.
Staff writers Kristi Coale (streets, transit, environment) and Adam Brinklow (housing and development) have a combined 30-plus years of covering San Francisco.
Our diverse contributors have included San Francisco magazine alumni Andrea Powell and Lindsey J. Smith, CalMatters education writer Adam Echelman, Fresnoland religion and culture reporter Gisselle Medina, local transit writer Jerold Chinn, Nicaragua native and SF State graduate Oscar Palma, award-winning author Gary Rivlin, architecture and design writer Lydia Lee, NASA scientist Steve Casner, open-water swimmer and Coast Guard reservist Sherri Eng, and many more. Join them!
I want to pitch you! What next?
A potential Frisc story reveals the tension that stems from the city’s big changes; or profiles a person or organization that gives readers a broader understanding of our city; or explains a complicated civic issue in a way no other outlet has been able to do.
When you’re ready, reach out and talk to us. If we agree upon story length, outline, essential elements, and fee, we’ll send you a contract.
Please note: We abide by nonprofit rules. We write about but do not endorse political office holders, candidates, or ballot measures. If you have political affiliations that are relevant to your pitch, you must disclose them.
A few other nuts and bolts:
Please be prepared for editing and questions on our end, and perhaps several drafts, depending on length and complexity of your story. We get our sources and our facts straight.
We work in Google Docs.
For more about us, including editorial ethics and transparency, click here.
Ready? Drop a line to hello@thefrisc.com. Please put STORY IDEA or PITCH in the subject line. Thanks!
