Want to contribute to Debate? Hell yeah! That’s a great choice -student media is a fantastic way to build up experience in writing, reporting, artmaking, and storytelling. Many of our writers go on to bigger (but NOT better) publications, like Stuff, RNZ, and Vice NZ (rip). Better yet, we’re one of the few student publications that pay our contributors! Paid mahi is fair mahi, after all.

 

Oh, Debate Editor AKA Deb-Editor, how will I ever know what the guidelines are for submitting a piece?

 

Shit, dude, just read on below! Soon enough, you’ll be one of our top contributors. Or should I say, Con-DrEBATE-ors? No? Okay.

 

1. Join!

If you’re in our contributor's Facebook group, you’ll be kept in the loop of upcoming issue themes and deadlines. If not, what are you doing? You gotta join our group, STAT! You can find the QR Codes to join in each issue of the magazine, or join by clicking the buttons below! We also share upcoming issue themes on our social media - but group members get first dibs.

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2. Pitch!

We publish all sorts of good stuff, from news articles to comics. Our themes are announced as the previous issue's submission time ends - so when Issue 2 submissions close, Issue 3 submissions begin! We need to receive pitches for upcoming articles a week before the pieces themselves are due, so we can plan ahead for the issue and have an idea of what art is needed, who’s doing what, etc. A pitch doesn't need to be any more than a sentence - but if you want to add extra context, you’re super welcome to do so!

 

We also have section editors for each type of article: these are the folks you will get in touch with to organise your piece. If they don’t respond, follow up! A lot of us are studying, working, or just have other shit going on, so emails can fly under the radar. It’s likely human error - just give us a friendly nudge!

 

Visual Arts:

Gabbie De Baron | Graphic Designer

(Illustration, photography, painting)

Contact gabizzlesizzle@gmail.com

 

News:

Caeden Tipler | News Editor

(Reporting on AUT, Auckland, and student issues)

Contact caeden.tipler@autsa.org.nz

 

Arts & Culture:

Stella Roper | Arts & Culture Editor

(Interviews, music, discussions)

Contact stelladebatemag@gmail.com

 

Features:

Tashi Donnelly | Feature Editor

(Essays, investigations, short stories/poetry)

Contact tashird@gmail.com

 

Entertainment:

Thomas Giblin | Entertainment Editor

(Film/tv reviews, local media spotlights, opinion)

Contact giblinonfilm@gmail.com

 

Digital:

Cameron McCurdy | Social Media Coordinator

(Videos, podcasts, online things)

Contact debatesocials@gmail.com

 

“I don’t know what section this fits into!”:

Liam Hansen | Editor-in-Chief

(Comics, weird shit, miscellaneous)

Contact liam.hansen@autsa.org.nz

I can redirect you to who this fits best, or just take it on myself.

 

3. Create!

Once we’ve approved your pitch, we will work together to figure out a word/page count for your piece, depending on the medium, content, and whatever else. We use the word and page count estimates to lay out the magazine, so please stick to it.

 

BONUS STEP FOR ARTISTS: Our Visual Arts Contributors Facebook group also contains prompts for art needed in upcoming issues, if you just wanna be told what to do instead of having your own thoughts (real). Gabbie will send through info about what art needs to be made, and whoever gets first dibs on the prompts gets to take it. For example, we need people to draw my dumb ginger, four eyed mug of a face! You can also scan the QR code to join this group on the next page.

 

4. Send it through!

The contributor deadline refers to when the first draft of the piece should be submitted by - typically one week after the pitch deadline. If you’re running behind, don’t stress - just let us know. Some pieces require changes close to the printing date (especially when dealing with current affairs), so as long as we know what’s going on it’s all chill.

When sending through a piece, please attach your full name, pronouns, preferred instagram handle, and a photo of yourself so we can credit you properly! If you have any issues with these, no stress - just let us know. We’ll get back in touch ASAP if we need anything else from you, or if there are any problems with your piece that could stop it from being included.

 

5. Voila!

You now have a piece in Debate Magazine! Pat yourself on the back. We’ll get in touch on the day the issue is released to sort out payment stuff - if you think something has gone wrong or you missed an email, reach me at liam.hansen@autsa.org.nz. We can’t wait to see your awesome mahi!

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