SC&I students dreaming of publishing their work: Journalism and Media Studies Assistant Professor of Professional Practice Mary D’Ambrosio has compiled an invaluable resource of over 65 campus and professional publications to consult for ideas of where to pitch. “The database includes detailed writers’ guidelines, and the names and contact details of commissioning editors. So you’ll find it easy to get in touch,” D’Ambrosio said.

The publications D’Ambrosio includes in the roster are “eager to feature your written articles, video stories, podcasts, photo essays and data journalism,” D’Ambrosio, said. “A standout portfolio of published articles, photography, videography, and data journalism is key to breaking into any media field. Students can use it to show hiring editors what they've accomplished: the investigative stories they produced, the video profiles they developed, the smart, beautifully-written long-form articles they published.” 

Student work most likely to be accepted for publication, D’Ambrosio said, are journalistic contributions aimed at general interest readers, rather than academic papers. 

“For example,” D’Ambrosio said, “the public policy website NJ Spotlight is interested in columns and reported stories about health, energy, and the environment; the venerable Boston-based Christian Science Monitor wants short analytical pieces on public policy topics; and the national arts and policy magazine Guernica focuses on literary journalism. The database encompasses publications that address a big range of interests: LGBTQ issues; global Black culture; Jewish affairs, investigative reporting, politics, business and travel.”

A professor in SC&I’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies, D’Ambrosio is also a professional journalist who is widely published. Specializing in writing about international affairs, she has reported extensively from Europe and Latin America, and her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Anthropology Now, Institutional Investor, Islands, and Working Woman magazines, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, and the Miami Herald. She was a special projects editor for Global Finance magazine in New York, a reporter for the Associated Press in Venezuela, and a correspondent and book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. 

D’Ambrosio was also the founding editor of Big World Magazine, a multimedia magazine that showcased storytelling about places, and is the founding director of SC&I’s JMS summer program in Global Journalism, one of the department’s study abroad offerings, which also include courses that travel to Guatemala, Ireland, France, England and Spain.

She and Journalism and Media Studies Department faculty members are available and eager to provide students with advice on potential submissions.

“In fact,” D’Ambrosio said, “one of my roles here at SC&I is to serve as a consultant for students who want to publish their work, and who may even aim to launch publications of their own.”

D’Ambrosio’s advice to students who want to publish their work is, “please get in touch!” as well as, “be aggressive, and don’t be put off by rejection. Rutgers students are talented, and have what it takes to be leaders in all kinds of media fields.”

Below are just a few publications D’Ambrosio suggested in a recent email to the SC&I community. The full roster of 65 publications to pitch stories to is here.

“On campus,” D’Ambrosio wrote, “consider approaching the Daily Targum, Her Campus, the Rutgers Review, New Jersey Spark and Kairos, the JMS magazine of top undergraduate work.

In New Jersey, you might choose to pitch your work to The Record, Edible Jersey, New Brunswick Today, NJ.com and NJ Spotlight. You can also approach publications that speak to national or international audiences, such as BuzzFeed News, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, the InterPress News Agency, the investigative magazine Mother Jones, The New Black Magazine, Vice and Women’s eNews, among many others.”

Banner photo caption:  D’Ambrosio’s “Writing about Social Issues” students traveled to New York, to interview BuzzFeed national editor Tina Susman and members of the BuzzFeed national reporting team. JMS file photo. 

More information about the Journalism and Media Studies Department is on the Rutgers School of Communication and Information website. 

Image: Courtesy of Mary D’Ambrosio