Spheres of Influence Uncovered: Call for Pitches

Call for submissions

The call for pitches closes 31st May 2024. Submit your pitch here.

Spheres of Influence Uncovered is a cross-border media project that is seeking to stimulate and broaden public discussion on economic and geopolitical issues in our project countries of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. To do this, we are financially and editorially supporting the work of journalists who are interested in writing on related topics.

If you have a story about foreign investment or other forms of impactful economic cooperation - for example, about Russian investment and impacts on the labour market, or EU-China competition to secure critical minerals - let us know! We offer compensation of up to €1000 per author, depending on the complexity of the story, costs, and work involved. 

This is a journalistic project, and we encourage story-driven articles that make complex economic issues accessible to a general audience.

We are especially interested in stories that have cross-border potential. You can pitch a story to a colleague from another country, or we can help connect you with a journalist in our network. Stories must have relevance for the project countries cited above - for example, a cross-border story looking at an issue in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would fit our criteria.

We are also interested in multimedia stories (please feel free to pitch video, for example) and in data-driven stories.

General communication is primarily in English, and English is needed for cross-border stories, but please feel free to pitch any of the languages used in project countries for country-specific stories (Georgian, Serbian, Russian, Uzbek, etc.)

Partners for this project and possible publication platforms are Anhor, Balkan Insight and JAM News. We are also open to publication with your home media, and can help pitch your piece to other outlets.

In fall 2024, Spheres of Influence Uncovered will be hosting an event in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to which the most active contributors to this project will be invited.

Submit a pitch using this link - Call for pitches closes 31st May 2024.

If you are interested in learning more about the Spheres of Influence Uncovered Project, or would like to discuss story ideas with the aim of finding colleagues to collaborate on pitches, we invite you to join our regular "Cross-Border Brainstorm" session. Please email mardell@n-ost.org for more details.