VICE magazine is a mixture of content from all over the world.

We aim to be different and

cover subjects which are serious, funny, sexy, comedic, weird and some music and art,
too.

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR SUBJECTS

Subjects (music, artists, a story, an event and so on) must have the newsworthiness factor
and must not have been covered widely in the mainstream media. If the subject did
receive some covering in the traditionall press, you’ll have to search for a different angle -
by giving a twist to the subject and approaching it in a way that you don’t see in other
media. But if everyone knows about it already, we don’t want to print it. Same goes for
subjects that belong to past decades, who are miraculously still alive - therefore it’s better
to forget about interviewing the Chemical Brothers and check out some bands is likely to
be caring about in the future.

Stories must be interesting and informative, but not just like normal news. They have to be
funny or show things from a new perspective.

Let the subjects tell as much of the story as possible. You want the reader to immerse into
it and truly understand what lays underneath. Texts must have a voice of their own, which
is both intelligent, funny and opinionated, but you will never tell people what you think.

Illustration Always consider the images that will go with your story. Almost all story need
good, strong supporting images.

Romanian subjects Consider breaking away from clichés. Right now, we tend to slip
towards a lot of Romanian social issues that we need to break up. We should also
consider breaking up from well too covered “underground” or “urban” subjects everyone
knows about already.

International subjects When pitching an international subject, please bear in mind that the
subject can be local, but not if it is so local no one cares.

HOW TO PITCH YOUR SUBJECTS

A pitch is mainly a (sales) letter/e-mail that is meant to grab our attention and make us ask
for more on the subject. Instead of writing an entire article that we may not be interested
in, this proposal will tell us both if we care about your story and writing skills. It shouldn’t
be longer than three or four paragraphs. The text has to be clean, concise, direct, but not
stuck-up and stiff.

Research is important. Please know what you’ll be writing about when sending pitches.
The first paragraph should introduce you and the subject. This is where you need a hook
that explains exactly what you have to offer and answers to all the five W’s concerning
your subject.

The second paragraph should explain why we should have your article. Give us the angle
and explanation to the story. Offer us an inside look at what really happens out there, as
well as your possible sources or directions on covering the story.

HOW TO DO A PHOTO REPORT VS. HOW TO CHOOSE A PHOTO ESSAY TO

SUBMIT

When covering an event or submitting an essay please bear the following in mind:

• they both need to convey a narrative

• photo essays can be complete or an exclusive preview on one of your ongoing
projects
• they need to be previously unpublished
• we do not accept single shots or party shots that don’t say anything much except
that people are pissing themselves.

We’re interested both in big names and new, young talent.

Photo essay samples:

http://www.anderspetersen.se/photogallery/cafelehmitzphotos/cafelehmitz.html
http://www.viceland.com/int/v18n1/htdocs/irma-s-world-669.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n8/htdocs/virginians-154.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n7/htdocs/i-ride-with-jesus-113.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n7/htdocs/trine-sondergard-on-the-street-951.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n2/htdocs/northern-lights-615.php?country=
http://www.viceland.com/int/v14n8/htdocs/sit.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n3/htdocs/somerset_nights.php?

HOW TO DO ILLUSTRATIONS / DRAWINGS / PAINTINGS THAT WE LIKE

The more visceral, fucked up, weird, sexy your stuff the better. This can either be related
to the final outcome of your art or to the process you use to do them.

HOW TO DO INTERVIEWS

Choosing your subjects: Think far and wide. We need to be loooking at things & people
that are either highly interesting or have big internet audiences which we can bring and
make ours grow.

Subjects can be include your dad, the ghost of Einstein, new writers, photographers,
musicians artists, friends, homeless people, monkey prostitutes, politicians, conspiracy
theorists, cartoonists, people who you would like to bring back from obscurity, people with
weird stage names, criminals, an Al Qaeda guy, a thing about pretty girls who are
strippers, skate show, or investigations from crazy fashion weeks AND MORE.

You can go as far as interviewing very known figures, as long as they’re weird or fucked
up enough for us to care about. (David Lynch, Gaspar Noe, agnes b, Siouxsie Sioux)
These are people whom because of their popular position you will interview by placing
them in a comfortable position that everyone finds easy to relate to. First questions will aim
at their demythisation - either by simply asking what it is they were just doing or by asking
them about their reputation - if what people think of them is real or not and such. The next
questions will both follow the natural flow of the conversation as well as bring out more
unusual facts and explanations related to your subject. Remember to keep it relaxed and
most of all, relevant.

When interviewing a lesser known person related to either a phenomenon, a portrait, a

particular situation, a contradicting story or a particularly interesting arty concept you will
go for specific question that will get anyone to understand the process behind it. You will
start with questions such as: how did you start to do this? how did the initial idea emerge?
why do you do this? or any other questions that will give you a proper insight into the
background and will uncover all the details one needs to know to properly understand your
subject. Keep in mind that you are serving a single main idea, not more & that you’re going
for gathering a lot of facts, not conclusions.

Choosing the right person to talk to about a vast subject can help loads, specially when
covering political or social subjects like this one. When covering stories of immediate
interest (riots, flashmobs and such) it’s best that you simply go out there and tell us how
things were really happening - look around for details, ask some regular people a couple
of questions and gather them into a vox pop. Take loads of pictures, even if that involves
your personal camera.

HOW TO COVER AN EVENT

When off to cover an event you should have one of these two things in mind:
• keeping an eye out for weird events (Kawasaki)
• your personal weird story/report with anything to do with music, bands, piss vomit
and/or massive gatherings of people doing weird stuff (Heineken Open’Er, China
Has Music Festivals, Too!)
OR
• same goes if you’re a photographer (Shoreditch 1234 Festival, Offset Festival
2010)

HOW TO COVER DRUGS

While we’re not encouraging the use of drugs, we’re not against them either. When doing
either an interview or a text on drugs the approach has to be direct and not fear talking
details about the matter. They can be detailed personal experiences or illuminating
interviews.
Samples:
http://www.viceland.com/int/v18n2/htdocs/interview-with-ketamine-chemist-704.php
http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n10/htdocs/ex-biggest-heroin-dealer-111.php
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2010/01/12/does-cocaine-make-you-smarter/
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/tag/drugs/
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/tag/hamilton-morris/

LEAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LAST

Remember not to shy away from calling things for what they really are. Keep eyes open
for the next best things that leave you gauging with bewilderment. Don’t be afraid to blur
obvious truths, by diminishing them or by being too diplomatic.

FINALLY - HOW TO WRITE YOUR ARTICLE

While each article is subjected to its own approach and a fun tone of voice, keep in mind
that you’re not writing for a blog. You need info, info and more info (good reporting helps a
lot with that! - gather everything you can gather while doing research/interviews).

Choosing the proper tone of voice - VICE is not Playboy, or Hustler, or a women’s or a
teenager magazine. And while you should find your own approach to fun, sarcasm and
being challenging - just like some of you would on your personal blogs - remember that
being insightful and informative will save you from being irrelevant.

Titles - keep them clean, fun, catchy and relevant. Still, they have to be different from your
daily newspapers or your usual monthlies headlines.

Intros - Each piece of text and even interviews must provide the answer to the 5W’s. Yet,
when covering a character like Ray Kurzweil or Wessel Di Wesseli more background info
should be presented so the reader can fully understand what you’re talking about - be it
about singularity or the perpetuum mobile, or whatever it is that you’re covering.
Nonetheless, remember to keep a fun and relaxed tone even when writing about more
serious topics.

Main text - Remind yourself what it is you’re writing about. You should be focusing on one
topic and you should know from the start what the reader will remember as a conclusion of
reading your text.

This is why providing a structure for your materials is highly helpful. Knowing what your
text is about it will be easy for you to “break” the story into paragraphs. Each paragraph
should focus on one main idea that helps in building up the conclusion. Make sure you
don’t repeat infos written in say, paragraph 2 in paragraph 4 or 5. This will make your texts
easy to read and more powerful.

Ending - The ending has to be just as catchy as your intro. Focus on a fun punchline at the
end. Or a fun conclusion. Don’t leave your ending suspended into the vast nothingness of
outer space.
And, just when you think your done, take a one-two hour break and read it again - just like
you would read a text that you haven’t written yourself. Is it different? Is it informative,
insightful and fun? Is it weird, comedic, appealing?

No? Then return to the parts that need re-work.

Yes? Then you’re good to go. Push the damn send button fast! We’re eager to read your
story.