Before you pick a format, a few working definitions. These are the terms we use in every package description, and they mean the same thing whether you are pitching a single piece or a recurring column.
A guide covers one walkable area and names real streets, bus routes and opening hours. It is not a list of links. If a business has moved or closed since we last walked the block, the guide is updated rather than left standing.
Long-form interviews are conducted in person where possible, by a Pittsburgh-based writer. Quotations are checked with the subject before publication. Photo essays follow the same rule: the photographer was on site, and captions carry the date.
Pitches from neighbors are welcome, but a submission is not a guarantee of publication. We ask for a short summary, the neighborhood it concerns and whether you can supply photos. Editing is part of the process, and we will tell you what changed.
The section written for readers abroad is reporting, not relocation advice. We describe how the city works day to day, what a winter actually costs in time and clothing, and which parts of Allegheny County suit different routines.
We cover Pittsburgh and the wider Allegheny County area. Anything outside that footprint is out of scope for the packages listed here. When a piece gets a detail wrong, we print a correction in the next roundup and amend the original page. Sponsored placements are labeled as such and never presented as editorial.
Not every story fits the same shape. Some neighbors want a full walkable guide with transit notes and addresses; others just need an editor to read a draft and say what is missing. Below are the formats we actually run, what each one includes, and who tends to pick it.
A single walkable route through one neighborhood, built from a real visit rather than a search result. We walk it, photograph it, and write down the bus stops, the hours that hold on weekends, and the corners worth slowing down at.
Best for Lawrenceville, Brookline, Hazelwood and the North Side pitches.
See a published routeSit-down pieces with the people who keep the city running: baristas, machinists, librarians, community organizers. We come prepared, record the conversation, and edit for clarity without flattening how someone actually talks.
Pitch a person, not a topic, and tell us why now.
Send an interview pitchFor neighbors with a story already half-written. You send the draft, the photos if you have them, and the details only a local would know. An editor works with you on structure, then we run it under your byline.
We read everything, but we cannot run everything.
Read the mailbagNot sure which format fits? Start with the neighborhood archive and see how the pieces are built.
Most of the feedback below comes from people who pitched a story, hosted a walk, or ran one of our columns for a season. We asked what actually changed for them, not how nice the process felt.
Lawrenceville walk guide
I pitched a route along Butler Street and expected a rewrite. Instead the editor sent back a marked-up map asking which blocks flood in spring and which bus stop is actually closest. The published guide now gets printed and handed out at the shop, and three customers a week tell me they found us through it.
Marta R., shop owner, Lawrenceville
Saturday coffee map
Running the coffee column for a season taught me to check hours on a real Saturday instead of trusting the website. Two of the six shops I first listed close early, and the correction ran the next week. That kind of accuracy is rare in local writing, and readers noticed.
Devon K., contributor
Hazelwood library profile
We sat down for what I thought would be a short interview about shelves. The piece ended up covering our tax help sessions and the meeting room calendar, and it brought in four new volunteers before the end of the month. The transit notes at the bottom were a small thing that made a real difference.
Branch staff, Hazelwood
Reader mailbag
I sent in a letter about my grandmother's pierogi method, half expecting it to get cut. They printed the whole thing, including the part about sealing edges by hand, and then a church hall in the South Side wrote in to argue with me. Best argument I have had in years.
Anita P., reader, Brookline
Diaspora thread
I moved from Johannesburg two years ago and used the Pittsburgh life section to figure out winter before I arrived. The pieces name real neighborhoods and how people actually get around. When I finally landed, I already knew which bus line to take from the airport side.
Sipho M., reader, now in the North Side
Photo essay, rivers and inclines
I shoot black-and-white around the inclines and usually get asked for something brighter. Here the brief was specific: shoot the fog, keep the grain, note the time of day. The essay ran with my captions intact, and two galleries reached out afterward about showing the same series.
Ray T., photographer