If you were considering joining the live travel media masterclass I ran last month, this news is for you:
We just made these sessions available as 4 easy-to-follow video lessons.
The series also comes with the lesson slides and the actual pitches I used to secure placements in publications like TIME, National Geographic, and others.
You can purchase the series here for $79 >>
Here's everything we cover inside this series:
Session 1: Working with tourism boards and PR agencies
- The DMOs / the publications / the PR agencies / the freelancers - and how you fit in
- Creator journalism vs traditional journalism
- The strict no-press-trips policy in publications like The New York Times
- What are the expectations of coverage post-trip?
- Earned media versus paid media
- What it's like to be on a press trip
- How to approach tourism boards and get press trip invites when you're just starting out
- How do press trip invites happen
- Which travel media conferences are worth attending
- The ethics of press trips
Session 2: Working with travel publishers
- The 5 steps of journalism
- The current publishing landscape
- How do we find work consistently?
- How to find and utilize pitching guidelines
- The process of coming up with ideas
- What publications want
- How to determine if your story is newsworthy
- Print vs digital vs emerging formats
- How much do publications pay?
- How to find work consistently (travel, trade, adjacent titles)
Session 3: Foundations of pitching
- How to sell your ideas
- What NOT to do when you pitch
- The pitching etiquette
- What goes into the actual pitch email
- Yulia's insights from 10 years of pitching and landing stories
- Feedback and insights from real, working travel editors
- Common mistakes and misconceptions of pitching
- How and when to reach out to sources
- The specific scenarios of hotel press trips and stories
- 3 things to ask yourself before you send your pitch
- How to come up with angles
- What to do after you pitch
- Why pitches fail
Session 4: The economics of travel media
- Should you pitch before or after the trip?
- The volume of pitching needed to build your portfolio
- Editorial rates
- Commercial rates (sponsored/branded content)
- Pitching simultaneously - yes or no?
- Photo licensing rates
- What adjacent income looks like
- Yulia's own breakdown of annual revenue
- Proven tactics and real-life examples for negotiating your rates up
- When is a good time to ask for more money?
- Typical payment terms
xx Yulia
Inside Going Places 🏠
Our podcast returns this week!
Our next season trailer is out this Wednesday, and I can't wait to share all the conversations we have prepared for you this season.
Coming up:
An interview with Lale Arikoglu, a longtime Condé Nast Traveler editor, a deep conversation with Muna Haddad, whom I just profiled for Condé Nast's annual Women Who Travel power list, and many more thought-provoking, timely chats on places across the globe and the issues travelers care about.
As we gear up toward our return, there's one thing I want to highlight: this work is not free.
Every episode you hear takes many hours of research, interviewing, recording, editing, fact-checking, editing again, and proofing, not to mention the costs of hosting it all on the web.
This last part is what I'd like to mention today.
While putting work online is easier today than it has ever been, it is still not free.
Our tech costs inside Going Places amount to $1,008 a year – that's fees to use our hosting platforms, Ghost + Outpost, plus our podcasting platform, Captivate.
If you have a bit of change to spare, consider putting it inside our "tech cost fund" tip jar to help us offset that cost.
Any amount helps, and we'd be so grateful. 🙏
It's an easy way to support our work with a one-time tip if you're not quite ready or interested in becoming a paid member.
We pay $1,008 a year to host Going Places online. Help us offset this cost with a one-time tip 🙏
Paid Members Corner 🚀
This week's creator opportunities
They also get urgent alerts as soon as we receive them.
For less than a cup of ☕, you can unlock your access here PLUS support our independent journalism.
🚀 A U.K. travel editor is seeking stories on Japan's Ama divers – pitch asap
🚀 A call for pitches on Pantanal, Brazil – pitch asap
🚀 Win $5,000 in this photo contest – enter by Sun, Mar 22
🚀 BBC Travel is seeking Zambia pitches – pitch by Wed, Mar 25
🚀 TimeOut U.K. is seeking new freelance contributors – no deadline
🚀 Business Insider is seeking cruise, Amtrak, and business-class flights stories – no deadline
🚀 Another Business Insider editor is seeking stories about moving – no deadline
🚀 Travel & Leisure is hiring a commerce writer – no deadline
🚀🔓BONUS: Win $5,000 with Photographers Without Borders – apply by Mon, Mar 30
🚀🔓BONUS: A $20,000 fellowship to write about music – apply by Wed, Mar 18
Find all the latest opportunities here.
🔓 Bonus opportunities are unlocked for our free subscribers.
In The World 🌍
ONA 2026 Conference in Chicago
In a few weeks, I will be attending ONA 2026, the annual conference for online news journalists. It's in Chicago this year.
Some of the sessions I'm particularly excited about dive into topics like thriving in the era of creator journalism, building a code of ethics for independent journalism ventures (like ours!), and new ways to fund indie media operations.
I will be soaking it all in and sharing my insights with you in this newsletter, as always.
If you're also attending (or will be in Chicago from March 30th to April 1st), drop me a note – let's connect!
Radostina Boseva is our Founding Member
Radostina Boseva is a film wedding photographer with an editorial flair based in San Francisco.
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