RELEVANT Magazine

Relevant's tagline is: God. Life. Progressive Culture. We target culture savvy twentysomethings who are looking for purpose, depth and spiritual truth. We speak to an audience of independent thinkers, ones who were raised on pop culture and who are hungry for God but don't embrace dead religion. Our purpose is to challenge Christians to a deeper spiritual walk and a larger worldview.

Please look over our writer's guidelines below. We welcome new writers and prefer to use those with previous journalism/writing experience. Thanks again for your interest. We look forward to working with you.

Below are Relevant Media Group's four editorial opportunities and their contacts:

RELEVANT magazine (print and online)
Won Kim, managing editor

Relevant Books
Cara Davis, editorial director

RELEVANTmagazine.com (online version)

With more than 200,000 unique national and international visitors a month and growing, RELEVANT online is reaching the world. Content on this online community is user-driven. This site exists to give our audience a voice-our readers are our writers. We now publish three feature-length articles a week, one for each section-God, life and progressive culture. (We don't accept fiction or poetry).

• God explores spiritual topics (spiritual disciplines, relationship with God, others and the church, worship). 600-1000 wds
• Life covers just that. Life. (relationships, career, finance, travel, psychology, ethics/morality). 600-1000 wds
• Progressive Culture talks about what's hip, new and cool in culture-trends, fashion, film, TV, arts, music. Our music coverage is a 80/20 split of mainstream music to Christian. The Christian artists we cover are mainly modern worship. We cover hip-hop/soul, progressive rock and college music as our staples. Indie, pop and fringe are covered secondary to those core genres. Reviews: 400-600 wds; features 600-1000 wds.

Queries: Send a one-paragraph query to Won Kim at won@relevantmediagroup.com. Include a summary describing the article idea, an approximate length and date it could be finished. Email submissions preferred, please refrain from phone or fax pitches. [Note: You do not have to query a story idea before sending it in.]

Submissions: We prefer submissions as Word attachments. Your name and a one-two sentence bio should be included with your submission. Submissions to the website are on a donation basis (byline and bio are compensation). Writers retain copyright for pieces published on the website see our reprint section for details. Articles are automatically archived. [Note: Every once in a while, a story is picked up and published as a reprint on Beliefnet.com, with whom we have a contact swap relationship.] Please double-check spelling and grammar before submitting. All articles will be edited for length, grammar, content, style and tone.

RELEVANT magazine (print edition)

Published bi-monthly as a 100-page perfect bound magazine, Relevant's print edition holds the highest standard in editorial quality. What makes RELEVANT unique? It's the ability to look at life and culture from a God-centered perspective. RELEVANT's niche, our voice, is our ability to look at mainstream culture from a God-centered perspective. To be considered as a writer for the print edition, please send an email stating your intention to write for the print edition specifically, with three samples of your work attached.

• God features fall in three categories: 1. practical or intellectual 2. a challenging, passion-stirring call for the individual reader to have a deeper relationship with God 3. global events and movements.
• Life features cover a gamut of everyday life issue from career, finances, relationships, health and more. We look at everything from a God-centered lens. Even if we're covering life issues like investing, we're doing it from the perspective that money isn't everything; we just need to be responsible with what God's blessed us with. We can give the same good, journalistic info that another magazine would, but the perspective of our piece is slightly different. It's that worldview that must permeate everything we write.
• Progressive Culture features look at and interview the hottest names in culture (music, film, TV, books) with a spiritual angle. Spotlights briefly highlight bands that are positive, compelling, challenging, or have a spiritual dimension like The Elms, Common, Robert Randolph and more. Reviews cover what's worth covering in music, books, TV, DVD and film. When we do music reviews, we take it a step further than Rolling Stone. Yes, we talk about the music from the stylistic and the lyrical angles. But we also talk about the spiritual angle (in a non-preachy sort of way).

Note: We suggest you check out RELEVANT in print before submitting an article query. Single copies are available for $2.98 through the Relevant Store or $3.98 at newsstands nationwide.

Once an assignment is made (we assign one month out from the bi-monthly editorial deadline), article should be emailed by midnight of the deadline given. If article does not meet deadline or does not meet editorial standards, we reserve the right to refuse payment. Payment is within 45 days of publication of accepted article, payment is $100Ð$150 for smaller features, $200Ð$250 for larger features and $250Ð$400 for a cover story.

Submissions and Queries: Send a one-paragraph query to Won Kim at won@relevantmediagroup.com. Include a summary describing the article idea, an approximate length and date it could be finished. Email submissions preferred, please refrain from phone or fax pitches. Please note that all articles will be edited for length, grammar, content, style and tone.

RELEVANT College Edition

The RELEVANT College Edition is a new biannual publication from Relevant Media Group. An outgrowth of RELEVANT magazine, the College Edition’s unique feel, look and focus hones in on exactly what college students are all about.

The overall editorial structure is similar to that of RELEVANT magazine—God, Life, Progressive Culture, but the focus in on college life issues. For example, the College Edition will feature articles on dorm room decorating, dating, developing your faith, finding the right church and even the latest in music, books, movies and more.

Once an assignment is made, the article should be emailed by midnight of the deadline given.

Submissions and Queries: Send a one-paragraph query to Won Kim at won@relevantmediagroup.com. Include a summary describing the article idea, an approximate length and date it could be finished. Email submissions preferred, please refrain from phone or fax pitches. Please note that all articles will be edited for length, grammar, content, style and tone. We welcome new writers and especially college students.

RELEVANT LEADER

We have launched a new magazine called RELEVANT Leader, which targets relevant-minded ministers and leaders. We need writers for both RELEVANT Leader mag and www.relevantnetwork.com. These publications speak to ministers/leaders of 18-34s, so writers should have a significant amount of background in some form of twentysomething ministry.

About RELEVANT Leader: It’s a 36-page, full-color magazine specifically focusing on connecting with and ministering to 18-34-year-olds. Each issue includes teaching, ministry spotlights, resources, news, ideas for social action, tips on how to incorporate culture/contemplative practices in ministry, columns and more.

Who gets it? People who subscribe to the RELEVANT Network, which is a bi-monthly resource kit filled with books, worship tools, magazines, music, multi-media resources, etc., to help young adult pastors effectively minister to college students and twentysomethings.

About www.relevantnetwork.com: It’s an exclusive website for subscribers to the Network that contains all the content from the Leader, as well as three new original features a week, falling under the categories of God, Life and Progressive Culture.

Needs: Features for both the website and the magazine.

Magazine: Features are 1500-word, journalistic, mostly third-person pieces that require interviews with knowledgeable sources and research.

Website: Features are 800-1200 words and can be written from the first-person using personal illustrations and insight.

Website God stories: Cover knowing God, theological topics, contemplative practices, spiritual disciplines, church-related topics, leading others, worship, etc.

Website Life stories: Cover how ministers/leaders can handle family, finances, relationships, leisure time, lifestyle choices, etc.

Website Progressive Culture stories: Cover how movies, TV shows, music and books assist in ministry and affect ministers personally.

Payment: All submissions to RELEVANT Leader and www.relevantnetwork.com are on a donation basis (byline and bio are compensation). Please send submissions as Word attachments. Your name and a one-two sentence bio should be included with your submission. Writers for RELEVANT Leader mag will receive a copy of the issue in which their article appears.

Writers retain copyright for pieces published on the website (see our reprint section for details). Articles are automatically archived. Because www.relevantnetwork.com is an exclusive site, if one of your articles is published and you are not a subscriber, you will receive a special password to view your article and print it for your portfolio.

Relevant Books

Relevant Books different in that we are speaking to a niche group that has been overlooked by the publishing world and especially the Church. We are a staff of twentysomethings creating products for twentysomethings in the areas our tagline states: God, Life and Progressive Culture. We’re currently looking for books that explore the crossroads of faith and culture for the twentysomething audience.

We’re looking for books that can break through on a mass-market level and be so life changing, people tell their friends about it. What is that message to you? What matters most spiritually to our generation? What is God saying to our generation? What message does our generation connect with?

The progressive culture books, in particular, seem to garner the most publicity opportunities and the most retail interest. It's really our niche. What ways is God seen in culture? What names are garnering the most attention and have a spiritual connection? How is culture affecting Christian twentysomethings?

For information about submitting to Relevant Books, contact cara@relevantmediagroup.com and request our manuscript guidelines and a project appraisal form.

Final Words

We do our best to respond to all inquiries, but be aware that we are sometimes inundated. If you have not heard back from us after 4-6 weeks, please assume that we will not be able to use your idea or submission.