Paid Expert Call | Journalists & Editors from Major Publications

## Paid Expert Interview ($30/hr) | Help Shape a New Platform Connecting Brands & Publications ### About the Opportunity We’re building a new platform focused on improving how **brands, marketing teams, and publications discover and exchange useful data, insights, and story opportunities**. Today, brands generate a huge amount of potentially valuable information — customer trends, industry benchmarks, proprietary data, surveys, research, and market insights — but much of it never reaches the journalists or publications that could actually use it. We’re exploring a platform that could help brands continuously surface these insights in a structured way, while giving journalists, editors, and publications an easier way to discover relevant data and expert sources for the stories they’re working on. Before we build further, we want to speak with people who have worked inside established publications and understand how editorial teams actually discover, evaluate, and use external data and sources. ### Who We'd Like to Speak With We’re particularly interested in people with experience at established or high-traffic publications, including: * Journalists and reporters * Editors or managing editors * Research or data journalism teams * Audience or content strategy professionals * Newsletter editors * Contributors working regularly with major publications * Editorial partnerships or media innovation teams Experience with business, technology, marketing, finance, consumer, or industry publications would be especially relevant. You don't need to currently work full-time at a publication — former employees, regular contributors, and experienced freelancers are also welcome. ### What We'd Like to Discuss This will be a conversational 60-minute research call. Some of the areas we'd like to understand include: * How journalists currently discover data, statistics, experts, and story ideas * What makes a brand's proprietary data genuinely useful to a publication * Why most PR pitches and brand research get ignored * What makes a source credible enough to cite * How much time journalists spend sourcing supporting information * Whether a platform aggregating continuously updated brand insights could fit into existing editorial workflows * What would make journalists actually return to and use such a platform * Concerns around bias, credibility, transparency, and commercial influence * How a platform could create value for publications without compromising editorial independence We're especially interested in hearing where the idea **would not work**. Critical feedback is as useful to us as positive feedback. ### What's in It for You? **Paid expert conversation:** No preparation or deliverables required. **See what we're learning from the other side:** We're also researching how marketing and PR teams currently generate research, earn media coverage, and increasingly think about visibility in AI search. We'll be happy to share some of the more interesting patterns we've uncovered across our research. **Help shape the product:** Your feedback will directly influence how we design the platform, particularly the journalist and publication experience. **Potential longer-term collaboration:** If there's a strong fit, we may also engage selected participants for ongoing product advisory, research, content, or consulting work as the platform develops. ### Important Note This is **not a request for media coverage, backlinks, introductions, or placement in your publication**. We're conducting genuine product research and want to understand the workflow and needs of people working inside the publishing ecosystem. ### How to Apply No lengthy proposal is required. Please briefly share: 1. The publications you've worked with or contributed to 2. Your role and approximate years of experience 3. The type of stories/content you typically work on 4. How you usually find data, experts, or external sources for a story If you've worked with a major national, business, technology, trade, or digital publication, please mention it in the first couple of lines of your application.