Digital Spy welcomes pitches from writers of all levels of experience and from all backgrounds. We especially welcome writers from groups who have been historically underrepresented in entertainment media, including, but not limited to Black, Asian, Latinx and Middle Eastern writers. Digital Spy is also proud of its long tradition of promoting the voices of LGBTQ+ people, disabled people and the neurodivergent.
We only ask that you have a strong idea and the talent to write it up.
News shifts
If you're an entertainment journalist with writing experience and great knowledge of TV, movies, soaps, showbiz, and tech, we periodically recruit freelancers for shifts. You can do these shifts remotely, and will need excellent attention to detail, and be able to turn around fast and accurate copy in line with our house style.
To register your interest in our next round of recruitment, please send your CV, availability, examples of your work, and three suitable news headlines for Digital Spy, to our News Editor Emma Tinson and our Deputy News Editor Emily Stedman.
Subbing shifts
We also periodically recruit freelance digital sub-editors to cover evening and weekend shifts while we're publishing TV, movies, soaps, showbiz, and tech news. These shifts are home-based and although it's a freelance role, it comes with a lot of responsibility.
Freelance subs oversee the news agenda, along with some writing required. They oversee social media posts, and SEO-editing, along with traditional sub-editing of copy – requiring sound legal and ethical judgment, excellent attention to detail, and a high standard of written English. You will need a robust general knowledge of all categories covered by Digital Spy, along with familiarity with online content management systems and a good understanding of the basics of digital publishing.
To register your interest in our next round of recruitment, please contact our Managing Editor Kate Goodacre and Chief Sub-Editor Jess Lee.
News exclusives
If you're a journalist with an exclusive you'd like to pitch, or you know something that you think Digital Spy readers would like to know too, drop a line to our News Editor Emma Tinson and our Deputy News Editor Emily Stedman.
Features
We want anything that moves the conversation forward for engaged fans of contemporary TV, movies and soaps. A Digital Spy feature must:
• Offer the general reader brand-new information about something they already care about (eg an interview, a fascinating bit of trivia, a theory, an explainer, the answer to a burning question prompted by a movie/show).
OR
• Promise to make the reader think differently about something they already care about (eg a hot take on a new release).
That might make it sound like we're only interested in the mainstream. We're not! But if you're pitching about a culty or niche-interest show or movie, it would help your case if your angle appeals to general readers outside the show or movie's current audience.
We'd love to hear about any talent access you can arrange – interviews, set visits and so on.
To save you time, we don't generally accept pitches based around:
• General reviews
• Old TV releases or films, unless there is some major news or a sequel/reboot has been announced or recently released
We are a friendly and conscientious team and we always try to give feedback even when we don't choose to commission an idea. Thanks to the numbers involved, we have to say "no" far more often than we say "yes", but don't be disheartened if that means you – keep coming back!
We look forward to hearing from you. Here are your first ports of call:
TV Editor: Laura Jane Turner
Deputy TV Editor: Rebecca Cook
TV Writer: Janet A Leigh
Movies Editor: Ian Sandwell
Deputy Movies Editor: Mireia Mullor
Soaps Editor: Daniel Kilkelly
Deputy Soaps Editor: Sophie Dainty
Deputy Editor, Digital Spy Chris has over 25 years' experience as a writer and editor, having worked as a journalist covering TV and movies since the '90s. Starting out as a TV listings editor at the Press Association, he was quickly hired by the nascent Heat magazine, where he rose to become Senior Editor, interviewing the likes of Simon Cowell, Boris Johnson and Paris Hilton. Over the years he has written about entertainment with clarity and wit for Heat, Elle, Q, The Telegraph and of course Digital Spy, and has served many times as a judge in the Royal Television Society awards. He has written and recorded a novelty single with Lord Lloyd-Webber, written scripts for the National TV Awards, made Noel Edmonds cry, accidentally punched an Inbetweener and stolen a small piece of rubble from the Battle of Hogwarts movie set. (They can't have it back.)
