Contribute

Founded in 2007, Under Blue (formerly Ohio Outside) is a leading website for travel, outdoor adventures, gear, and adventure sports. In-depth editorial and compelling photography inform, entertain, and inspire readers of all ages and abilities to enjoy the outdoors and improve their health and fitness through it.

Your well-written query should present a clear, original, and provocative story angle, not merely a topic or idea. It should reflect your thorough knowledge of the magazine’s content, editorial style, and tone. When submitting a query, identify which department your story would be best suited for.

Editorial Submissions

Features (2000 to 3000 words)
Our in-depth features cover a gamut of topics, including personality profiles, top outdoor adventure destinations, race profiles/reports and issues in our sport, and generally include a short sidebar or two.

Long Departments (1000 to 1200 words)

Destination Showcase—stories are destination travel stories, including where to run, ride, hike, camp, climate, local services and community, amenities, and events relevant to our readers.

Faces—is a human interest section highlighting interesting characters in the outdoor world, from celebrities to housewives, elite runners to back-of-the-packers; it’s their story that determines who makes a good subject.

Adventures—first-person narratives of unique running, cycling or outdoor-related journeys or wild undertakings on the trails

Articles should be supported by high-quality photography.

Guidelines

Always include complete descriptions, we want to share the whole story.
Write clearly, addressing who/what/when/where/why and when.
Include pricing, availability, and other relevant info.
Include photos and/or video. Press Releases without imagery and photo credits will not be posted.
Do not include unsubstantiated claims. “We believe this to be the best backpack on the market” is fine, but “This helmet has been scientifically proven to be the safest” is not, unless you provide compelling independent evidence for your claims. If your claims are outlandish or hyperbolic we won’t publish them.
Do not imply an endorsement from our technical editors.
No writing about yourself in the 3rd person.
No self-produced “interviews.”
Don’t mimic Velo’s bike test formatting, or do anything else that may mislead readers.
Get it to us ahead of time. We don’t like being late.
Include a maximum of 1 link or call-to-action per submission
Date the release and include whether the material is for immediate release or delayed release. If your content has an embargo, please make note of it in your submission.
Unless otherwise requested, appropriate releases go out ASAP. If the embargo specifies a day but not a time zone, we’ll generally release it at 12:01 am, Pacific Standard Time.
Press releases embargoed for Monday mornings should be submitted by the previous Thursday at the absolute latest. We strive to be timely, but don’t guarantee any timing for content submitted over the weekend.
Be timely. Event reports should be submitted within a day or two of the event.
Make yourself available for additional info.
Identify the organization or individual sending the release.
Include the name, phone number, and email of someone we can contact if we have questions

Rejection

We post only a fraction of the content we receive. In the event your submission is not accepted for publication, we’re sorry. Generally we are not able to give a reason for rejection. If your submission is amazing and we want to run it but it’s missing something critical, we will reach out.

Common reasons for rejection:

Quality of content — we have high standards and our readers do too. We always prioritize content that is authentic and exciting, with compelling visuals and engaging storytelling. If a submission is super short, or super long, or super product-heavy, or we just aren’t that into it, it’s unlikely to be featured.
Relevance — we’re excited about all kinds of adventure, travel, trail running, cycling, food, and drinks. That being said, we aren’t likely to post a press release for an adventure and gear we aren’t excited about.
Technical issues — low resolution imagery, poor grammar, CAPS LOCK, etc. all contribute to the decision to reject content.
Language — racism, misogyny, hate-speech, or any other sort of bigoted language or behavior is unacceptable on Velo. That includes song lyrics in submitted videos.
Crowdfunding — we generally don’t publish crowdfunding stories, fundraisers, or press releases.
Shady stuff — please don’t include any affiliate links, user tracking, plagiarized or stolen content, 3rd party contests, unverified product claims, links to other media sites, etc.
Obtrusive watermarks or borders — we respect photographers using clean watermarks on their images, but we don’t post any stories with large, obtrusive watermarks on the images. Please don’t put any borders on your images.

How to Submit

Please submit your query or complete article, along with one or two writing samples (preferably previously published articles), including your name, phone number and email address, to Under Blue by email to:

Editor, Mark Gorman,
mark@underblue.com