Can You Really Make Money Writing For The New Scientist?

This site came across my radar as I was looking for more websites that offer writing opportunities to freelancers. I have, admittedly, been into this kind of thing lately, as writing for websites is my new favorite ‘side hustle’ idea.

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But can you really make money writing for The New Scientist?

Making Money Writing For The New Scientist

So, first things first, let’s look at the New Scientist website. Newscientist.com is just part of a larger media center that puts out fresh content on a regular basis.

They describe themselves as ‘a world leading science and technology brand,’ and they cover all kinds of different science-related topics, including new big ideas and developments from all of the different areas and fields of science and technology.

They publish an influential weekly magazine, and also maintain a very widely-read website. They offer awesome new news stories, ideas, and opinions about all things science… and from the looks of it, they are certainly doing something right!

They were established back in 1956, and have a long history and reputation in the scientific and journalism communities.

To date, each week, they reach over 4 million highly engaged readers through the combined efforts of all of their different channels. This includes their print magazine, their online publications, their website, and their social media.

The website itself has been in place since 1996, and has become ‘a major online destination for the latest science and technology news and opinion.’

I am not a scientist, but I do have a love for all things technology and science related. I subscribe to a lot of different science websites. My favorite magazine growing up was ‘Popular Science,’ in fact, and I am a huge National Geographic fan.

So this website obviously interested me. I have also really been into the idea of doing some freelance writing to earn extra money.

One of my passions is to help people find better ways to supplement their income, and I love the idea of freelance writing because virtually anyone with any kind of writing skills could potentially make some extra cash by doing it… especially if they practiced and worked on it a little bit.

You will not get rich freelance writing for other websites… but there are also some major benefits.

1. You can make some extra cash
2. You can gain writing experience
3. You can, in some cases, make a name for yourself as a freelance writer and leverage that for better jobs in the future

So yeah. I am all in-favor of using this as a side hustle.

But would writing for the New Scientist be a feasible opportunity? I decided to look into it and report my findings. Here is what I discovered.

My First Impression Of The New Scientist

To start with, let me just say that this review is based only on the website. As of this time, I have not yet checked out their social media or print magazine… so please keep that in mind.

First of all, the website looks pretty awesome. It has a pretty standard blog-type vibe to it. I liked the design and the colors. The content also seemed laid out in a way that was not only easy to understand, but also pretty clean-cut.

But… with that being said, I did notice (while taking the screen shot of the landing page) that there was a large banner ad right in the middle of everything. I know that they need to earn income, of course… so this didn’t bother me. But I was actually surprised by it.

Moving on from this, however, I scrolled down to find quite a few different articles devoted to a wide range of different topics.

The next thing I did was to read one of the articles, just to see what kind of ‘professionalism’ is usually put forth by the writers and editors of the site. So here is what I discovered on that front.

Checking Out The Quality Of The Content On Newscientist.com

I started reading an article about renewable energy—which is kind of a passion of mine. But as I got toward the middle of the article, I was quite surprised to find this!

It turns out that I could not go any further without having a subscription—and that surprised me very much, but not in a bad way. So, what I am beginning to notice is that this media publication service does not seem to focus on their website as the predominant means of reaching their readership.

Rather, they seem to be more of a ‘magazine’ publisher who offers their website as extra content, to bring additional value to their readers who pay for a magazine subscription.

I used to wonder why anyone would ever buy a subscription to a journalism service online when so much was offered on the internet for free.

But as I have gotten more accustomed to finding quality content online, I have come to learn that quality material, like this, is often worth paying for if you really want something that will bring you real, measurable value.

So this was not really a downside to me, at all. It is just something I wasn’t expecting.

The prices are actually quite affordable when you take into account what you get. I mean, it may seem like a lot to pay for a subscription to something like this… but keep in mind that you are getting all of this value for somewhere around $1 per day, depending on which package you choose.

And all of the packages come with access to both the app and the website, which offer daily content for readers… which is actually pretty sweet.

But next, I decided to look into what it takes to write for this company. Their content is obviously pretty professional. The article I started reading was basically perfect. It was informative, current, authoritative, well-sourced with facts, and very interesting to read.

So yeah. Writers will certainly have to bring their A-game with this site. But what do they pay?

Here is what I found.

Writing For NewScientist.com

Finding the page dedicated to writing for NewScientist.com was pretty easy. All you have to do is go to the footer and click on the ‘Write For Us’ link.

Here is what I found upon arriving at this part of the website.

This is only the very beginning of the freelancer section, which is very, very thorough and in-depth. I have never seen a website offer so many guidelines for writers.

This website is obviously looking for quality, but they also really go above and beyond to make sure that writers know exactly how to get everything ready and submitted the correct way.

Here is just a basic list of the main topics covered on this page.

• Finding exclusive stories
• Pitching news stories
• Pitching ideas for features
• Who you should send your ideas to (with email addresses provided)
• Writing stories
• Payment (they pay per-word, but no actual amount is cited)
• Tip-Off fees
• Copyright information

So yeah. This site provides quite a bit of information for writers who are interested in submitting content.

I am not sure how much they actually pay, but I can say this… they most likely pay out quite a bit, and I cannot imagine it not being worth the time!

My Personal Feelings About Trying To Write For NewScientist.com

I personally really like this site. I am also pretty passionate about science and technology. I am not necessarily an ‘authority,’ per se, on anything ‘science’ related, but I am a pretty good researcher.

So I feel like I might actually have a shot at getting published on this site if I try and am willing to endure a few rejections along the way.

I am, at the moment, compiling a list of sites that I could write for who pay enough to make it worth the time, and am certainly going to add this one to the list.

You will not get rich writing for the New Scientist, but you can make some extra money while writing about cool topics. You can also use this to build some street-cred for future potential writing assignments, and that is also an awesome reason to give it a try.

You could also check out other science and tech-related sites, like Asian Scientist and Techopedia. 

Of course, in the end, writing for sites like this would likely not amount to a full-time gig unless you consistently wrote for dozens of websites… but it could most certainly provide you with some quality side-hustle cash, and that is what I’m looking for at the moment.

So yeah. Two thumbs up for The New Scientist. They seem to do most things right, and manage to run a site that I will definitely be looking a bit more closely at.

Our Final Opinion Of The New Scientist

Should you try to write for them to make a bit of extra money?

Nathaniell

What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!