Facing a ‘deluge’ from AI, this publication will only take pitches by phone

Whether you’re a reporter or an editor, your inbox has probably seen an influx of pitches, increasingly written with artificial intelligence. They’re likely bad, irrelevant, and annoyingly clogging up your email.

But one publication is over it. If you want to write for The Food Section, you’ll have to pick up the phone.

“We’re switching to a pitch-by-phone system come September,” founder Hanna Raskin announced on Tuesday. “Having been deluged by AI-generated and enhanced story ideas this summer, we’re re-humanizing the process with a dedicated hotline (which has the added benefit of weeding out supposed reporters who aren’t in the habit of ringing up strangers.)”

The Food Section reports on food industries and issues in the American South, with bureaus in Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the first solo newsletter to win a James Beard award and the first newsletter to win a National Magazine Award, according to its About page. Raskin currently takes story pitches through a Google Form.

Raskin told me that she’s noticed an increase of AI-generated story pitches since The Food Section upped its pay rates for freelancers on July 17. Raskin estimates that a quarter of recent pitches were “wholly AI, meaning neither the writer nor the proposed story appears to exist in the real world.”

“Like most editors on the receiving end of slop — some of which was disturbingly calculated to appeal to a publication that prides itself on exposing social injustice — I found the situation incredibly depressing,” Raskin said. “What was especially worrisome was I felt myself becoming more inclined to dismiss pitches from writers without sterling portfolios or connections to journalists in my professional circle. That’s hardly compatible with cultivating new voices or encouraging young reporters.”

Raskin plans to keep the pitchline open at designated hours and will see what happens. (“I’m not a fool: I’m sure there is an AI way to game this system too,” she noted. “But my hunch is it will work until it doesn’t.”) She’ll also coordinate with journalists to take pitch calls at times that work for them.

“We understand that many great writers — meaning the kind which aren’t AI — have hourly-wage jobs and other unmoveable obligations,” she said.

Media workers continue to battle the onslaught of AI pitch slop. Last summer, Wired and Business Insider retracted published stories by an “AI freelancer” named “Margaux Blanchard.” In July, Futurism reported that PR firms are using AI publicists to spam journalists with pitches.

Raskin plans to share the phone number in The Food Section’s newsletter next month. You can read the publication’s full pitch guide here.