About Philebrity

EDITORIAL STAFF

Joey Sweeney | Editor & Publisher
Jilly MacDowell | City Life Editor
Kiki Volkert | Contributing Writer
Terry Carlin | Editorial Assistant

Philebrity is a cityblog, which is probably an archaic way of saying that it’s a running comment on Philadelphia itself (and plenty of other things), just as much as it is a comment on the psychological or emotional condition we collectively experience here. It is not news. At least not as such, and in this, we also hope it is.

This site originally began posting in 2004 in a far more brusque and reactive form that felt fresh at the time — hot takes aplenty, all now ice cold — and eventually grew tiresome, even/especially for us. By “us,” we mean the royal “we” that was most often our editor and publisher Joey Sweeney, although we have always welcomed other voices. Today, we even pay them. If any of this scans with you, and you’ve got something you’d like to share with us, please get in touch via tips[at]philebrity[dot]com.

PITCHING GUIDELINES

Philebrity is open for pitches year round, and here’s what we like to see:

  • Stories about people, places and things in Philadelphia that would surprise even lifers like us who are tired of the idea that we’ve seen everything. We’ve seen nothing!

  • Profiles and features that are distinctly off of the local hype cycle in the worlds of Philly arts, music, food, and so on. If they’ve got a publicist, we’re probably not interested.

  • Politics, civics and urban life pieces that cut through the thicket of Philly’s byzantine machinery and offer unvarnished truth.

  • Personal stories about the city that are compelling and have heart and will not make us want to charge you for therapy in exchange for us having read them.

  • And perhaps most importantly, stories about the city that people would want to read both now, and 100 years from now.

    HOW TO PITCH:
    Send an email to tips[at]philebrity[dot]com formatted in the following fashion:

  1. Subject: “PITCH: [Your Piece’s Headline]” Ex: “PITCH: Letter From Forgotten Bottom, The City’s Strangest Neighborhood”

  2. Body: Just a few sentences about what that piece would be about.

Philebrity pays between $50 and $100 per piece; our preferred word count for pieces like these is between 500 and 1500 words.