Freelance Guidelines

Creative Loafing Tampa Bay is always seeking qualified, talented freelancers. If you're interested in freelancing for us, please follow these guidelines.

1. If you haven't already done so, familiarize yourself with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. In features, culture, food, and music, we try not not cover the same subject or topic in a two-year period unless there is a compelling new angle. Regular columns are written by staff or dedicated freelancers. Most other formats are open to freelancers. Please note standard article lengths and take them into consideration when pitching a story.

2. Send a brief cover letter, resume, two relevant writing samples, and at least one story pitch to the appropriate editor. Email queries are encouraged. If your writing samples are archived on the web, you may include links rather than the full text. If they don't paste the content of any attachments into the body of the email. If we are interested, we will respond via email. Patience, persistence, and politeness pay off.

Email your news freelance submissions to:
Ray Roa, Editor-in-chief

3. Editors occasionally assign pieces to freelancers, but successful freelancers also generate interesting story ideas. Pitch early and often.

4. For new writers, we might assign an article on "spec," which means you turn in a completed article. If we like it, we publish it and pay you. If we don't, then the piece does not run and there is no kill fee.

5. When you begin freelancing for us, you will receive additional instructions on topics including deadlines, pay rates, pay schedules, and CL's policies, including a code of ethics.

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31 of Tampa Bay’s best restaurants and pop-ups celebrating international flavors

Tampa Bay is home to dozens and dozens of tried and true places to celebrate immigrants’ contributions to the food scene. From…

By CL Staff

Wat Mongkolratanaram Temple 5306 Palm River Rd., Tampa This poorly kept Tampa secret is a bonafide waterfront rite of passage for any local. Grab friends, get to the temple’s Sunday morning market early, and bring cash. Stock up on to-go boxes of your favorite Thai meals (curries, desserts, fresh rolls, dumplings, and yes, noodle soup), then wash it all down with Thai teas and coffees. Please don’t fall asleep at your picnic table.
31 slides

Photos: All the wet and wild people we saw at St. Pete Pride’s 2025 Sunday street festival

Saturday’s St. Pete Pride parade included hundreds of thousands of revelers lining Bayshore Drive on the downtown waterfront, and the party continued…

By Ray Roa, Dave Decker

Partygoers outside Mari Jean Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida on June 29, 2025.
67 slides

Photos: Every beautiful person we saw celebrating St. Pete Pride 2025

Organizers said that more than 350,000 people took to the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront last Saturday as the Southeast’s largest Pride parade…

By Ray Roa, Jorge Cordova

Image: Photos: Every beautiful person we saw celebrating St. Pete Pride 2025
67 slides

Photos: In the Everglades, hundreds, including Betty Osceola, rally against Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz'

Despite environmental concerns and a lawsuit contesting its operation, construction of Florida's so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" is well underway in the Everglades. Last…

By Ray Roa, Dave Decker

Betty Osceola speaks to a crowd of protestors on June 28, 2025 as law enforcement conducts security checks on vehicles entering the future site of 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the Florida Everglades.
70 slides

June 26, 2025

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