Capstone Pitch Subscription Service
Get magazine story ideas customized for your school
and access to a done-for-you feature-writing service.
You receive few story pitches from outside writers, and when you do, they’re rarely good
If you’re reading this page, you’re probably shepherding three or four issues of an alumni magazine from start to finish every year.
You probably have countless other responsibilities, too.
It’s tough enough just to get a completed, error-free publication finished on time.
Wouldn’t it be great to have one or two features completed long before deadline — not just written, but with full source approval and headshots for every source? Stories designed to resonate with your alumni readers? Stories completed by writers with years of experience writing for alumni magazines who deeply understand the needs and specific quirks of an institution’s publication?
Introducing the Capstone Pitch Subscription
The Capstone team is now offering an annual pitch subscription: a service for editors who want outstanding ideas on their schedule—and access to a team who can execute on those ideas flawlessly.
Your magazine matters
As the flagship publication for your institution, your alumni magazine is often the primary way that your alumni stay connected to your college.
Yet you probably struggle with some of the same issues that I did as an alumni magazine editor:
Subpar stories aren’t just disappointing to you and your readers. They’re expensive! When you consider staff time, writing and photography bills, and printing and mailing costs, you likely invest $50,000 — or more — into every issue.
With that kind of investment, your magazine should make a big impact on your readers. We’re ready to help.
How the Capstone Pitch Subscription Works
1
Fill out your magazine’s “personality profile.”
Share the the priorities, goals, and voice of your magazine and your institution with our experienced team of writers and editors.
2
Request your
pitch sheet.
When you’re ready, request your pitch sheet! Our team will deliver three detailed, customized feature pitches to your inbox within one week.
3
Assign only
what you love.
We’ll confirm our approach with you, then get right to work on any story you assign. Our standard feature story fee is $3,500 and is completed within 4 weeks, often sooner.
We’ll communicate with you every step of the way. Our goal is to provide you with at least one story idea worth assigning to the Capstone team for each issue of your publication.
Good pitches are the starting point for great stories
The kernel of a good pitch is often just a sentence. But at Capstone, we believe in doing more.
Here is a portion of an actual pitch we sent to a Capstone client who wanted to tell more stories about research at their institution.
Our pitches are just the starting point. Once you’re ready to assign an article, we’ll help you build a great source list and provide you with additional details to make sure we’re on the same page.
White-glove service
When one of the pitches we provide resonates with you and your team, you can assign it and know that every detail will be addressed.
We’ve put together an amazing process that is attentive to each detail, honed during two decades of award-winning work that we’ve done with more than 75 colleges and universities across the country.
In addition to including heds, deks, and source lists, we go above and beyond what traditional freelancers offer. We also provide:
We know that we’re more than just writers and researchers. We’re ambassadors for your school.
We want these stories to succeed beyond your expectations.
Here’s what some of our clients have to say about us:
“Most satisfied with quick turn-around for pitches and communication during the process. Pleasantly surprised by the list of alumni entrepreneurs that your team was able to generate without any help from our end. Impressive! Thus far it has been a real pleasure working with you and your team.”
“The entire process was smooth for me. I really appreciate the communication and the end product—and your sense of humor. I like just as much feeling confident that an article is in capable hands without consuming a lot of my time.”
“We were impressed with the ideas and the quality of the piece received. I expect that we will end up working with you/your team on multiple pitches given. Your work forced us to think about things more broadly.”
This subscription is right for you if:
This subscription isn’t right for you if:
Still not sure?
We stand by our process. Try one full pitch-sheet process with zero risk: We’ll refund your credit card charges, including the credit card processing fee, if you don’t like your first pitches.
Ready to subscribe?
We will get back to you within one business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
From the three mini-pitches you propose, are we obligated to choose at least one?
No. If you don’t like them, you don’t have to ask for more extensive workups or assign us to write any of them.
Can we ask you to develop two or all three pitches?
Yes! Our clients frequently have us develop most (or all!) of their feature well.
Are pitches transferable to future issues? In other words, if you send us a pitch for our fall issue, can we use it in our spring issue instead?
Yes.
After you have made pitches, are we are obligated to use your company to write the stories?
We spend hours developing pitches for your school, so we do expect that you will use Capstone for any of our pitches that you decide to assign.
Is the minimum cost for developing and writing one story $3,500?
Yes, $3,500 is the minimum. Looking for a larger story package? We’ll work with you to come up with a fair fee.
We’ve worked together in the past. Do I really need this?
Right now, pitch subscription clients get front-of-the-line access to me and my team. If you want to get amazing pitches for your publication, this is the best way to ensure you get multiple detailed pitches—on your timeline.
What is your relationship with Capstone?
I own Capstone — I work with talented writers, researchers and illustrators across the country. You pay Capstone, and we handle all of the payments to our team.
Wait, why are you doing this again?
I constantly hear from alumni mag editors that they don’t get decent pitches — or any pitches at all. But I know from experience that custom pitches can take hours. Not everybody has a budget, and it’s hard to know exactly when to send any given editor a list of ideas. With a pitch subscription, both the editor and my team are committed to getting something to work. And by committing to a yearlong subscription, we are hoping to develop a real relationship with clients — one that might continue for years to come. Our goal is not to complete a single project for your institution, but to produce work so good that you come to consider us the first and best choice for providing great stories that matter to your alumni.