Rolling Stone contact: how to reach editors and pitch a story

By Zach Schleien

The emails and mailing address Rolling Stone lists for story ideas, tips and letters, plus how to find the right Rolling Stone writer and pitch your story.

To reach Rolling Stone's editors with a story idea, news tip, press release or correction, email tips@rollingstone.com. Letters to the editor about something you read in the magazine go to letters@rollingstone.com, and Rolling Stone's mailing address is 475 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

That one inbox takes pitches for the whole publication, so the better way in is usually the writer who already covers your topic. Below is every contact route I could confirm on Rolling Stone's own pages, plus how to find the right writer and what to send them.

I've earned 200+ media placements across 25+ countries, including 18 TV appearances and 52 major publications, and I've never hired a PR agency. This is how I'd pitch Rolling Stone today.

Rather skip the pitching? I can get you into Rolling Stone, guaranteed. Book a press call.

Key takeaways

• Story ideas, news tips, press releases and corrections: email tips@rollingstone.com.
• Letters to the editor about something in the magazine: email letters@rollingstone.com.
• Tips by mail: Rolling Stone, Editorial Tipline, 475 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017.
• Rolling Stone's tips page says it reviews messages regularly but can't promise an individual response.
• For coverage, pitch the writer who covers your beat. Find them through the bylines on recent Rolling Stone stories and the staff page.

What Rolling Stone covers, and where a founder fits

Rolling Stone describes itself as having been at the forefront of politics, culture and music journalism for five decades. The main sections on rollingstone.com are Music, Politics, TV & Movies and Culture. RS Recommends is its product section.

Here's where founders and experts fit best:

• Music, if you build something for artists or fans, like music tech, live events or a tool for musicians. The section has news, features, lists, album reviews and live reviews, plus RS Country and RS Latin.
• Culture, for internet culture, creators and gaming. It has a Creators section and RS Gaming.
• RS Recommends, if you make a product. This is where Rolling Stone's product picks, gift guides and the Rolling Stone Audio Awards live.
• Politics and TV & Movies, if you're an expert with something real to add to a story that's already in the news.

If you're a musician, read two recurring features first: Artists You Need to Know, and Songs You Need to Know, a weekly roundup of new songs.

Every Rolling Stone contact route, and what each one is for

Story ideas, news tips, press releases and corrections

Rolling Stone's contact page says: "To reach the editors of Rolling Stone or RollingStone.com with a press release, story idea, correction or news tip, contact tips@rollingstone.com."

The tips page adds two lines worth reading before you send anything. "The strongest news tips include suggestions on how to obtain documentation or evidence that would substantiate the story." And: "We review messages regularly, but cannot promise an individual response."

Tips by mail

The tips page lists this address for the editorial tipline:

Rolling Stone Editorial Tipline 475 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10017

It calls physical mail "a secure form of communication," and says to use a public mailbox if you want to stay anonymous.

Letters to the editor

Email letters@rollingstone.com. The contact page says it's for a letter "regarding something you read in Rolling Stone magazine." Use it to respond to a story, not to pitch one.

Subscriptions, reprints and photo licensing

These go through the Customer Service page and separate reprint and licensing contacts on the contact page. None of them reach the newsroom.

What I couldn't find

I didn't find a newsroom phone number, a secure messaging app or a music submission address on Rolling Stone's tips and contact pages. On one writer page I checked, the email icon opens tips@rollingstone.com, not the writer's own address.

How to find the right Rolling Stone writer

Rolling Stone's staff page lists its editors and writers by role, and some roles tell you the beat. You'll see an Executive Music Editor, a Senior Politics Editor, a Senior Culture Editor, an Investigations Director, a Head of RS Country, a Head of RS Latin, and a Senior Commerce Editor with commerce writers who work on product coverage.

Bylines tell you more than titles do. Here's how I'd build a list:

1. Search rollingstone.com for your topic and open 10 to 15 recent stories in the section that fits.
2. Click each writer's name. Their author page shows their title, a short bio with what they cover, and their latest stories.
3. Keep the 3 to 5 writers whose recent stories sit closest to yours.
4. Find a public way to reach each one, like a contact line on their own website or social profile. Never guess an email address. If you can't find one, send your pitch to tips@rollingstone.com and name the writer's recent story you're following up on.

The reporter is the unit, not the outlet. Your press universe is every reporter who covers your niche, and that can be up to about 20 reporters at a single outlet.

Here's how the same steps work for TIME and for the Wall Street Journal.

What Rolling Stone editors look for

I didn't find pitch rules on Rolling Stone's pages beyond the tips page, so here's what I'd go by: Rolling Stone's own words, plus what has worked for me with other big outlets.

• Proof. The tips page says the strongest tips show how to get documents or evidence that back up the story. For a founder, that means real numbers, documents, or people who'll talk on the record.
• People and culture, not product features. Rolling Stone covers music, politics, TV, movies and culture, so pitch what people are doing, not what your app does.
• Quality, for products. For its 2026 Audio Awards, RS Recommends says it tested hundreds of new products over the last year and judged each one on design, durability, features and, above all, sound quality.
• A reason it matters now. When COVID hit in early 2020, I pitched one angle hard and wide: singles stuck at home were video dating on Filteroff to find love in lockdown. I pitched essentially every journalist covering the pandemic, not just dating and tech reporters, and the BBC and then the New York Times covered us within weeks.
• A good story, not a big company. My first real press win was the Washington Post featuring 18percent, my mental health community, on July 2, 2018, when it had about 150 members.

Example angles for Rolling Stone

The first three are made-up examples. The last two are real ones from my own archive.

1. A music angle for a music writer: the founder of a ticketing app shares data on how fans buy tickets for small club shows compared with arena tours.
2. A creator angle for a Culture writer: a tool for musicians shows how independent artists actually earn money from short videos, with numbers from its own users.
3. A product angle for RS Recommends: new headphones built for musicians, explained in one sentence anyone can follow, with a review unit ready to send.
4. A weird but true angle: at Filteroff, we built an AI system that spotted scammers and bots and quietly put them in a separate fake dating pool with other scammers and bots. We published the funniest conversations, in series called "Nurse & Teacher," "Male or Female?" and "Bot Anger," and TechCrunch and Gizmodo both covered it.
5. An online community angle: before I built Filteroff, I started r/HingeApp, which became the largest Hinge subreddit on Reddit, and VICE covered it. If you run a big online community, that's the kind of internet culture story the Culture section covers.

How to write the pitch

Keep it short enough to read on a phone:

• Subject line: the story in plain words, not your company name.
• First line: why it matters to Rolling Stone readers right now.
• Next two or three lines: what's new, and your proof.
• Last line: an offer. One sentence once got me booked on live TV: "Would you like to interview the founder?"

Here's a made-up example you can copy:

Subject: Small venues are selling out shows through group chats

Hi [first name],

I read your story on [topic]. Here's a related one your readers haven't seen yet.

[Company] helps [who] [do what, in one plain sentence]. Since [month], [one real number from your own data]. Here's what that shows about [the bigger trend in music or culture].

I can share [the data, documents, or artists and fans who'll talk on the record]. Would you like to interview the founder?

[Your name, title and phone number]

For six more pitches you can copy, see Media pitch examples: 6 pitches you can copy and why they work.

When I run a campaign, I write one master pitch, which takes me 1 to 2 hours. Then I change only the journalist's name and publication and send it to the 200 to 1,000 journalists who actually cover that beat.

I go through each part of a pitch, step by step, in How to Write a PR Pitch That Actually Gets a Reply.

If your news is big, think about an exclusive. Offer it first to the single best-fit writer, then go wide after it runs. That's how Filteroff got one of its biggest press hits, an exclusive in Business Insider.

Do-it-yourself checklist

• Write your story in one sentence a music fan would understand.
• Answer two questions: why now, and why would a Rolling Stone reader care?
• Open 10 to 15 recent stories in the section that fits and list the writers.
• Read each writer's author page and keep the 3 to 5 best fits.
• Gather your proof: numbers, documents, or people who'll go on the record.
• Write a short pitch and put the key facts in the email itself.
• Decide whether to offer one writer an exclusive first.
• If you can't find a public way to reach a writer, send it to tips@rollingstone.com.

Mistakes that get Rolling Stone pitches ignored

• Sending a pitch to letters@rollingstone.com or customer service. Those are for letters and subscriptions.
• Sending only a press release. In my Top Romp days, I sent roughly 20 to 40 generic press releases to company contact pages, spent hours on each one, and got zero replies. What changed it was watching my friend Michael pitch press, asking him a ton of questions, and then doing it myself.
• Pitching "Rolling Stone" instead of a person. An inbox can't write a story. A writer can.
• No culture angle. If only people in your industry would care, pitch a trade outlet first.
• Pitching once and quitting. To get my dad's op-ed into the New York Times, I sent roughly 70 pitches to every Times writer covering that beat. One of them forwarded it to the op-ed editor.