TIME magazine contact info: how to reach editors and pitch a story

By Zach Schleien

The emails and phone number TIME lists for letters, subscriptions and permissions, plus how to find the right TIME writer and pitch your story.

The main email TIME gives readers is letters@time.com, for letters to the editor. For subscription questions, TIME lists time-customerservice@time.com and 1-800-843-TIME (8463) for the U.S. and Canada.

If you want TIME to write about you or your company, neither of those is the way in. I didn't find a story pitch inbox or a news tip address on TIME's About, Letters or masthead pages, so you pitch the writer who covers your topic. If you've built a new product, TIME's Best Inventions list also takes entries.

Below is every contact route I could confirm on TIME's own pages, and how to find and pitch the right person. 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 what I'd do to pitch TIME today.

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

Key takeaways

• Letters to the editor: email letters@time.com with your full name, address and home phone number. Don't send attachments.
• Subscriptions in the U.S. and Canada: email time-customerservice@time.com or call 1-800-843-TIME (8463).
• Permission to use TIME's video and other content: email syndication@time.com.
• Story pitches: find the writer through the byline on a recent TIME story and pitch them directly.
• New products: TIME's Best Inventions list takes online entries for a fee per category. Entering gets you a review by TIME's editors, not a spot on the list.

What TIME covers, and where a founder fits

TIME says it was created in 1923 as the first weekly news magazine. Today it says it reaches an audience of more than 100 million people worldwide across its platforms. Its stated mission is "to provide trusted guidance about the ideas and people who shape and improve the world."

That mission is a good test for your pitch. TIME writes for a large general audience, so the question is whether your story matters to people outside your industry.

The main sections on time.com are Ideas, Politics, World, Health and Business. AI has its own tag, and recent Business stories include AI and cybersecurity coverage.

Here's where founders and experts fit best:

• Business, for company news, AI and tech, and trends in work and money.
• Health, if you're building in health care or you're an expert on a health topic.
• Ideas, TIME's opinion section.
• TIME's lists, like TIME100, TIME100 Next, TIME100 Companies, World's Greatest Places and Best Inventions. Of these, Best Inventions is the one with a public entry process I could find.

Every TIME contact route, and what each one is for

Letters to the editor

Email letters@time.com. TIME's Letters page says letters should include your full name, address and home telephone, and that they may be edited for clarity and space. It also asks you not to send attachments.

TIME's site footer also has a Contact the Editors link. A letter is for responding to something TIME published, so don't use it to pitch a story.

Subscriptions and customer service

TIME's Terms of Service list these for subscribers:

• U.S. and Canada: time-customerservice@time.com, 1-800-843-TIME (8463), or mail to TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508.
• International, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America: time@subscription.co.uk.
• Asia and the South Pacific: time@subscribenow.com.au.

Using TIME's content

For permission to use TIME's video and other content, the Terms of Service list syndication@time.com. Reprints of covers and articles go through the Reprints and Permissions link in TIME's site footer.

The Press Room

TIME's Press Room section is where TIME posts its own announcements, written by TIME PR. It's not a place to send yours.

Best Inventions entries

TIME says it builds the Best Inventions list from nominations by its editors and correspondents around the world, plus an online application process. The 2026 list has 300 inventions and 100 special mentions.

Here's what TIME's Best Inventions entry site says:

• Who can enter: any company, organization or person involved in making or marketing the product, if it hit or will hit a major milestone during the eligibility window.
• Cost: there's a fee for each category you enter. For the 2026 list it was $575 by the early deadline, $800 by the standard deadline and $925 by the final one. TIME's FAQ says it doesn't offer discounted rates, including for startups.
• What the fee gets you: a review by TIME's editors. The FAQ says it doesn't mean you'll be selected.
• What's next: the site says 2027 entries open soon.

What I couldn't find

I didn't find a news tip email, a secure tip page or a story pitch address, and the TIME stories I checked don't print the writer's email. So for coverage, you go through the writer.

How to find the right TIME writer

TIME's masthead lists executive editors, senior editors, editors at large, correspondents, staff writers and reporters, but it doesn't sort them by beat. The bylines on TIME's stories do that for you.

1. Search time.com for your topic and open 10 to 15 recent stories.
2. Click each writer's name in the byline. It opens their author page on time.com.
3. Read the role and short bio. The pages I checked show a title like Correspondent, what the writer covers, and recent stories.
4. Pick the 3 to 5 writers whose recent stories are closest to yours.
5. Find a public way to reach each one, like a contact line on their own website or social profile. Never guess an email address.

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 the Wall Street Journal and for CNN.

What TIME editors look for

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

• Something new. TIME judges Best Inventions on originality, efficacy, ambition and impact. Those four words are a good test for any product pitch.
• A reason people outside your industry should care, not just your customers.
• 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.
• Proof: numbers, documents, or customers and experts who'll talk on the record.
• 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. The BBC tech show CLICK featured Filteroff when we had around 500 users and a team of two.

Example angles for TIME

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

1. A data angle for a Business or AI writer: "We asked our users which work task they stopped doing by hand after they started using AI. Here's what they said."
2. An expert angle for a Health writer: the founder of a sleep app offers to explain what the app's data shows about a health story that's already in the news.
3. A product angle for a tech writer and for Best Inventions: a new device that hit a big milestone this year, like shipping its first units, explained in one sentence anyone can follow.
4. A trend angle: tie your company to a story every reporter is already covering. A real one from my archive: when gas prices spiked, the angle became high gas prices mean fewer first dates.
5. 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, and TechCrunch and Gizmodo both covered it.

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 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 shops are using AI to answer customer calls at night

Hi [first name],

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

[Company] makes [product in one plain sentence]. Since [launch month], [one real number, like customers or calls handled]. Here's what that shows about [the bigger trend].

I can share [data, documents, or customers 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 reporter, 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 non-expert would understand.
• Answer two questions: why now, and why would someone outside your industry care?
• Find 10 to 15 recent TIME stories on your topic and list the writers.
• Read each writer's author page and keep the 3 to 5 best fits.
• Find a public way to reach each one. Never guess an email address.
• Write a short pitch with no attachments.
• Decide whether to offer one writer an exclusive first.
• If you've built a new product, check whether Best Inventions entries are open.

Mistakes that get TIME pitches ignored

• Sending a pitch to letters@time.com or customer service. Those inboxes are for letters and subscriptions.
• Sending a press release to a general inbox. 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 "TIME" instead of a person. An inbox can't write a story. A writer can.
• No reason a general reader would care. If only your industry would read it, 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.