Write For SUPERHUMXN
Ideas That Go Beneath The Headline
SUPERHUMXN examines the forces reshaping business, technology, capital, culture and human behaviour.
We publish for readers who want to understand more than what happened.
They want to know what changed, why it matters, what connects to it and what other people may be missing.
That means we are interested in writers who can bring us original thinking, strong reporting, unusual connections, specialist knowledge or access to a world worth understanding.
What We Write About
Our editorial work sits across five interconnected lenses.
Business
Companies, industries, strategy, competition and the systems through which organisations grow and change.
This can include M&A, organisational design, leadership, business models, corporate behaviour, operating systems, entrepreneurship and the changing structure of companies.
We are particularly interested in the forces behind business decisions, not simply the decisions themselves.
Frontiers
The technologies and scientific developments expanding what companies and societies can do.
AI, computing, biotechnology, space, defence technology, robotics, energy and other emerging fields belong here when there is a meaningful story beneath the technology itself.
We want to understand what is becoming possible, who is building it, what assumptions it challenges and what follows if it works.
Humans
The science and behaviour behind how people think, decide, adapt and organise.
This includes neuroscience, psychology, behavioural science, cognition, decision-making, learning and human performance.
We favour evidence over pop psychology and serious questions over simplistic optimisation advice.
Culture
The beliefs, behaviours, identities and social forces that shape institutions and markets.
Culture can exist inside a company, an industry, a community or society itself.
We are interested in how ideas spread, norms change, status forms, institutions behave and cultural shifts alter what people build, buy, fund or believe.
Capital
Where money moves and what those movements reveal.
This includes venture capital, private equity, M&A, markets, investment themes, funding ecosystems, ownership and the relationship between capital and technological or cultural change.
A financing announcement alone is rarely the story.
We want to understand what the allocation of capital tells us.
What Makes A SUPERHUMXN Story?
A subject can fit one of our pillars and still not be right for us.
The strongest SUPERHUMXN stories usually contain at least one of the following.
A Signal
Something is beginning to change before everybody has agreed that it is changing.
A Connection
Two developments normally discussed separately make more sense when examined together.
A Contradiction
What companies, institutions or markets say is happening differs from what the evidence shows.
A Mechanism
You can explain not only what is occurring, but how or why it is occurring.
Access
You can take readers inside a company, community, discipline or system they would struggle to understand from the outside.
A New Lens
The underlying facts may be familiar, but your interpretation changes how we understand them.
Evidence
You have data, research, documents, reporting or primary-source material capable of supporting the argument.
The best pitches often combine several.
News Can Be The Beginning
We cover developments happening now.
We are not interested in rewriting the news.
A funding round, acquisition, research paper, product launch, regulatory change or cultural moment can provide the beginning of a SUPERHUMXN story.
The question is what comes after it.
What does this reveal?
What changed?
Why now?
What connects to it?
What are the second-order effects?
Who benefits?
What assumption does it challenge?
What might happen next?
If the article could be replaced by the original press release, it probably needs another layer.
What We Look For
Originality
Give us something we do not already know.
That might be new reporting, an overlooked pattern, a counterintuitive argument, specialist knowledge or an unusual connection between fields.
Depth
Depth does not necessarily mean length.
A focused 1,000-word article can contain more insight than a 5,000-word overview.
We want writers who know which details matter.
Evidence
Strong arguments need strong foundations.
Tell us what evidence you intend to use and where it comes from.
Precision
Avoid making an argument bigger than the evidence allows.
A signal is not automatically a trend. One company is not automatically an industry. One study is not automatically scientific consensus.
Curiosity
We like writers who follow the interesting question rather than forcing the material into a predetermined conclusion.
Voice
SUPERHUMXN should feel intelligent without feeling institutional.
We prefer clear sentences, concrete examples and writers with a point of view.
Complex ideas do not need unnecessarily complicated language.
What We Don't Want
We are unlikely to commission:
- rewrites of widely reported news;
- generic trend summaries;
- SEO articles built around volume rather than insight;
- corporate thought leadership disguised as journalism;
- promotional company profiles;
- unsupported predictions;
- recycled LinkedIn arguments;
- generic productivity advice;
- shallow AI commentary;
- pop-science claims without credible evidence;
- articles previously published elsewhere;
- work that plagiarises or closely imitates another writer;
- fabricated reporting, quotations, sources or data.
We also do not commission an article simply because its conclusion agrees with something we have previously published.
Artificial Intelligence
AI tools can assist parts of a writer's process.
They cannot substitute for the writer.
You may use tools for tasks such as discovery, transcription, organising research, grammar support or interrogating data.
You remain responsible for every claim you submit.
Do not send us fabricated citations, quotations, statistics, interviews or research produced by an AI system.
Do not submit substantially machine-generated articles as original human work.
If AI has played an unusual or material role in reporting, research or production, tell your editor.
Formats
Essays
Original arguments built around an idea worth examining.
These may be relatively short or extend into deeper long-form work.
Analysis
Evidence-led interpretation of an important company, industry, technology, scientific development, investment pattern or cultural shift.
Reported Features
Original reporting, interviews and research that take readers inside something worth understanding.
Explainers
Clear examinations of complex systems, technologies, research or ideas.
The subject should warrant explanation rather than merely summarisation.
Case Studies
Close examinations of a company, decision, transaction, experiment or system that reveals something larger.
Interviews
Conversations with founders, investors, researchers, operators, scientists, creators and other people with distinctive knowledge or experience.
We favour interviews capable of producing new insight rather than promotional Q&As.
Data And Visual Stories
Stories where datasets, charts, maps or other visual evidence are central to understanding the argument.
Frameworks
Original models that provide a useful way of understanding a difficult subject.
Frameworks should clarify reality rather than create new terminology for ideas that already have established names.
Length
There is no ideal SUPERHUMXN article length.
As a broad guide:
Short analysis and essays: approximately 800 to 1,500 words.
Features and deeper analysis: approximately 1,500 to 3,000 words.
Long-form essays and investigations: approximately 3,000 to 5,000+ words where the material justifies it.
We would rather edit something down than inflate an idea to reach a number.
How To Pitch
Your pitch should tell us:
The story
What are you proposing?
The angle
What makes your version of this story different?
The evidence
What research, data, interviews, documents or other sources will support it?
Why now
Why should we publish this at this point?
Why SUPERHUMXN
How does it connect to the questions our readers care about?
Why you
What experience, expertise, access or reporting approach makes you well placed to write it?
The reporting plan
Who will you speak to? What will you examine? What still needs to be established?
The approximate format and length
Give us enough information to understand how you expect the piece to work.
Please include relevant published work or a portfolio where available.
Send pitches in the body of your email rather than as attachments.
hello@superhumxns.com
Before You Pitch
Search SUPERHUMXN first.
We may already have covered the subject, but that does not necessarily rule it out. A materially different argument, new evidence or significant development can create a new story.
Think beyond topic.
“AI and employment” is a subject.
A pitch tells us what you have discovered or intend to argue about AI and employment.
Pitch Terms
Submitting an idea does not create a commissioning relationship.
SUPERHUMXN may already be developing similar ideas internally or discussing similar subjects with other writers. Ideas and broad subjects can emerge independently, so submitting a pitch does not give the sender exclusive rights over a general topic, theme or concept.
We will not knowingly reproduce your original expression or unpublished work without permission.
A commission exists only once we have agreed the scope and commercial terms with you.
We cannot guarantee a response to every unsolicited pitch.
Please do not send confidential information that you are not authorised to disclose.
If We Commission You
The commission will set out matters such as:
- agreed scope;
- deadline;
- fee;
- expenses where relevant;
- editorial process;
- usage and rights;
- payment terms;
- any specific reporting requirements.
Terms may vary by assignment.
Editing
Publishing is collaborative.
SUPERHUMXN reserves the right to edit commissioned work for structure, accuracy, clarity, style, length, legal risk and consistency with our editorial standards.
Substantial changes affecting the meaning of a writer's argument should normally be discussed with the writer before publication.
Final publication decisions remain with SUPERHUMXN.
Sources And Fact-Checking
Writers should retain supporting material for factual claims.
An editor may request:
- links and source documents;
- interview recordings or transcripts;
- datasets;
- research papers;
- calculations;
- supporting correspondence;
- evidence for factual assertions.
Where information cannot be verified, we may remove it or decline to publish the piece.
Conflicts Of Interest
Tell us about relevant relationships with people, companies or organisations covered in your proposed article.
This includes employment, consulting, investment, advisory work, paid partnerships and other material interests.
A conflict does not automatically prevent a commission, but undisclosed conflicts can.
Originality
Unless agreed otherwise, commissioned work should be original and not previously published elsewhere.
Do not simultaneously promise the same article to multiple publications.
Specific ownership, licensing and republication rights will be set out in the commission agreement.
Payment
We pay commissioned contributors at the rate agreed before work begins.
Rates depend on the nature, length, reporting requirements and complexity of the assignment.
Pre-approved reporting expenses may be reimbursed where agreed in advance.
Credits
Writers and substantive contributors are credited where appropriate.
Published contributors may reference and link to their work in their portfolios unless a separate agreement provides otherwise.
Our Standards
All commissioned contributors are expected to follow the principles in our Editorial Standards.
Accuracy, independence and originality apply regardless of format.
Pitch SUPERHUMXN
Have something we should understand before everybody else does?
hello@superhumxns.com
