Editorial Guidelines

Editorial guidelines

These are the rules every article on The LA Note follows, whether our editorial desk wrote it or a contributor, publicist, label or brand sent it in.

The LA Note is an independent entertainment magazine that has covered working musicians, actors, comedians, filmmakers, voice actors and creators since June 2021. Readers come here to find out who an artist is and why they are worth their time. Every guideline below protects that. If you are a third-party writer, please read the whole page before you pitch. Articles that don’t meet these standards are sent back or declined.

Last updated: October 28, 2026

Who these guidelines apply to

These guidelines cover everything published on thelanote.com: staff features, interviews, reviews and roundups, plus every article written by a third party. That includes guest contributors, publicists, managers, labels, agencies and brands. Sponsored articles follow the same standards as editorial ones. The only difference is that sponsored articles carry a label.

What we publish

We cover people and the work they make. Contributed articles should fit one of the beats we already cover:

• Music: artist profiles, new releases, albums, tours and live shows, producers and songwriters.
• Film and television: actors, filmmakers, screenwriters, crews, reviews and festival runs.
• Comedy: stand-up comics, specials, clubs and the craft of comedy.
• Voice acting and animation: performers, roles and how the work gets made.
• Creators and streamers: the people building audiences on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch.
• Fashion and beauty: when it connects to entertainment, such as stylists, red carpets and costume design.
• The working artist: practical guides on getting booked, releasing music, pitching press, contracts and building a career.

The formats that work best here are profiles (“Who is…?”), interviews, release features, reviews, practical guides for artists, and roundups. If your topic doesn’t fit any of these beats, it isn’t a fit for The LA Note, however well it is written.

What we don’t accept

We don’t publish articles on these topics, and we won’t link to sites that sell, promote or host them. This applies to editorial and sponsored articles alike, and it can’t be bought out at any price.

If the site you want to link to adds any of this content later, we remove the link without notice.

Our link policy

To qualify, the link has to meet all of these:

• It’s relevant. It points to the subject’s or contributor’s own official site, or to a page that directly supports the article, like an artist’s site, a label, a film’s official page, a venue or a business the story is about.
• It sits where it belongs. The link goes in the body of the article, at a point where a reader would actually want to click it.
• The anchor text reads naturally. Use a brand name, the artist’s or business name, or a plain descriptive phrase. We rewrite keyword-stuffed or exact-match commercial anchors like “best cheap studio Los Angeles.”
• It links straight to the destination. No URL shorteners, redirects, affiliate links, tracking-heavy URLs or links to download files.
• The destination is clean. It loads over HTTPS, has no malware or pop-up traps, and includes nothing from the “What we don’t accept” list.

Our editors may add links of their own: to primary sources, official streaming pages, earlier LA Note coverage and similar references. Those links help readers and don’t count toward your one do-follow link. Any other external link is set to nofollow. We may add nofollow or sponsored attributes, or remove a link, whenever a link doesn’t meet this policy or the law or search-engine rules require it. We review requests to add or change a link after publication case by case, and the policy above still applies.

Writing standards

Original and exclusive

Send work that hasn’t been published anywhere else, including your own blog, Medium, LinkedIn or another publication. Rewritten, spun or lightly edited versions of existing articles will be declined. Once your article runs, you can share the link and a short excerpt, but don’t republish it in full elsewhere. Our Terms of Use cover this too.

Not a press release

We don’t publish press releases as articles. A release can be your starting point, but the article has to tell readers something new: context, history, the catalog, the credits, or what makes the work worth their attention. Cut promotional language like “groundbreaking,” “taking the industry by storm” and “highly anticipated.” Show readers why the work matters instead of telling them.

Answer the reader first

Our features open by answering the question a reader came with, usually who this person is and why they matter right now. Keep these in mind as you write:

• Open with a clear answer or a strong scene, not a wind-up.
• Use question-style subheadings that match what people actually search for, such as “Who is…?”, “What is the new song about?”, “Where is…from?” and “Where to find…”.
• Keep paragraphs short, with two to four sentences in most of them.
• Most of our features run 700 to 2,000 words. Write as long as the story needs, and no longer.
• Write in American English. Spell names, titles and credits exactly the way the artist and their label do.

Facts, sources and quotes

• Back every factual claim, including release dates, chart positions, awards, credits, streaming numbers and tour dates, with a primary source. We check these sources before we publish.
• State awards precisely, with the year, the organization and the category. Being “submitted for consideration” is not the same as being nominated.
• Attribute anything you couldn’t confirm, like “according to the artist” or “her label says,” instead of stating it as fact.
• Keep quotes accurate. Tell us whether they came from your own interview, a press kit or another outlet, and credit other outlets by name.
• Don’t include defamatory claims or unverified accusations about anyone.

AI tools

You can use tools to research or organize your draft, but you are responsible for every word and every fact in it. We decline articles that read like unedited AI output, with generic phrasing, invented details or claims we can’t trace to a source.

Images and media

• Send only images you own or have permission to use, and give us the photographer credit for each one. We don’t use images pulled from search results, watermarked photos or screenshots of other outlets’ coverage.
• Include one landscape image at 1600 × 900 pixels or larger for the featured image. Portrait photos work well inside the article.
• Add a one-line description of each image so we can write accurate alt text and captions.
• Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube and Vimeo embeds are welcome. Send the official link.
• Share files through a Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer link. Please don’t attach them.

Disclosure and sponsored content

Tell us up front about any relationship you have with the subject of your article, whether you are their publicist, manager, label, agent, employer, client, investor, family member or friend. Disclosing a relationship doesn’t disqualify a pitch, but hiding one does.

We offer paid placement alongside our independent editorial coverage. Paid articles are labeled so readers can tell them apart from editorial. Payment covers placement. It doesn’t buy favorable coverage, an undisclosed endorsement, a guaranteed publication date, search rankings or inclusion in AI-generated answers. Sponsored articles meet every standard on this page, including the one-link rule and the list of topics we don’t accept.

Editing, bylines and corrections

• We edit everything. Expect changes for accuracy, clarity, length, house style, headline, subheadings and search titles. We may also add an FAQ section, internal links, image captions and structured data.
• We have the final say. We can decline an article at any stage, including after edits. Submitting doesn’t guarantee review, publication, a date or a placement.
• Bylines. Contributed articles run under the contributor’s name with a short bio or under our editorial desk byline. Our editors decide which, and if your article runs under your name, we ask you for a bio.
• Corrections. If we get something wrong, tell us through our contact form. We review every request and correct or update the story. The subject of an article can ask for a correction at any time.

How to submit

Send everything through our contact form and include:

• Your proposed angle or headline, and why it matters now
• Your draft as a Google Doc link with comment access, or a short pitch if you haven’t written it yet
• The one link you want included and the anchor text you suggest
• Your photos and their credits, as a shared-folder link
• Any relationship you have with the subject, as described in the disclosure section above

Artists pitching their own release should also read our submission page. It explains what to send and when.

Frequently asked questions