After a few weeks exploring Norway and Svalbard with the acclaimed cruise line Hurtigruten — cycling through Longyearbyen under the midnight sun, sailing the Norwegian coast, spotting polar bears from my cabin, and spending 10 days above the Arctic Circle—I’m finally home.
As wonderful as the trip was, returning from an adventure like that means facing the less glamorous side of freelance life: jet lag, hundreds of emails, invoices, interview transcripts, photo organization, and figuring out which stories to pitch where. That’s also why you’ve probably noticed my Substack has been a little quiet lately.
As I worked through my inbox this week, one type of email kept popping up:
“Just checking in to see if you’ve heard anything from the editor.”
I completely understand why.
Public relations professionals are accountable to their clients. Tourism boards, hotels, cruise lines, and destinations invest time and resources in hosting journalists, and naturally they want to know when a story will appear. They’re asked for updates, and they’re simply passing that request along.
But it reminded me of something that isn’t talked about very often in our industry.
Editorial timelines rarely move on anyone else’s schedule.
Right now, I have story pitches sitting with editors at multiple major publications. Some are for annual “Best Places to Go” lists. Others are destination features, food stories, or trend pieces. Each one is at a different stage of the process, and none of them is moving at the same pace.
From the outside, it can feel like nothing is happening.
Behind the scenes, quite a lot is.
An editor may love the idea but be waiting for the annual editorial calendar to come together. A publication might already have several stories from the same region and need to spread out coverage. Budgets change. Staff members leave. Editorial priorities shift. Sometimes the timing simply isn’t right—until suddenly it is.
One of the biggest misconceptions in travel media is that editors make decisions quickly.
Some do.
Many don’t.
Here’s how unpredictable it can be.
I traveled to Bolivia in November 2025. I continued reporting, interviewing sources, and refining the story before filing it in July 2026. As I write this, it still hasn’t been published. That’s completely normal.
On the other hand, I visited Florida’s Sports Coast in January 2025. The editor accepted my pitch almost immediately. Great news, right? Except the story was scheduled for a January 2027 print issue—nearly two years after the trip.
Neither timeline is unusual.
I’ve had stories accepted within 24 hours, while others have come back nearly a year after I first pitched them. More than once, I’d assumed a story wasn’t going anywhere, only to receive an email months later saying, “We’re finally ready for this.”
That’s why I never assume silence means rejection.
More often than not, it simply means the story is still making its way through the editorial process.
This can be frustrating for PR professionals because they’re often caught in the middle. Their clients understandably want results, but freelance writers don’t control editorial calendars. We can’t speed up an editor’s decision, and repeated follow-ups rarely change the outcome. Editors are juggling hundreds of pitches, assignments, deadlines, and meetings. They respond when they’re ready.
The PR partners I value most understand this. They know I’ll share news as soon as I have it. They trust the process, even when there isn’t much to report.
For fellow freelancers, my advice is this: don’t let one trip produce just one story.
While one pitch sits with an editor, I’m developing different angles from the same reporting trip for other publications. A destination can inspire a food story, a sustainability feature, a family travel piece, a wellness angle, a cultural profile, or a trend story. One assignment should lead to many opportunities.
That’s one of the advantages of freelance journalism—and one of the reasons patience pays off.
Travel journalism has always been a long game.
The stories that make the biggest impact often take the longest to reach readers.
I’d love to hear from both sides of the industry. If you’re a PR professional, what’s the longest you’ve waited for coverage? If you’re a journalist, what’s the biggest gap you’ve had between taking a trip and seeing your story published?
Please take a moment to read my Substack post about what I cover and the kinds of stories I would like to be pitched. Please do not follow up asking for deadlines, outlets, etc. I will reach out with details if your pitch is a good fit.
Sicily (going: September 2026)
I’m actively researching stories in and around Sicily and would welcome conversations regarding hosted media stays, boutique hotels, sustainable tourism experiences, culinary programs, agritourism properties, food producers, and unique cultural experiences.
Gift Guides (publishing: November 2026)
Planning ahead, as testing products consumes a lot of my time. I am looking for products related to travel, lifestyle, and culinary, but really anything worth giving and receiving.
Northeast India (going: December 2026)
I am heading to India and would love to do a media visit in the Northeast states - specifically Assam, Meghalaya & Orissa. If you represent any hotels or tour operators in the area, let me know.
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I Thought I Knew How to Eat. Then Mexico Taught Me Otherwise - Go Eat Give
In Search of the Perfect Mango - Khabar Magazine (Print)
How Just 10 Words in Japanese Changed My Trip in Kyushu - The Real World by Trafalgar
The Leadership Secret Hidden in Uganda’s Chimpanzee Forests - Go Eat Give
Safari, Southern Style: A Wildly Luxurious Escape Outside Atlanta - Social Atlanta
Trailblazing Indy - AAA The Extra Mile (Print)
Is ‘Pasture-Raised’ Chicken Worth The Price? Here’s The Truth - HuffPost
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