Write for City Hall Watcher

Freelance contributors

Ongoing opportunity

City Hall Watcher, the best and only independent newsletter focused exclusively on Toronto City Hall, is looking for freelance contributors.

The newsletter is seeking Toronto-based writers who can pull off an accessible, conversational tone (with some jokes), while meeting deadlines and working mostly solo. Excellent research skills are a must. Experience working with charts and other dataviz would be real nice. Past experience covering municipal politics and knowledge of how Toronto’s city government works could be an asset, but isn’t strictly required, so long as you’re a fast learner.

Get in touch with a brief pitch if you have an idea for a story about anything municipal: city financing, housing, transportation, transit, arts & culture, garbage, or — especially — trees.

Freelance contributors to City Hall Watcher will be paid on a per-contribution basis, with competitive freelance rates.

If you’re interested, please send your résumé and some examples of relevant writing to Matt Elliott, publisher of City Hall Watcher, at graphicmatt@gmail.com.

About City Hall Watcher

City Hall Watcher is the best and only newsletter focused exclusively on Toronto City Hall. Started by freelance journalist Matt Elliott in January 2019, the newsletter publishes weekly on Substack to an audience of about 1,000 paying subscribers, including members of Toronto Council, senior staff, lobbyists, activists and a wonderful group of municipal government nerds. City Hall Watcher will mark its 250th issue later this year. The newsletter is regularly cited for its reach and influence, and is a past winner for Best Editorial Newsletter at the Digital Publishing Awards.

About Matt Elliott

The publisher, editor and all-around everything for City Hall Watcher, Matt Elliott has a decade-long career as a freelance journalist covering City Hall. He has contributed to CBC, Metro, Spacing, Torontoist, Toronto Storeys and more. He currently writes a weekly column about municipal issues for the Toronto Star. He also teaches journalism at Humber College. He’s got a couple of cats and one human baby.