Pitch to Headway: What’s Your Big Idea?

Headway is a small team at The New York Times that explores the world’s biggest challenges through the lens of progress.

That means we’re interested in stories that focus less on problems and more on potential solutions that have worked, that are working or that are showing promise. We cover efforts that examine or unpack progress in the built world — where it’s emerging, taking root, widely embraced, hotly debated or still in the experimental stage.

Our stories are deeply reported, visually rich and grounded in engagement. To get a sense of our work, here are a few areas we’ve focused on, along with recent examples:

• Housing: We’ve reported deeply on Houston’s approach to chronic homelessness, highlighted creative approaches to housing insecurity past and present, and profiled the unhoused experience of both individuals and the homeless population at large.

• Mobility: We’ve revisited Bogota’s bus system and examined how smaller-scale BRT projects are appearing in the U.S. We’ve looked at what it means to stop expanding highways, as well as the latest developments in intercity rail in Florida and nationwide.

• Public space: Our reporters have also spent significant time examining climate resiliency in both our backyards and public spaces.

• Safety: Lately, we’ve been shedding light on efforts to reduce community gun violence.

Journalists: If you have an idea you believe would be a good fit to publish with Headway, we’d love to hear it. Please fill out the form below with as much information as you have.

Note: We review pitches once a month and aim to respond within 30 days. Thanks for taking the time to share your idea.

The Headway initiative is funded through grants from the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors serving as a fiscal sponsor. The Woodcock Foundation is a funder of Headway’s public square. Funders have no control over the selection, focus or editing of articles, and they do not review stories before publication. The Times retains full editorial control of the Headway initiative.