Velo’s staff writes thousands of stories across the road, gravel, and e-bike world, serving up millions of pages every year. In addition to our own coverage, we are a platform for riders, artists, brands, events, and manufacturers to showcase their work to the cycling community.
Are you a reader who’d like to submit a personal project? A rider that’s been working on a story for consideration? A brand that would like to submit a product press release? An event organizer looking to submit a local event report? An adventurer with a story to tell?
Awesome—we’d love to see your work! But please keep in mind that we receive hundreds of videos, press releases, stories, and other content every week. While we can’t guarantee running any particular item, following this guide will dramatically increase your chances of getting on the homepage.
Please choose the appropriate submission form below:
- Gear press release (new products, announcements, etc.)
- Event announcement
- Ride or event report (events, records, personal projects)
Guidelines
- Always include complete descriptions, we want to share the whole story.
- Write clearly, addressing who/what/when/where/why and when.
- Include pricing, availability, and other relevant info.
- Include photos and/or video. Press Releases without imagery will not be posted.
- Do not include unsubstantiated claims. “We believe this to be the best handlebar on the market” is fine, but “This helmet has been scientifically proven to be the safest” is not, unless you provide compelling independent evidence for your claims. If your claims are outlandish or hyperbolic we won’t publish them.
- Do not imply an endorsement from our technical editors.
- No writing about yourself in the 3rd person.
- No self-produced “interviews.”
- Don’t use Velo’s editorial titles (eg. First Look, Reports, My Favorite Things, etc.).
- Don’t mimic Velo’s bike test formatting, or do anything else that may mislead readers.
- Get it to us ahead of time. We don’t like being late.
- Include a maximum of 1 link or call-to-action per submission
- Date the release and include whether the material is for immediate release or delayed release. If your content has an embargo, please make note of it in your submission.
- Unless otherwise requested, appropriate releases go out ASAP. If the embargo specifies a day but not a time zone, we’ll generally release it at 12:01 am, Pacific Standard Time.
- Press releases embargoed for Monday mornings should be submitted by the previous Thursday at the absolute latest. We strive to be timely, but don’t guarantee any timing for content submitted over the weekend.
- Be timely. Event reports should be submitted within a day or two of the event.
- Make yourself available for additional info.
- Identify the organization or individual sending the release.
- Include the name, phone number, and email of someone we can contact if we have questions
Rejection
- We post only a fraction of the content we receive. In the event your submission is not accepted for publication, we’re sorry. Generally we are not able to give a reason for rejection. If your submission is amazing and we want to run it but it’s missing something critical, we will reach out.
Common reasons for rejection:
- Quality of content — we have high standards and our readers do too. We always prioritize content that is authentic and exciting, with compelling visuals and engaging storytelling. If a submission is super short, or super long, or super product-heavy, or we just aren’t that into it, it’s unlikely to be featured.
- Relevance — we’re excited about all kinds of cycling, from grand tour racing, to bikepacking, to e-cargo, to gravel. That being said, we aren’t likely to post a press release for bikes and gear we aren’t excited about.
- Technical issues — low resolution imagery, poor grammar, CAPS LOCK, etc. all contribute to the decision to reject content.
- Language — racism, misogyny, hate-speech, or any other sort of bigoted language or behavior is unacceptable on Velo. That includes song lyrics in submitted videos.
Advertorials — we appreciate brands submitting high quality press releases to us, but do not post anything that is written to mimic an endorsement from our technical editors. Eg. no 3rd party “interviews,” Velo/Outside logos, or anything else that may mislead readers. - Crowdfunding — we generally don’t publish crowdfunding stories, fundraisers, or press releases.
- Shady stuff — please don’t include any affiliate links, user tracking, plagiarized or stolen content, 3rd party contests, unverified product claims, links to other media sites, etc.
- Obtrusive watermarks or borders — we respect photographers using clean watermarks on their images, but we don’t post any stories with large, obtrusive watermarks on the images. Please don’t put any borders on your images.
Support
If you run into any issues, contact velo@outsideonline.com with relevant info and we’ll take a look. We deal with a high volume of emails, so if your question is answered in this guide we may not be able to respond.