Are you an expert, or just extraordinarily well informed, about business, education, energy, environment, government, health care, justice, media, politics or transportation? If so, we would welcome your essays, analysis, and opinion pieces on these topics as they apply at the local level.

Caveat: Because The Austin Bulldog operates under the umbrella of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity, we must observe certain restrictions to preserve our tax-exempt status: We cannot publish anything that attempts to influence legislation or that supports or opposes any candidate for public office. Instead, we will report and comment on legislation and political campaigns to provide pertinent facts that would permit members of the public to form an independent opinion or conclusion about the qualifications of the political candidates and legislation.

Commentary needs to be short, tightly written pieces of 400 to 800 words. Or, if you prefer, commentary may be submitted as a video of up to five minutes in length.

Use wit, humor and anything else in your creative arsenal that will heighten interest in what you have to say.

Self-edit and polish your commentary. Include a one-sentence description of yourself at the bottom of the article.

When you're satisfied with the article, e-mail it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In addition, e-mail a photo (mug shot) of yourself. (If you have a photo of yourself that you like, we can use it. Otherwise, a photo taken with a cell-phone camera should be adequate, although one taken with a digital camera would be better. Since we will only publish your face in the photo, be sure the photo is a closeup.)

We will edit the piece and if it meets our standards we will publish it on this website as soon as possible. We reserve the right to reject commentary that does not comply with these guidelines.

Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all the articles we publish can be republished at no charge if credit is given to the author and The Austin Bulldog, a link to The Austin Bulldog website is provided, and our articles are not edited or sold. Our articles are licensed through Creative Commons, which provides the legal details.

Please do not submit commentary on topics that are not listed above, as we need to use our limited resources to focus where we can do the most good. Also, please do not submit work previously published or that has been submitted for publication elsewhere.

We welcome question-and-answer interviews with local people who are doing important work in business, education, energy, environment, government, health care, justice, media, politics and transportation.

However, to promote fairness in our political coverage, during election cycles we will not publish Q&A interviews with candidates running for election or reelection. Instead, our election coverage will be provided in the context of research and reporting.

If you're at all in doubt about whether the person you want to interview would qualify within these guidelines, check with us before setting up the interview. E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Ken at 512-474-1022.

We welcome Q&A interviews with high achievers, people who have helped to make Austin the fabulous city that it is. These are people who recognize that while Austin is not perfect they nevertheless value what this city has to offer and they work to make it better, just as this city helps them to be better people.

Know someone like this? Great! Or is there someone you have admired and always wanted to know more about? That's great, too!

Here's what to do.

Once you've decided who you want to interview, please use the "All Q&As" Search link to make sure that we haven't already published a Q&A with that person. If not, you're good to go.

Make up a short list of important questions. Forget the résumés. Be certain your questions focus on the importance of what this person is working on right now.

Then, get an appointment.

Written interviews: If you are going to write the Q&A interview article, you must record your interview.

Why record? Because accuracy is really important. The person you interview needs to have faith that you are accurately getting down what's being said. Look on it as cheap insurance.

Then transcribe the interview, spell check it, and self-edit the resulting article. So keep your questions to the point, make them interesting, and try not to ramble (you or the person you're interviewing).

When you're satisfied with the piece, e-mail it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In addition, e-mail a photo (mug shot) of the person you interviewed. (If the person has a photo of themselves that they like, we can use it. Otherwise, a photo taken with a cell-phone camera should be adequate, although one taken with a digital camera would be better. Since we will only publish the person's face in the photo, be sure to take a closeup.)

Video interviews: You have the option to do the Q&A interview with a video recording and submit that instead of a written article.

Q&A videos should be no more than eight minutes long. As with written Q&A interviews, you should self-edit the video.

When you're satisfied with the piece, e-mail it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We will edit the video and if it meets our standards we will publish it on this website as soon as possible. We reserve the right to reject interviews that do not comply with the above guidelines.

Topics are restricted: Please do not interview anyone who works outside the topics named above, as we need to use our limited resources to focus where we can do the most good.

Also, please do not submit work previously published or that has been submitted for publication elsewhere.

Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all the articles we publish can be republished at no charge if credit is given to the author and The Austin Bulldog, a link to The Austin Bulldog website is provided, and our articles are not edited or sold. Our articles are licensed through Creative Commons, which provides the legal details.

The Investigative Reporters Handbook, published by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., defines investigative reporting as the reporting, through one’s own initiative and work product, of matters of importance to readers. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed.

Other journalists have described investigative reporting as journalism that "engages the public to come to judgment," and "reporting with a sense of outrage."

The investigation must be the work of the reporter, not a report of an investigation made by someone else.

We welcome investigative articles involving business, education, energy, environment, government, health care, justice, media, politics and transportation, and anything else warranting close scrutiny. As long as it's local, or has a strong local angle, it's fair game.

Investigative reporting is generally time consuming and usually deals with sensitive situations. This is the kind of reporting that demands the abilities of seasoned professional journalists.

Non-journalists are encouraged to submit ideas for investigative stories.

In addition, we may on occasion use the Bulldog Blog, Facebook and Twitter to announce the broad topic of a story we’re working on and ask for your ideas on how it should be covered, angles that should not be overlooked, sources of information that might be helpful.

We may post documents on the site and ask for your help in analyzing and understanding them.

If you're a professional journalist and have ideas for investigative reporting projects, it's best to query before undertaking too much work. It will save a lot of time—and will help to endear us to your proposal—if you pitch only developed ideas that fully describe the topic and your desired approach.

Please e-mail your queries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call Ken Martin at 512-474-1022.

Before agreeing to collaborate with you on the project, we will need to see a few published writing samples that demonstrate your best work. We need to be convinced of your ability to complete the project and see it through the editing process to meet professional standards.

We set high standards for our investigative reporting. It must be accurate. It must be factual. It must be fair. We adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Please make it clear in your query whether you want to undertake an investigative project as a community service, acting as an unpaid volunteer, or you want to be paid for the work.

Given the financial constraints of The Austin Bulldog, which operates under the umbrella of a nonprofit charity, when payment is requested for an investigative project, we may have to post it to our Contribute page to appeal for crowdfunding by our readers, that is, to post a short synopsis of the story, how the investigation will help, and who will perform the investigation. To do this, we would need to know how much money the reporter is requesting to complete the project. This figure must be stated as a flat fee—not an hourly rate—and that fee must cover the entire cost of the project including all expenses.

We will add 20 percent to the reporter's stated fee to help defray our costs.

We will only post investigative projects for crowdfunding when we think the reporting is important to our readers, we believe the writer has the ability to carry out the project successfully, and the project is beyond our immediate ability to back financially. Once posted, however, we will do our utmost to market the project with our audience to help raise funds.

I will confirm all investigative assignments in writing via e-mail, to be sure that the reporter's expectations are in line with our needs. I will include detailed guidance such as what elements the investigation should include, the expected length, the deadline, the writer's fee, and when it will be paid. Generally, payment will be mailed within 10 business days after an article has been received, edited (including the writer’s satisfactory response to all questions raised in the editing process), and deemed ready for publication on The Austin Bulldog website.

I make every effort to create a relationship that nurtures journalists by being straightforward, honoring agreements, and paying on time. If you want to write for a high-quality publication, have talent, and can produce compelling material for our audience, I welcome your queries.

Ken Martin
Founder, editor and publisher
512-474-1022
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it