Write for the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum's Blog platform

Where can you read articles on topics as varied as the future of work or the ethical challenges in Artificial Intelligence? On what site would you see both analysis on how digital payment systems are transforming lives in Ethiopia and leadership advice from top CEOs? What single platform can help you understand complex global issues such as climate change, trade and migration? Forum Stories.

The platform is available to partners, constituents and expert networks of the Forum, who are invited to share their thought leadership with a public audience. Authors include Nobel laureates, heads of international organizations and UN bodies, labour leaders, top CEOs and business leaders, academics, religious figures and heads of state.

If you work with the Forum, engage with its centres or contribute to its meetings and initiatives, read on to find out how to submit an idea to us.

Submitting ideas

Please submit your idea through this portal, outlining the three key points you intend to address in your article. We urge you to read through recent articles related to your topic of interest to ensure that you don’t pitch a duplicate idea.

What happens after I submit?

If your submission is NOT tied to a World Economic Forum event, meeting or milestone

We aim to get back to you within two weeks. If we commission your article, you’ll be invited to submit your final draft to us by email. The best pieces take time to review, edit and package, so please make sure to share your draft with us at least two weeks before you’re aiming to have it published.

If your submission IS tied to a World Economic Forum event, meeting or milestone

Please work with your operational contact, Forum contact, or communications lead to centralize and curate ideas before you submit them. Once agreed, please tag the relevant milestone or event in the submission. Specific deadlines and instructions will be communicated around these milestones.

Due to a high volume of submissions, we unfortunately cannot accept all blog ideas.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail ForumEditorialTeam@weforum.org.

Our editorial principles

It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing about the energy transition or global risks, as long as you do so in a way that will appeal to a broad audience. You’ll draw readers in with an interesting argument that flows towards a clear conclusion. Articles should be 800-1,000 words in length - concise writing forces you to prioritize and clarify your argument.

We are looking for ideas that are:

  • Relevant to the Forum's mission and specific work: Discuss the big issues in the world and show how the work of the Forum and its expert network in a particular area is relevant, unique and impactful in addressing that topic. Build a connection to a specific piece of knowledge or emphasize the current and future concrete outcomes from a collaboration hosted by the Forum.
  • Fact-based, objective and data-rich: Enhance the Forum’s reputation as a trusted source of reliable, objective, rational and fact-based analysis and debate. Back up assertions with data from credible, well-recognized sources, including our own, and stay at the cutting edge of thought leadership through powerful data visualization whenever possible.
  • Impartial, inclusive and accessible: Research topics well and use accessible language to demystify complex issues and help make the biggest issues of the day understandable and relevant to our audiences. Tackle hard topics with care and consider viewpoints from across regions, genders, ethnicities, demographic groups and political continua.
  • Positive, solution-oriented and forward-thinking: The audience should learn something new or get a fresh perspective through the “future-orientation” that often sets the Forum’s work apart. Tell genuine stories of positive change, demonstrating practical and scalable ways humanity can address big challenges while ensuring that you contextualize these, discuss any drawbacks and consider reasonable counter arguments. When the piece is focused on new analysis, please ensure you present why it matters and tie it to potential solutions.
  • Context-relevant: Tap into news, trending stories and key moments on the global agenda to enhance the relevance and connection of our blog content to the external context.

What to avoid

Self-promotion: Avoid “greenwashing”, PR, “pinkwashing”, or virtue signalling. If you use your organization or team's work to illustrate a point you also need to work in other examples.

Assumptions about the audience perspective: Don’t assume that our audience shares the same perspectives on the issues we cover. While proven facts on the big issues are not up for debate, views might differ on how we should tackle those problems.

Jargon/acronyms or stories with a narrow appeal: Readership of the blog reaches beyond a specialized audience. Avoid jargon or acronyms whose meaning might not be clear to the general public. This doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear about niche topics – we just want you to find an angle that will appeal to a broad audience.

Shaming: Avoid shaming companies/countries/individuals, and, instead, seek to convey positive messages and solutions while remaining realistic about challenges.

Ideas we’ve already featured: all pieces should address a new topic or put a fresh spin on an old one.

What works well?

All of the examples we’ve hyperlinked throughout these guidelines have performed really well in terms of both views and reading time (a good measure of quality). Have a read through them and see if they provide inspiration. You might also want to consider following one of these formats:

A provoking Op-Ed:What everyone misses when it comes to cyber attacks
A numbered list: 5 reasons we must embrace nuclear energy in the fight against climate change
A prediction: This is what the future holds for cryptocurrencies
An explainer-style piece: What is antimicrobial resistance and how can we tackle it?
A summary of research: Pioneering science reveals set of 'earth system boundaries' that can secure a safe and just planet for all
A question to be answered: How can we bring 2.6 billion people online to bridge the digital divide?

Our publishing terms

  • We publish under creative commons and share the right to republish with non-commercial publishers.
  • We have the right to remove published articles from the site at our own discretion.
  • Sources must be hyperlinked not referenced as footnotes.
  • We can’t consider multiple drafts - please only share drafts that are reviewed and final on your side.
  • If you realize there is a factual error in your draft please email us flagging where the mistake is and how to fix it - do not send a new draft.
  • We will share major edits and queries before publishing but will make minor changes for clarity, flow and house style without approval.
  • We carefully choose headlines and images that reflect your work while making an impact with our audience. While you’re welcome to make suggestions or flag sensitivities, we retain editorial control.
  • We can coordinate timing to tie in with an embargo or news peg.
  • We’ll send you a link once your blog is published - please share on social media. You’re welcome to repost the text in full on your own or your organization’s blog with a link back to the original.
  • The use of artificial intelligence - specifically LLMs - should be limited to generating ideas or helping with structure, but not as a sole research tool or to generate unedited or unverified content. Authors/creators using LLM tools for background work should set this out clearly when submitting the idea. The Forum’s reputation carries with it accountability and a need for fresh thinking.