Write for Alfred McAlpine plc
Alfred McAlpine plc was one of the best known names in British construction and support services, with businesses in civil engineering, highways, utilities, facilities management, PFI and property. This site preserves that record and publishes new material on the industry the company helped to shape. Our readers are people who work in and around the UK built environment: contractors, consultants, facilities managers, suppliers and those studying the industry's history. If you write knowledgeably for that audience, this write for us page explains what we publish and how to submit an article.
What we publish
We are looking for informed, practical and historically accurate articles on:
- UK construction company history and heritage, including the McAlpine family firms and their contemporaries
- Civil engineering and infrastructure: highways, rail, utilities and major public works
- Facilities management, asset management and the outsourcing of building maintenance
- PFI and public sector partnerships in health, education, leisure and transport
- Health and safety, quality and workforce development on site
- Construction economics, procurement and the business of contracting
Well-sourced retrospectives on landmark projects and clear explainers on how the modern industry works both do well with our readers.
Guest posts and sponsored articles
We accept two kinds of contribution. A guest post is contributed editorial from a practitioner, historian or industry writer. A sponsored post is a paid placement from a business that wants to reach our readers, such as a contractor, an equipment or materials supplier, a facilities services company or a professional adviser to the sector. Both are published on the same terms: the article is permanent, it is indexed by search engines, and any editorial link in it is a standard dofollow link. We do not remove published articles later unless there is a factual error or a legal reason to do so.
Sponsored posts are labelled as sponsored where disclosure is required, and we ask that any commercial interest behind a guest post is declared to us at the pitch stage. Pricing for sponsored placements is available on request; tell us what you have in mind and we will reply with a quote. Typical turnaround from accepted draft to publication is three to five working days.
Guidelines
Our contributor guidelines are brief. Please read them before you submit an article.
- Original work only. The article must not have appeared anywhere else, and we do not accept spun or machine-rewritten copy.
- 800 words or more. Longer pieces are welcome where the subject justifies it.
- One or two relevant links to sources, project records or your own site are acceptable, provided they serve the reader.
- No gambling, adult or pharmaceutical content, and nothing unrelated to construction, infrastructure, property or the built environment.
- An author bio of two or three sentences is optional.
- We edit for house style, accuracy and length, and we use British English. Substantive changes are shown to you before publication.
- Send drafts as plain text, Word or Google Docs. Images should be attached separately with a credit and permission to use them.
How to pitch
Email the editor at [email protected] with the subject line "Guest post: [your topic]". A short pitch is enough to start: a working title, three or four sentences on the angle and why our readers would care, and whether you are proposing a guest post or a sponsored post. Finished drafts are welcome if you have one. We answer every pitch, usually within two working days, and we will say clearly if a subject is not a fit so you can place it elsewhere.
Whether you want to write for us, submit an article you have already prepared, or discuss a sponsored post, the address is the same: [email protected].
