The best way to get featured in HuffPost in 2026 from the UK in 2026 is a named, editorial feature. HuffPost is one of the most-read news and lifestyle sites in the world. Plenty of agencies still sell a “guaranteed HuffPost feature”. They cannot deliver one honestly, because HuffPost does not sell articles and closed its open contributor platform years ago. This page explains what is real in 2026, how we work a HuffPost pitch, and which guaranteed placements reach a similar audience when you need certainty.
HuffPost in 2026: what it is and who reads it
HuffPost launched in 2005 as The Huffington Post. It has been owned by BuzzFeed Inc. since February 2021, when BuzzFeed bought it from Verizon Media. Its Moz Domain Authority sits in the mid-90s, which puts it in the same bracket as the biggest news brands online.
The site is organised around a small number of desks: News and Politics, Entertainment, Life (wellness, relationships, parenting, food, money), HuffPost Personal (first-person essays), and Shopping (product round-ups written by staff). The audience is broad and mainly American, with a UK edition that runs its own news and lifestyle coverage. Readers come for accessible news, strong opinions and personal stories rather than corporate announcements.
The contributor platform closed in January 2018, and that changed everything in 2026
For a decade HuffPost let roughly 100,000 outside contributors publish under their own byline. That is where most “get featured in HuffPost” services came from: someone with a contributor login would post your article. In January 2018 HuffPost shut the platform down. Since then every article is written by staff, commissioned freelancers or, for HuffPost Personal, writers who pitched an essay and had it accepted by an editor.
If a supplier promises a HuffPost byline for a fee in 2026, ask which of those three groups they belong to. The honest answer is none of them.
Two ways to appear in HuffPost, and neither is for sale
- Be the source or the subject of a staff story. Reporters cover news, trends and people. A founder with a genuinely new data point, a company at the centre of a live story, or an expert who can explain something in plain words gets quoted or profiled. This is classic earned media: a targeted pitch to a named journalist, followed by an interview.
- Write for HuffPost Personal. The essays desk accepts pitches for first-person pieces about real experiences. Accepted writers are edited and paid by HuffPost. It is not a marketing channel: a plug for your product will be cut, and the story has to stand on its own. It works well for founders with an unusual life story rather than a product launch.
How United Press works a HuffPost pitch
We treat HuffPost as an earned target and say so in writing before you spend a penny. The work looks like this:
- Desk mapping. We identify the three or four reporters or editors whose recent pieces overlap with your story, and read what they published in the last month.
- Angle testing. We draft two or three angles and drop the ones that only interest you. HuffPost wants what interests its readers.
- The pitch. About 150 words, one hard number or one human moment, a named spokesperson who can talk the same day, and one follow-up a week later. No attachments, no press release pasted into the email.
- Spokesperson prep. A short call so the interview produces usable quotes.
Timelines run from two to eight weeks and the outcome is never guaranteed. If a reporter passes, we tell you why and move to the next angle or the next title. Read our guides to getting featured in the BBC and TechCrunch for how the same approach works on other earned-only titles.
Guaranteed alternatives that reach a similar audience
When you need a live link by a fixed date, we place a full sponsored feature in high-authority titles that accept partner content. These are labelled as sponsored or partner content in line with each publisher’s rules, carry a do-follow link, and are written by us to the title’s house style. Current examples from our inventory:
- Business Insider for founder and business stories, outside date about three weeks from copy approval. See Business Insider placements.
- Elite Daily (Moz DA 88) for lifestyle and Gen Z readers, outside date three to four weeks. See Elite Daily placements.
- Mediaite (DA 83) for media, politics and opinion, outside date about three weeks. See Mediaite placements.
- Complex (DA 89) for culture, music and streetwear, outside date three to four weeks. See Complex placements.
For an announcement that needs to travel widely rather than deeply, press release syndication puts the same story on Yahoo Finance, AP News partner pages and hundreds of local news sites within days, usually with a nofollow link. Our full list of titles is on the publications page.
What a HuffPost editor stops for
- A number nobody else has published: your own survey, your own sales data, a pattern you can prove.
- A personal story with a public-interest edge: the founder who left a career, the parent who built the product they could not buy.
- Expert comment on a story that broke today, delivered within hours, in plain English.
- A cultural moment your brand sits inside, not a product launch dressed up as one.
- Photography that is real, not a stock image or a rendered mock-up.
What we guarantee, and what we do not
We guarantee the work: the desk research, the pitches, the follow-ups and a written report of who was approached and what they said. We do not guarantee that HuffPost publishes, because no honest agency can. Where a sponsored feature is available in another title, we guarantee publication or refund the placement fee. That distinction is written into every proposal we send.
Want a plan for HuffPost and the guaranteed titles around it? Tell us about your story and we will reply within one working day.
Questions we are asked about HuffPost
Can United Press guarantee a feature in HuffPost?
No, and nobody can. HuffPost does not sell articles and closed its contributor platform in January 2018. We pitch HuffPost as earned media and guarantee publication only in titles that accept sponsored features.
How long does a HuffPost pitch take?
Two to eight weeks from the first pitch, depending on the news cycle and how quickly your spokesperson can speak to a reporter. Guaranteed sponsored features elsewhere take about three to four weeks from copy approval.
Does a HuffPost mention include a link to my website?
Only if the journalist decides it is useful to readers. Links in HuffPost editorial are at the writer’s discretion and may be nofollow. Sponsored features in our partner titles carry a do-follow link as standard.
What does it cost to get featured in HuffPost?
You cannot buy a HuffPost article. You pay us for the campaign work around the pitch. Sponsored features in comparable titles are quoted per title; ask us for a plan and we will set out the options in writing.