Contributor Guidelines

LP Magazine‘s mission is to provide in-depth, timely articles on topics of the highest interest to loss prevention, security, and retail management professionals. As a complementary outlet to the magazine, the LPM online news portal publishes daily posts on subjects relevant to our readership. The majority of posts appear in our daily e-newsletter.

With the portal and e-newsletter, LPM offers a platform that reaches thousands of industry readers daily. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we maintain our commitment to high-quality journalism that is accurate, meaningful, and vivid.

LPM’s site publishes articles of various lengths and on many different topics. If you have quality content to share, we’d love for you to contribute. We encourage the LP community to participate in the overall industry conversation.

NOTE: Although articles from an LP practitioner’s perspective make up a large portion of our content, you do not have to work in loss prevention to contribute an article. We also welcome relevant submissions from individuals in IT, HR, operations, management, and supply chain, for example.

Why Write for Us?

  • Share your ideas in front of thousands of daily site visitors
  • Network within the retail LP industry
  • Raise your brand awareness

What We’re Looking For

The following guidelines refer to LPM’s online platforms and outlets. For information about contributing to the print magazine, please contact Stefanie Hoover at stefanieh@losspreventionmedia.com.

For digital channels, we’re looking for contributed content that is…

  • Useful. Our readers want significant takeaways and actual, helpful advice they can use today in their jobs.
  • We want original content. We do not want posts that appear in other blogs or posts about topics we have already covered extensively.
  • Exceptional in terms of quality. Typos are okay, but lazy writing won’t cut it. LPM publishes content that is well-researched and thoughtful.
  • Non-promotional in nature. LPM will not publish pieces intended as marketing vehicles for your company or product. Any included links, such as related industry research, must be beneficial to readers and are subject to removal. No more than one link to your company may be used in the body of the article.
  • Properly attributed and ethical. Ensure all data, quotations, and external research sources are cited appropriately.
  • Thorough. Posts tend to be between 700 and 1,500 words.
  • Geared towards our audience.  LPM’s readers run the gamut of experience levels when it comes to the loss prevention and retail industry. We have readers at the store level up to C-level executives. We furnish our readership with information that will help them in their day-to-day lives in the loss prevention industry.
  • Topics covered. We cover access control, burglary prevention, cybersecurity, data protection, diversity and inclusion, employee theft, integrated surveillance solutions, inventory shrinkage, loss prevention, loss prevention technology, professional development, retail fraud, retail industry, retail security, shoplifting, organized retail crime, supply chain, and workplace safety.

Types of posts we will accept:

  • Research and case studies
  • Unbiased technology or product reviews
  • In-depth guides or tutorials
  • Expert commentary on hot topics. A little controversy is welcome.
  • Thought leadership or interpretation of recent trends and industry events
  • Practical solutions to common LP or retail problems
  • Personal experiences in the world of LP or retail

Types of posts we will not accept:

  • Anything self-serving or advertorial in nature.
  • Anything that does not match our audience. If you do not take the time to research our editorial and the type of articles we publish, we can determine that quickly and will not waste our time reviewing your contribution.

The Process

Please email your submissions [Word doc, image files, and short author bio with headshot] to stefanieh@losspreventionmedia.com. Full posts are preferred, but proposals and pitches are okay, too. We will not provide topics upon request, but we may provide feedback on pitch ideas. Articles will usually be evaluated within 5 to 7 business days. We reserve the right to decline or agree to publish only with modifications.

Note that all posts published must have an accompanying feature image that can be cropped to 1280x720px. We prefer to use images contributed with guest posts as they are often the most illustrative. We encourage contributors to attach a suggested featured image and any other infographics or images they’d like to use when submitting a draft. You MUST have permission to use any images you provide.

If a submitted post is a good fit for LPM’s readership, we will make any necessary tweaks and adjustments and, optionally, return the draft for author approval. Once approved, it will be scheduled for appearance on our website and in the e-newsletter. We will work together to establish a reasonable publication date, depending on the timeliness of the subject matter. We do NOT pay for contributed articles.

Published articles may be shared across our social platforms on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We encourage authors to share the URL with their social followers as well.

If you have any questions, please contact us.