Countertalk is the UK’s leading hospitality platform dedicated to creating meaningful change in the food and drink industry. Founded by Ravneet Gill in 2019, Countertalk connects hospitality professionals with quality jobs, practical resources, and a
passionate community built on shared values of fairness, transparency, and positive workplace culture.

The platform serves everyone in the industry, from first-job newcomers to multi-site operators, through vetted job listings, career advice, employer guidance, and opinion-led editorial content that sparks real conversation.

The editorial sections of the site are central to Countertalk’s mission. These are the spaces where industry voices share resources and real insight, challenge the status quo, and help move the sector forward.

Help & Resources

Practical, expert-led guidance on real issues facing hospitality workers and businesses. Recent examples include pieces on business rates reform, parental rights in the workplace, coaching teams through change, and managing multi-site operations. These articles and guides tackle legislation, financial pressures, HR challenges, and the everyday realities of running or working in a hospitality business.

Comment & Opinion Pieces

Punchy, debate-provoking commentary on issues affecting hospitality. These are the pieces that take a clear position, challenge conventional thinking, and get the industry talking. Think of these as hospitality’s editorial column: passionate, informed, informative and direct.

Career Advice

Content aimed at individuals building careers in hospitality, at every level. This includes career spotlights (first-person accounts of career journeys), guides on professional development and navigating workplace challenges.

Employer Advice

Content for business owners and operators on building better workplaces. Topics range from recruitment and retention to leadership, staff wellbeing, and creating positive kitchen culture.

If you’re looking for inspiration, these are the kinds of topics that resonate with the Countertalk community:

• Personal career stories — the honest, unpolished version
• Expert guides and demystifying hard-to-understand processes
• Hot takes and strong opinions about behaviours in hospitality, both operators
  and customers
• The economics of running a hospitality business — costs, margins, and survival
• Legislation and regulatory changes that affect workers and operators
• Workplace culture - the good, the bad, and how to build it
• Pay, service charge, and tipping — policy, fairness, and real-world impact
• Career progression – what it looks like and how it happens
• Leadership — challenges and resources
• Sustainability and ethical sourcing in practice (not just in marketing)
• Technology, AI, and the future of work in food and drink

• Diversity, equity, and representation — from kitchens to boardrooms

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Submission, Word Count & Format

• Submit your proposal in the body of email. This should include a suggested headline, a paragraph-long summary, and a few words on why you are well-placed to write this article.
• The finished piece should be maximum 1,800 words. This is the upper limit of the sweet spot between meaty value and audience attention.
• Submit the full draft as a Word document or Google Doc.
• Include a headshot and short bio (2–3 lines: your name, role, and where you work). This will appear as your byline.

No Self-Promotion

You cannot use your piece to promote your services, your products, or your clients. Countertalk gives you a byline at the top and a brief bio at the bottom identifying who you are and where you work — that is your credit.

Self-Promotion: What’s Not Allowed

• No mentions of your organisation’s name anywhere in the copy
• No use of ‘we’ or ‘our’ when referring to your business
• No links to your services, products, or client work
• No case studies that are thinly-veiled marketing

If you find yourself wanting to write ‘at my company, we do X’ — stop. Reframe it as general advice: ‘One approach that works well is X.’ The focus is on the reader, not on you.

Tone & Voice

Countertalk’s editorial voice is distinctive. It’s not stuffy trade-press writing and it’s not a LinkedIn post. Here’s what to aim for:

• Punchy and direct. Short sentences. Clear positions. Don’t hedge everything. Countertalk likes comment pieces that provoke further debate — so take a stand.
• Professional yet casual. It should feel like advice from a knowledgeable friend or mentor, not a corporate whitepaper. Write as if you’re explaining something important to a colleague over a coffee.
• Use your own voice. Your personal tone, emotion and experience. The best Countertalk pieces feel distinctly human rather than templated.
• Be constructive. While sharing tough times, whether individual or industry-wide, always focus on the lesson learned or how to make things better. Every piece should leave the reader with something actionable or a new way of thinking.

What Makes an Article Stand Out

• Timeliness — is this connected to something happening right now in the industry?
• A unique or expert angle on a familiar topic
• A clear, confident position
• Relevance and/or of interest to hospitality professionals at any level

Start Strong

The best Countertalk articles open with a hook that pulls the reader in immediately. Look at how existing pieces do it: a scene from a Friday night service, a confronting question, a statistic that stops you in your tracks, or a personal moment of realisation. The opening should make someone think ‘I need to keep reading.’

Use Data and Evidence

Where possible support your points with facts, stating statistics, references and credible sources. Countertalk pieces that land hardest blend opinion and experience with evidence. If you’re arguing that service charge legislation is broken, show the numbers. If you’re making the case for better mental health support, reference the research. Remember to include proper citations, linking to your sources or providing references the editorial team can verify.

Provide Practical Advice

Readers should walk away from your piece knowing something they didn’t before, or with a clear action they can take. Even opinion-led pieces should include takeaways: steps to implement, questions to ask, frameworks to apply, or conversations to start.

Highlight Positive Change

Countertalk exists to improve working conditions and culture in hospitality. Even when addressing problems, your piece should discuss solutions, perhaps spotlighting people or practices that are getting it right. The tone should always be challenging but hopeful.

Structure Matters

Countertalk articles use clear structure with subheadings that break the piece into digestible sections. Aim for a logical flow: set up the issue, explore it with evidence and experience, then land on a clear conclusion or call to action.

☐ Under 1,800 words?
✘ Does it contain any mentions of your organisation by name?
☐ Have you removed all uses of ‘we’ or ‘our’ that refer to your business?
☐ Is there a clear, compelling opening that hooks the reader?
☐ Have you taken a clear position or offered a distinct point of view?
☐ Is your piece supported with data, evidence, or credible references?
☐ Does the reader walk away with actionable advice or a fresh insight?
☐ Is the tone punchy, personal, and conversational — not corporate?
☐ Have you included subheadings to break up the text?
☐ Have you included a headshot and 2–3 line bio, including a link?
☐ Is this something that would spark a conversation in a Countertalk WhatsApp group?

✘ = This should NOT be present in your piece

Here’s what to expect once you’ve submitted:

• Review: The editorial team will review your pitch and come back to you, usually within a few working days.
• Feedback: If the topic is a fit but the angle or scope needs refining, the team will work with you on it. This is collaborative.
• Drafting: The team may suggest further edits for clarity, tone, or length.
• Publication: Your piece goes live on the Countertalk site with your byline and short bio. It may also be shared across Countertalk’s newsletters, social channels, and WhatsApp community groups.

• Credit: You retain your byline. Countertalk will credit you at the top and include your name, role, workplace and a relevant link at the bottom of the piece.

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Countertalk was built to give the hospitality industry a space to speak honestly about what’s broken, what’s brilliant, and what needs to change. The best contributor pieces aren’t polished PR exercises, they’re the ones where the author says something real, backs it up, and makes the reader think differently. Those deliver the value and authenticity that Countertalk and our partners are known for.
 

Write the piece you wish you’d been able to read when you needed it most.

service@countertalk.co.uk

The True Voice of Independent Hospitality