The blog runs on a small set of recurring formats rather than a fixed product line. Each one exists because a contributor found it useful for telling a particular kind of city story, and each one comes with its own working constraints.
Below is what each format actually involves, who tends to send it in, and what you should expect to bring if you want to contribute. Nothing here is sponsored, and nothing is written purely to catch a search query.
Short first-person accounts of a single place or moment: a market opening before sunrise, a queue forming at a rank, a stall packing up at dusk. Usually 700 to 1,000 words, written from the ground and edited for plain English.
A sequence of images with brief captions that name what is visible and where it was taken. No staged scenes, no stock filler. The captions carry the context the photographs cannot.
Letters from readers about their own streets, commutes or overlooked spots, selected and lightly edited. This is where the blog hands the notebook over, and where most of the walking-route tips originate.
One route a month, described in plain detail: where it starts, how long it takes at an easy pace, where the shade is, and which stretches to avoid in the middle of the day. Enough to try it without a map.
Comment threads stay moderated on every format, and the publishing rhythm sits at two to three pieces a week. If your street, your commute or a spot nobody else writes about deserves a piece, the pitch form is the place to start.
A short list of terms we use loosely in conversation and more carefully here, so nobody has to guess what we meant.
That is the rhythm we aim for, not a contract. Some weeks run heavier, some lighter, and a piece can be held back if a contributor is still checking a detail. We would rather publish late than publish something we cannot stand behind.
It describes who keeps the blog running, not a subscription tier. There is no account to create, no paywall and no member area. Readers support the work by reading it, arguing with it in the comments and sending in pitches.
Every submission is read and reworked before it goes up: tightening sentences, cutting jargon, checking that a reader who has never been to that street can follow it. The facts and the voice stay yours. The trimming is ours.
Comments are read before they appear, which means a delay and occasionally a rejection. Disagreement is fine. Abuse, spam and off-topic promotion are not. Moderation is a filter, not a promise that every reply gets answered.
Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban are where the people writing happen to live. It is not a coverage map, and it does not mean we turn down a good piece about somewhere else. The single contact point for the blog is in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
Nothing on these pages is paid placement, and we do not run listicles built only to catch search traffic. Where a piece is a personal account rather than a reported one, we say so in the text instead of dressing it up as something else.
If a phrase on this site reads two ways, this is the reading we intend. Anything not covered here is best settled by asking, and the address for that is The Firs, 32A Cradock Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg, 2196, South Africa, or team@wsfmedia.com.
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