#Freelancing
October 11th, 2010 • SPJ Report
Chapter and Member News
Send member and chapter news items to editor Scott Leadingham at sleadingham@spj.org. Students spend Labor Day in homeless shelter College journalists from nine schools around the country spent their Labor Day weekend in a homeless shelter in South Florida – and they had to fill out a lengthy application for the privilege.
October 11th, 2010 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox
A new SPJ member asked me about how to drum up freelance business in today’s market. Use 55-gallon drums of oil, I want to say — they’ll help keep you warm in the winter. The freelance market is even less certain than when I started in 2002.
August 2nd, 2010 • Quill Archives, Generation J Toolbox
Generation J Toolbox
With the U.S. economy still in a vulnerable position, more and more journalists are looking for extra work to supplement their incomes. And with so many non-journalists also looking for extra work, it’s easier for those in journalism to find work on the side as a freelancer.
August 2nd, 2010 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox
Like many in our field, I’ve been a freelance journalist for as long as I’ve been a broadcast journalist. It’s a great way to supplement my income without taking on a second job. Specifically, the work I’ve done has been in public radio, with occasional programs for public television.
February 1st, 2010 • Quill Archives
Quill Feature: When It All Pays Off
Documentary filmmaker Brett Junvik is only 26, but he’s already traveled around the world telling stories of impoverished people and the international aid groups that assist them. Here, he reflects candidly on his experiences and gives advice to journalists, particularly young ones just entering the field and looking to establish a portfolio, on how to manage overseas travels and connect with the people they’re filming.
August 10th, 2009 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA — All foreign correspondents have a tale of their big break: the story that, in the eyes of editors back home, suddenly transformed them from a dreamer who only talked about the overseas reporting they wanted to do into someone who’s proven they can deliver the goods.
July 11th, 2009 • Quill Archives, Freelance Toolbox
Freelance Toolbox
In these scary days of a shrinking job market for journalists, with newspapers closing at every turn and journalism jobs at risk from bloggers willing to write for free, freelancing is an ever-more-tempting option for SPJ members. For some of us, it’s a joy and a thrill; for others, it’s simply a necessity.
May 1st, 2009 • Quill Archives, Ten With...
10: Ken Paulson
So, what’s a day as president and chief operating officer of the Freedom Forum, Newseum and Diversity Institute like? That’s a really good question. You know, I’ve been on the job for a grand total of 60 days. It’s not that different from my life as editor of USA Today.
May 1st, 2009 • Quill Archives
Enjoy the freelancer’s journey
When you first stand up on water skis, you’re gripped by a singular euphoria. The air and surf rush past while you struggle to figure out how you succeeded in standing. But you’re there, white-knuckled and shaking, a grin pasted from ear-to-ear.
April 3rd, 2009 • Quill Archives
It’s better to be a journalist
After a recent Cincinnati SPJ event, a local reporter took pity on my employment hardships as a recent journalism graduate. “I’m reminded of the 1991 film ‘The Commitments,’ about a struggling Irish rock band,” he said. “At one point, the manager tells the band: ‘It’s better to be an unemployed musician than an unemployed pipe-fitter.’”
December 10th, 2008 • Quill Archives
Cheer up, freelancers
When the stock market recently hit a shocking low, I received a call from a friend whose income hovers just above the poverty line. “I can truly say I’ve never been so happy to have absolutely nothing to lose,” she said.
August 1st, 2008 • Quill Archives
Freelance: Freelancing advice from the ivory tower
One word: plastics. When I was in college, my journalism professor (and now colleague) Marcia Hurlow put me in contact with a university research magazine called Odyssey, whose editor asked me to write about “the world’s longest plastic-deck bridge.” I knew relatively little about bridges, and less about plastics, but I wanted to set myself apart as a writer who could translate scientific jargon for readers.
August 7th, 2007 • Quill Archives
What’s in your freelancer profile?
As the push to market SPJ’s new Freelancer Directory continues, we are learning more about how to make it better in terms of functionality and visibility. Editors to whom we market (about 46,000 in late June alone) have taken the time to let us know when the search works for them, what functions would ease its use, and their frustrations when they can’t find what they are seeking.
February 2nd, 2007 • Quill Archives, Ten With...
Ten: Chris Nolan, Spot-on.com
Chris Nolan of Spot-On.com has worked in her share of newsrooms on both coasts. While many in the news business are left scratching their heads and wringing their hands over loss of readers and revenue, this self-described “stand-alone journalist” is excited about the future of news.
September 1st, 2006 • Quill Archives
Long-term survival
Recently I was invited to speak at an annual creative-writing workshop on the business of freelancing, something I’ve done many times before. Only this audience was a bit different in that it consisted largely of novelists, short-story writers and poets. They were eager to learn how they could use their talent for writing and get paid.
August 1st, 2006 • Quill Archives, Ten With...
Ten: Jack Shafer
Q: How did you get into journalism? I studied communication, English and mathematics at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I would’ve been a math major, but I was working hard to get As and Bs, and math majors didn’t have to work hard for those grades.
August 1st, 2006 • Quill Archives
Successful query letters have same basic elements
A fair amount of successful freelance writing involves good salesmanship. While that may be anathema to the newsroom journalist, it’s not as far-fetched as you may think. “Sales” in this case involves selling both your ideas and your ability to execute those ideas in the written and reported form.
January 31st, 2006 • Quill Archives
Tuning in to the home front
Dan Rather recalled in his book, The Camera Never Blinks, the time he walked into his house when his son was 6 or 7 years old and he overheard his son nonchalantly tell a playmate that the man who just walked in was Dan Rather, the CBS news anchor — not dad.
December 1st, 2005 • Quill Archives
SPJ freelance committee sets agenda for 2006
As another year of advocating on behalf of SPJ freelancers comes to a close, I thought I’d take a moment to review where we are with the freelance committee and where I see us heading in 2006. So much of what I’ve done this year is talk to freelancers.
October 13th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Putting professionalism in the freelance profession
Some of you may recall a column by Byron Calame, The New York Times public editor, from Aug. 14 called, “Outside Contributors: In The Times, but Not of The Times.” If you missed this column and you are a freelancer, I suggest you Google the piece and read carefully.
July 29th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Importance of an international education
Journalism educators and working journalists agree that students who hope to work in today’s media organizations need to have an understanding of globalization, international affairs and cultural differences — and getting this experience firsthand is optimal. Their opinions about how students get this experience may vary, but their beliefs about the overall importance of a global education do not.
June 30th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Many freelancers benefit from settled class-action suit
If you’ve been freelancing for a while, chances are pretty good that you stand to collect money due you for electronic use of your work without permission. In August 2000, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Author’s Guild filed suit in U.S.
May 2nd, 2005 • Quill Archives
Freelancers reign supreme over extreme journalism
In 1995, while covering an Aboriginal festival in Australia for his book “Wild Planet,” someone told writer Tom Clynes about a trucker who delivers fuel to the remote settlements in northern Australia’s Outback. “I came back a few months later and traveled with the trucker on what became a weeklong torture trek.
May 2nd, 2005 • Quill Archives
Q&A: Rebecca Wilson, Field editor – Indiana AgriNews
Q: Much of your beat involves livestock, how much time do you spend in the field? A: Some weeks, every day. Other weeks, not at all. I like to be in the field as much as possible, but there are other times where I need to work the phones as hard as possible.
April 1st, 2005 • Quill Archives
Stricter rules have many freelancers walking tight rope
Ethics. It’s a tight line to walk. Journalists live on trust and reputation. One ethical mishap affects all of us and the ever shrinking public trust. The biggest ethical issue is coming to terms with what it means to be “unbiased.”
April 1st, 2005 • Quill Archives
Columnist answers questions from journalists
From time to time, this column will feature your questions about professional development. I will strive to answer your questions fully before publication in this space. Thanks to all who have offered questions and, to others, keep them coming. Before tackling the questions posed to me, ethics is the theme for this issue, and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to discuss ethics and highlight the excellent staff at Poynter Institute.
March 8th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Creating a virtual freelance community
I confess, I’m an idealist. That notion was reinforced after receiving training at the Ted Scripps Leadership Conference in 2003. (I’m an ‘I’ for those of you who have participated in the personality profile process.) So you’ll understand why I have this burning desire to make things better.
February 3rd, 2005 • Quill Archives
Saving lives or selling out?
During the longest prison hostage situation in U.S. history, a virtual media blackout took place last year in Arizona when state officials pressured the media to withhold information about prison-guard hostages and the inmates who held them against their will. In a rare and controversial action, the media complied, choosing to believe the state’s claim that publishing or airing detailed information might lead to the deaths of the two guards.
January 10th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Different takes on what makes a newsroom diverse
Until a colleague mentioned it, Dana Slagle didn’t know she worked as the only black person, the only non-white person at all, in the small newsroom of The Herald-Palladium serving Benton Harbor-St. Joseph, Mich. “He said, ‘You’d think it was the early 1900s because there are no black reporters here,’ (and) that was the first time I’d realized it,” said Slagle, 34.
January 9th, 2005 • Quill Archives
Consider yourself ’special’ and improve your marketability
My college-days adviser at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism used to say, “Journalists need to a know a little about a lot.” That remains good advice if you’re a general assignment reporter but not so good when you’re trying to get publications to spend extra money on stories you are uniquely qualified to write.
September 21st, 2004 • Quill Archives
What is fair pay?
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from freelancers or those new to freelancing is, “What should I charge?” or “What should I be paid?” The short answer to this question is, “It depends.” I’m not being flippant. There are so many things that determine the type of payment you can expect from freelancing — assignment, publication, geographic market, level of experience, specific expertise.
September 18th, 2004 • Quill Archives
FREELANCING BASICS
A couple of years ago, I was having a drink at a party with a good friend of mine, a writer with a decade-long track record at places like GQ, Rolling Stone and other major magazines. Someone sidled up, introduced herself and — as people always do in New York — asked us what we did.
