So you wanna be a freelance journalist?

graham holliday || kigaliwire.com

the freelance journalist

A presention to MA International Journalism students on how to set yourself as a freelance foreign correspondent - not just a wire reporter.

Before you go anywhere, contact and meet editors face to face. Go with ideas, not just a pretty face. Find them on tweepz and follow them on Twitter, find out what they’re about and read the sections they edit. And the archives. Read everything. Work out what they find newsworthy. Ask yourself, what do they want?

Research all markets. Search Paperboy for outlets across all markets. Even the oddest places have an English language press.

Find the contact details of the section editor you want to approach. Don’t email the Managing Editor or head honcho - they don’t have time for you. Build a database of contacts and keep it up to date. Over time you will learn what day is best to hit certain editors, even what time of day. I used to always pitch one Guardian editor in the morning when I knew he spent his commute checking his Blackberry - could never ever get hold of him outside that time slot.

Think locally. You want to be a foreign correspondent, but lack experience. Go work for the local press - great for contacts, gives you a regular, living wage and you start to find out how things work. I was offered various sub-editing and editing gigs in Hanoi and Saigon over the years. All starting at around $1,000 per month - more than enough to live on

Go somewhere cheap. And odd. The odder the better

If money is an issue, go somewhere cheap, and odd. If you’ve done your research and you’ve made contacts and you have a fairly good inkling of what you’re gonna be letting yourself in for - Just go.

Read. Read loads. Before you write anything. Read.

Read everything - local press, translations of local news wires, books, blogs, twitter lists. 6 months of reading just about where you’re going will stand you in very good stead. And on’t stop reading. Ever.

“Have someone interesting to talk to, somewhere interesting to go, something interesting to write about, record, shoot, film, link to & an outlet to file to, every day”

You need multiple outlets. Don’t head to the NY Times with little or no clips. Build up to it. And think laterally. That Scottish conservation worker you met in the forest that day - wouldn’t Scottish Field magazine take a profile piece, how about one of the scottish Sunday supplements - think outside newspapers and big magazines. Many small strings add up to a living wage - if they pay on time...

Start a blog. Think about what you want to say. Plan it. Don’t just dive in, really think it through. if you want to focus on photography - get a template that will push that end of your work. Likewise text - this is an editor’s window into who you are and what you do, be proud of it.

Learn about RSS, use it to filter the news, get on twitter, create a newswire. become a respected source.

Pitch. Be short and concise. Three paras is enough. Sell the idea, the who what why and why you’re the person to do the job and send it everywhere - use your database of contacts that you built from paperboy and elsewhere and fire your pitch off to all relevant markets - make sure you hone the pitch to the particular vagaries of each section and editor. No-one likes receiveing an irrelevat pitch.

Plan and structure on paper. Once you have your sources and you know the focus. Get ijnto the habit of sketching stuff out wherever you are - like in a restaurant in Saigon. Sleep with a notebook and pen next to your bed - you’d be surprised how many excellent ideas come to you in the middle of the night.

Once you’ve got one commission - go for others. For instance I had a commission to write a piece about some rare dolphins in Cambodia. BBC wanted a news piece, but the one commission was not gonna cover the transport, visa, food and hotel costs I would incur going into Cambodia from Vietnam

However, Action Asia would take a ecotourism kinda angle travel piece too

TIME Asia would take a nib of a quirky news piece for their Global section

The Guardian Travel section would take a similar piece to Action Asia - different non-competing markets - be careful what rights you sell.

The South China Morning Post would take a news piece coming from a slightly different angle than the BBC

Scotland Magazine might consider a profile piece on the conservationist.

£500$250$80£250$150£125

All in all, it all adds up to an OK week of work which would probably involve 3 or 4 days of travel.

Keep receipts

Send invoices

Chase them

Getting paid as a freelance can be a nightmare. Know your rights, don’t be scared to chase, charge late payment interest when and where applicable. Some outlets might get pissed off about this, so move on. Bad payers will be the bane of your life if you don’t weed them out early on.

graham holliday || kigaliwire.com

freelancejournalism.tumblr.com

Some useful links, mostly of advice and good practive related to this talk.

Credits:

Two people Business meeting - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mydigitalslrcamera/3784049371/Fishing rod reel - http://www.flickr.com/photos/canolais/376388031/Emma reading the newspaper - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsevilla/1910384749/Rob Crilly in Sudan - http://robcrilly.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/so-you-wanna-be-a-stringer/

Everything else - me