Turn your hobby into your profession: FREELANCE JOURNALIST
Each month we look how people have successfully turned their hobbies into their professions. This month we continue the feature with journalism.
Here we will be discussing the most important factors and issues you may come across when you set up your own business as a freelance journalist.
Freelance Journalist Journalism plays an important role in today’s society. There is a great need for information and reporting over a wide spectrum of topics in today’s culture. Journalism traditionally follows the activities of organisations and institutions such as government and business. It also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes editing, photojournalism, and documentary. However, the industry has been rocked by changes resulting from the internet. The industry is also under major scrutiny at the moment due to unethical journalism techniques being documented in the news. Information is now easier than ever to get hold of and the internet allows anyone to become an author. Technically, anyone can call themselves a freelance journalist, since you don’t need a professional qualification to publish your writing. However, journalism is an industry where talent and experience result in a high quality of work and ultimately better career prospects. There are a variety of ways to get into freelance journalism. Some people move from staff jobs, some are completely new to journalism and some people consider a freelance career after being made redundant. Specialising There are many varieties of journalism. Many journalists choose to specialise in a certain area of journalism - for example, technology, business, crime, travel, or society. By specialising, journalists can build up their reputation in their chosen field, becoming an authoritative voice in that subject. This could help attack work, if the freelance journalist becomes known for their quality work in a specific type of journalism, like analysing political news.
On the other hand, specialising in one type of journalism could also prevent you from gaining work. By specialising you are narrowing the range of topics you can work on, so if your chosen field becomes less topical then you could see your workload reduce. It is also worth considering that sometimes clients want a layman’s viewpoint on a story to help their readers understand, so becoming an expert in one field of journalism may not pay off. Obtaining work Obtaining work will be one of your most daunting tasks as a freelance journalist. Unlike being a staff writer, you have no guaranteed income. Therefore you need to work hard and promote yourself to ensure you can earn a wage that you can live off. Be prepared to get rejected. Think about poor JK Rowling who was rejected by 16 publishers before Bloomsbury published Harry Potter! The best thing you can do is to build your own website. This will allow you to be easily found by prospective employers and it will also provide a platform for you to show off your latest work. You can see some examples of freelance journalist’s websites in our collection of resources. To support your website, make sure you remain active on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to build your profile and network.
You should sign up to as many journalist websites as possible. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) website operates a freelance directory for its freelance members. Joining these directories helps make your name visible to potential employers. Training In order to keep your skills fresh you should always consider additional training. There is a wide variety of course on offer. The NUJ run a short training course covering journalism skills. The BBC also runs training courses for journalists covering important topics; for example, editorial training, online journalism, production skills and even reporting and presenting skills. Of course there is no substitute for experience and often you can get the best training and advice from other freelance journalists who have been working in the industry for a long time. Copyright Copyright is a freelance journalist’s greatest asset because if you own the rights to your work you are able to make money from it. Many freelance advice organisations advise freelancers to accept a basic fee for the first use of their work and then to sell the publisher additional licences for other specific uses, in return for agreed fees or percentages for each medium, as each constitutes a separate usage of the work. You should always ensure that you discuss what rights you will licence when you are commissioned at the same time you negotiate your fees. Finances and tax Getting to grips with your finances and taxes is an extremely important part of becoming a
freelancer. Since you will have no guaranteed salary, you should ensure that you have a finance cushion (roughly 6 months of expenses) so that you can support yourself if you have no work, become ill, or are chasing unpaid invoices. Making sure you are paying the correct amount of tax can be a challenging task. The best thing to do is check the Inland Revenue website and make a call to the newly selfemployed helpline (0845 915 4515). You will be responsible for keeping all your receipts and records for six years to complete your annual self-assessment tax form. Keeping your own accounts can be quite a time consuming task so look into small business accounting software which can simplify the whole process. Summary Success as a freelance journalist ultimately depends on how much time and effort you can invest into your career. There are relatively low entry barriers to establishing yourself and experience will be your greatest asset. Journalism is a competitive industry, so you need to take a proactive and innovative attitude to finding work. Do you have any other top tips for starting out as a freelance journalist? If you liked this guide to setting up as a freelance journalist then you can find it in a downloadable format via our PDF sharing account.