This week’s highlights from the freelance and digital news biz: HuffPost invests in investigative news – Everybody’s favorite we-don’t-pay-contributors news aggregator Website is turning over a new leaf, big time. The The Huffington Post is launching an investigative news team with a $1.75 million starter budget and advice from well-known online news guru and NYU […]
Freelance 101: Getting started as an independent writer
Congratulations new freelancer. While this might not be the best time to join the ranks of independently employed writers, we realize you may not have had much of a choice. But when it comes to how you conduct your freelance business, you do have lots of choices. Well, OK, maybe not as many choices as […]
5 easy ways to add value to your freelance business
Right now the freelance market is crammed with laid off writers, editors and other creative types trying their hand at self employment. With so much supply, it’s important to stand out. One way to do that is by offering some added value to work you perform for existing and new clients. What’s added value? It’s […]
To stay fresh, take a mental break between writing deadlines
It’s hard to jump straight from writing “The End” on one assignment to “Once upon a time” on the next. Sometimes you need a mental break in between, even if it’s a short one. Think of it as a palate cleanser between courses. I recharge the old writing batteries by doing a quick activity between […]
Dear writer, please don't stop blogging
Dear Michelle, Yours is a wonderful site. I’d started a rather lame attempt at a blog for freelancers, but yours is so thorough and engaging that I’m taking mine down. Congratulations on a really first-rate blog. Dan Baum Dear Dan, Thank you. But please reconsider your decision to take down your blog. I looked and […]
High school confidential: journalism's changing, but jobs are still out there
High school girls still dream of being Rory Gilmore, the fictional daughter in The Gilmore Girls TV show who headed straight from a Yale journalism degree to a job covering Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. That’s what I discovered at career day at my old high school last week. More than 80 girls from St. Mary’s […]