A beginning writer asked me: How do you get into business writing? My rule of thumb is you’re as good a writer as your last clip. So find an editor, any editor, and start pitching business stories. If you’re really starting out, and don’t have *any* clips at all, go after the Pennysavers and the like — do some profiles of local businesses. The pay is pennies per word. But write the stories well and you’ve got yourself a clip. Then you try local weeklies, regional business pubs, suburban dailies, trades, big city dailies, then national business mags, in that order. Get a frank assessment from somebody cruel as to where you are on that foodchain, based on your writing and reporting ability. Then call the editor you want to write for, and … Read entire article »

Refugees are scared, upset, mad at the other side — they’ll tell stories that happened to “a friend of a friend” as if they happened to them. Then the news media picks it up, and more refugees hear them, and tell the same stories. Then you go to the other side to find the destroyed village etc… to find out that it’s still there and, in fact, people still live there. That’s not to say that atrocities don’t happen — they do. And we, as journalists, have an obligation to make sure that stories of human rights abuses get out, so that the world community can act to stop it from happening. This is a hard job, but straightforward. What’s less straightforward is to learn to judge whether a particular story merits … Read entire article »

I recently got the following question from a beginning journalist: I have reached the point where a job in journalism in any capacity seems a hopeless dream. I cannot get anyone to hire me in any field, despite my college degree and experience. I’m getting to the point where I can just barely eat and pay my rent. Do you have any advice? There is only one question you need to ask yourself: Do you HAVE to be a journalist? If you DON’T absolutely, no-doubt-about-it, can’t-live-any-other-way have to be a journalist, then you should start considering other careers. Pound for pound, a journalism career is more work, more aggravation, and less pay than almost anything else you can do. Really. I spent my fair share of time sleeping on folks’ couches when I … Read entire article »

The biggest problem is inappropriate pitches. I didn’t do consumer finance — I work for a trade publication, not a consumer magazine! The PR folks who send me consumer-oriented press releases, and then call and try to talk to me about them, to use up my time even further, don’t bother to check. That’s really annoying and makes me think worse of their agencies. The next biggest problem is incomprehensible pitches. If I can’t figure out what you’re selling, I’ll just hit the delete key right off. If an unintelligible press release *has* to go out, the best PR people would put a few paragraphs of explanation addressed to me personally before attaching the press release — so I wouldn’t have to wade through it to figure out what the … Read entire article »

Many trade publications — as well as academic publications — don’t pay contributors. The reason is that the people who contribute are getting something other than money in return: free advertising. For a lawyer, CPA, engineer, or other professional, the exposure may well be worth quite a bit. However, editors have to spend quite a bit of time recruiting these experts and holding their hands through the writing and revision process. While writing is a joy to some people, for many people it’s an odious chore and a reminder of bad old school days and essay assignments. Finally, the results are often unreadable and editors have to spend quite a bit of time getting the pieces into shape, or risk alienating readers. In effect, the publication is padding its pages with advertorials. … Read entire article »

If you’re new to freelancing or new to the area, you might not have a lot of story ideas handy, and you need a LOT to be a freelancer. Once you have contacts in an area, of course, you can mine them for story ideas — chambers of commerce, local artists’ guilds, politicians, etc… are all happy to showcase their members and accomplishments. If you don’t, here’s two easy ways to generate stories: GENERALIZE, and NARROW. For example, say you’re pitching stories to a regional daily. Look at national pubs — newspapers, magazines, etc… and localize them. If there’s a national obesity trend, how does that affect your area? Are local schools changing their menus? Does a local nutritionist plan to hold a seminar? You can also look at more narrow publications — … Read entire article »

Looking for outlets to send you abroad is actually the *last* step of a going-overseas process. The first thing is, you need to ask yourself a few questions: What level of risk can you handle? How willing are you to learn foreign languages/how many foreign languages do you already know? Where can you get a free place to stay? So if you have friends or relatives in a particular country in Latin America who can offer you a couch, and you already know Spanish, and you’re comfortable with the level of stability (or instability in that country), then you go there. I had a grandmother in Moscow, and the remnants of Russian from when I was a kid. (I only stayed with her for a couple of weeks, but it was nice to have her couch … Read entire article »

I’ve been a freelancer for most of the past ten years, and have also edited the work of many freelancers in various editing jobs. Here’s my advice: First, collect all your information: clips (everything from college papers to “sample” articles that were never published to printed stories), resume, bio, information on relevant experience (paramedical training, what have you). Identify possible featury-type areas you’d like to cover: medical issues, local arts and culture, personal profiles, business profiles (the business profiles generally bring in the most money). Track down all the publications within a comfortable driving area — free weeklies, major dailies, wire service bureaus — and rank them by which ones are the most important to you (by pay, prestige, etc…). If there’s more than one editor, call the publication’s switchboard and find out who is … Read entire article »