When I left college I had a handful of clips from the local alternative newsweekly, one of them a cover story on town-gown relations. That’s it. No journalism degree, no internships, no other editing or writing experience. I went to Chicago, and, within a couple of months was working as one of the “full-time freelancers” […]
Do you need a degree in journalism to work as a journalist? Read More »
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
War reporting: advice for interviewing refugees Read More »
Two years ago, International Playthings Inc. was doing business the old fashioned way–faxes, letters of credit, and a great deal of sitting around and waiting for various documents. There weren’t a lot of examples yet of companies that successfully moved their supply chain to the Internet. “It rook a Jot of faith to change the
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
Struggling to make a living Read More »
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
Advice for public relations people pitching stories to me Read More »
I beginning journalist asked me this question: I’m worried about getting a journalism job. Should I go to graduate school? I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me on this, but, having been in a position to hire recent graduates in the past (and having faced this same question myself) I have to strongly
How important is graduate school to new journalists? Read More »
Some companies using direct file transfers find they’re an advantage over web form-based systems, in that data is moved around automatically without employees having to go on the web and manually enter invoicing information. However, they can require some integration work, and this means a custom interface needs to be written. Web Services are already
Web services–on the horizon Read More »
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
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
If you’re just starting out, how do you come up with story ideas? Read More »
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
How to get started as a foreign correspondent Read More »
News providers are finding ways to make their Web sites profitable The Internet boom brought with it a set of buzzwords for the online news industry — “page views,” “eyeballs,” “site visitors.” Back in those heady days of the year 2000, the goal was to get as many visitors as possible. Those publishers who thought
Looking for Online Dollars Read More »
For many journalists, public relations agents are the used car salesmen of the communications industry. They will do what it takes to get you to buy a story pitch — supply you with experts, find case studies, put you in touch with the company’s CEO. They’re friendly and kind, and some of them want to
Avoiding the Spin Cycle Read More »
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. Read on about this emotional response marketing copywriting course to get some tips from fellow freelancers who have walked in your shoes and found ways to balance work and personal life
How to get into freelancing Read More »
A beginning journalist asked me about the value of interships and networking. I haven’t done any interships. Will that hurt me when I look for my first job? Also, I haven’t done as much networking as some of my classmates. Do you have to be really aggressive to be a journalist? You don’t need interships,
On the value of interships Read More »
The events of Sept. 11 hit the firm of Cantor Fitzgerald harder than any other company in the World Trade Center. Cantor lost some 730 of the 1,000 employees located on the top floors of the North Tower. Some 180 of those casualties belonged to eSpeed, Cantor Fitzgerald’s electronic trading subsidiary for fixed-income products. The
eSpeed charts road to recovery Read More »
