After spending six years in the trenches as a freelance business journalist, Maya Payne Smart founded WritingCoach.com to help journalists, authors and other writers build profitable businesses. Her mission is to provide the tools, information and advice that freelancers need to thrive, from marketing basics to advanced business-building strategies. Smart teaches entrepreneurial journalism courses for the Society of Professional Journalists, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and other organizations for wordsmiths. In August, she’ll teach “Sales Strategies for Freelance Business Journalists.” She serves on the boards of the Society of American Business Editors & Writers and James River Writers. She holds degrees from Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Paula Squires | Managing Editor | Virginia Business Maya Payne Smart, freelance business journalist and founder of WritingCoach.com talks with Paula Squires, managing editor of Virginia Business, Virginia’s only statewide business news magazine. PODCAST: Smart asks Squires more about Virginia Business. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Maya Smart: Can you tell us a [...]
Mitch Lipka | Editorial Director | Contently.com Maya Payne Smart, freelance business journalist and founder of WritingCoach.com talks with Mitch Lipka, editorial director of Contently.com, an open marketplace for writers and publishers which its founders call “a platform where real journalists can manage their freelance careers.” PODCAST: Smart asks Lipka about Contently.com. [Audio clip: view [...]
Many of the biggest business stories of 2010—from unemployment and foreclosures to health care and financial reform—are poised to carry over into the New Year. And perennial favorites the deficit and the Census undoubtedly will break news throughout 2011. But there’s also an argument to be made for greater exploration of some undercovered business topics [...]
When the newspaper career ladder Aaron Kremer had been climbing teetered, he launched his own business news site, RichmondBizSense.com, to compete head to head with the paper’s business section in Richmond, Va. His site, which started publishing Jan. 1, 2008, combines the daily business reporting of a local newspaper with the analysis and commentary of [...]
Before miners had sophisticated hand-held gas monitors to gauge the toxicity of air in the underground shafts where they labored, they relied on birds to test carbon monoxide levels for them. When the creatures with their rapidly pulsing hearts and quick metabolism stopped singing, teetered and fell, the miners knew that they too were in [...]
Trish Riley began covering environmental business stories more than a decade ago when “green” at most publications meant dollars not the environment. She wrote about contracting opportunities with the Everglades restoration project, energy-efficient architecture and slipped in environmental asides when editors wouldn’t let sustainability take center stage. “That’s how I managed to do environmental coverage [...]
