Your brand can save you: I learned this up close and personal after I was laid off from Aviation Week last month after a great five-and-a-half year run. Thanks to my brand and social media, I received some great job leads (and expect to be hired very soon) and a healthy amount of freelance work.
Kevin Roose takes readers of The New York Times to Oberlin, Ohio, to discover there are other options for mowing the lawn. He writes: “Mr. [Eddie] Miller, 23, is the founder of Heritage Lawn Mowing, a company that rents out sheep — yes, sheep — as a landscaping aid. For a small fee, Mr. Miller, [...]
“When I started footnoted* eight years ago, the idea was simple: to start a daily conversation that built upon some of the concepts that I covered in my book, Financial Fineprint.” It was a desire to keep that book alive and a mindset forged as a daily newspaper journalist that motivated Leder to start blogging [...]
By Randall Smith Last fall, I was approached by two documentary filmmakers from Los Angeles. Both had big dreams. A few weeks later, I was visiting with Jim Kennedy, vice president of strategy at the Associated Press. He talked about some fascinating new projects . And several weeks later, I was talking with David Cohn [...]
We’ll chat live from 1:30 to 12:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 with Marcia Parker, West Coast editorial director for Patch.com, the hyperlocal-news venture in which AOL has invested tens of millions of dollars.
The deadline is Jan. 14 to apply for a new semester-long program in entrepreneurial journalism offered by City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. Fellowships and scholarships are available for top applicants.
Beyond writing, reporting and editing chops, thriving financially outside of a traditional newsroom requires one major skill that most journalists lack: salesmanship. Commercial considerations make many journalists squeamish because they are taught that their job is to inform the citizenry, tell compelling stories and bring truth to light. But like it or not, all of these goals require money.
An informal survey completed by 67 freelance business journalists indicates they make an average of $25,000 to $30,000 a year, and two of every five were laid off.
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) asked freelancers to respond to the survey in October and November.
The Poynter Institute, with funding from the Ford Foundation, is offering two digital-media entrepreneurs $10,000 each in contracted accounting, legal, research or promotion work, plus coaching and mentoring by Poynter faculty and its Ford Fellows in Entrepreneurial Teaching. The winners must advance Poynter’s ideals of “standing for journalism, serving democracy.” According to an e-mail from Poynter: [...]
