Freelance Files

What better New Year’s resolution for freelance environmental journalists than putting their work on a sounder financial basis. In the latest Freelance Files column, journalism veteran Julie Halpert (pictured, left) offers 10 tips for financial stability. Among them: Side gigs, grants and relationship building, plus crafting the perfect pitch, spinning several stories from one and thinking big picture.

With the continued decline in staff jobs at U.S. newspapers and other media across the country, freelancers are hitting the streets in growing numbers. The latest Freelance Files takes a closer look at how membership in the Society of Environmental Journalists can benefit journalists who freelance.

It's not often that a new genre of science writing opens up for freelancers.  But writer Dan Bloom suggests there's a growing market for freelancers who want to write about climate in the form known as “cli-fi,” a new dystopian fiction that focuses on future impacts of climate change.  Freelance Files editor Karen Schaefer invited him to share his perspective on the emerging genre.

A big reporting jaunt can be a professional thrill. That is, until you consider the upfront costs you might be expected to shoulder as an independent journalist. The latest Freelance Files, from multimedia journalist Gloria Dickie, looks at the realities of travel expenses and offers half-a-dozen workarounds to lighten the load.

​An independent journalist finds a key to survival by building a mini-empire of multiplatform content based on his deep research and extensive interviewing. In our latest Freelance Files column, Silver Donald Cameron shares his so-called “Dock Deck Doc” approach and the collaborative, multimedia techniques that support it.

A veteran freelancer struggles with tax season in the wake of an unexpected personal tragedy. But as she makes her way through a forest of forms, she offers a series of tips and observations for fellow independents, in the return of our regular Freelance Files column.

You're reporting from the field in a high-risk locale, with a shoestring budget and no back-office support — how do you stay safe? The latest Freelance Files offers some cautionary tales from a long-time SEJ member recently returned from overseas, with a detailed resource guide to help keep you and your data secure.

What makes for an effective science or environment essay? Freelance Files contributor Michelle Nijhuis explores universal qualities of the best work: It begins with a persistent question that sets the essayist off on a journey of discovery. Also, practical tips on how to get published beyond the essay departments of major magazines.

Sometimes, the tried-and-true ways of reporting are still the best. In the latest Freelance Files column, our contributor shares three old-fashioned techniques for research and writing that, while they may seem less efficient, will actually get you doing your best work. 

Freelancer Eva Holland shares her story of how Twitter, over time, became her most important tool to chase new, more rewarding and more lucrative assignments.