How to Become a Freelance Journalist

The duties of a freelance journalist are essentially the same as those of an in-house journalist. Essentially, they boil down to writing pieces—which may be reported news stories, analysis, opinion columns, reviews, or something else entirely—and submitting them to outlets to be published.

What distinguishes freelancers is that they’re self-employed and can accept assignments from various publications, whereas in-house journalists are formally employed by (and mainly write for) just one. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t write for other outlets occasionally; it’s possible to be both an in-house journalist and an occasional freelancer.

Freelance journalism is usually placed under the broad umbrella of “freelance writing.” That said, written journalism isn’t the only kind, and as a freelance journalist, you might also contribute other kinds of media, such as photographs. (If you love this aspect of the job and prefer telling stories mainly with pictures, consider looking into becoming a photojournalist instead.)

Freelance journalists can be paid by the hour, by the word, or per article. In contrast to their traditionally employed colleagues, who are more likely to be paid on an hourly basis, it’s more common for freelancers to use a per-word or per-project payment model.

Rates in the industry can be extremely variable. On the low end, beginners often earn around $0.03–$0.05 per word, or a flat $30–$50 for a 1,000–2,000-word article.

More experienced journalists (or those who have specialized knowledge and cover in-demand beats) often earn rates in the range of $0.10 per word, which translates to several hundred dollars per piece.

Journalists at the absolute top of the field sometimes earn $1–$3 per word, or upwards of $1,000 per assignment. However, earnings like that are out of reach of the vast majority of freelance journalists; when you’re still establishing yourself, the most you can realistically hope for is an average per-word rate.

If your goal is to become a reputable freelance journalist, you need to acquire the following hard and soft skills:

Writing and editing

As you’d expect, solid writing (and self-editing) skills are necessary to turn out professional-quality journalistic work.

At minimum, your articles need to be free of grammatical and spelling errors and have clear, coherent structures. Ideally, they should also be fun to read—the best journalists are great storytellers whose writing is both informative and engaging without being flashy or distracting.

Research

As a journalist, being a good researcher is just as important as being a good writer. You’ll often have to dive into unfamiliar subjects for your pieces, and you’ll be responsible for ensuring that everything you write is accurate.

You’ll have to approach this research with a somewhat skeptical attitude. Journalists can’t just credulously accept what they read or what people tell them; you’ll need to conscientiously fact-check every source you come across. A common quip in the industry is, “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out” (i.e., verify it).

Journalistic integrity

As a journalist, your job is to report the truth. To do this, you need to be an honest person, but you also need the ability to suspend your own biases so that you can remain impartial when doing your job. Journalists are allowed to have opinions, but you can’t let them come between you and the facts you’re reporting.

You also need to familiarize yourself with the ethical standards that journalists are expected to follow, such as how you’re allowed to handle quotes that are “on the record” versus those that are “off the record” or “on background.” Mishandling a quote can poison your reputation with sources, editors, and even whole publications, potentially ruining your reputation in the industry for years.

Moreover, you’ll need to stay on your guard against plagiarism (including accidental plagiarism and self-plagiarism, both of which are easier to stray into than you might think).

The bottom line is that being an ethical journalist doesn’t just mean being a decent person—it requires active, continual effort.

Marketing and self-promotion

The unfortunate truth is, there are a lot of would-be journalists out there, and not that many publications for them to write for. Relatively few print newspapers and magazines have been able to carve out a place in the digital media landscape, and AI models like ChaGPT have hollowed out the job market for journalists even further.

The competition for work in this field can be very intense. To land consistent gigs, you need to be comfortable putting yourself out there and marketing yourself.

One of the key ways to do this is to establish a strong online footprint so that publications can find and reach out to you. You can achieve this by being active on social media (many journalists spend several hours per day on X, formerly Twitter), as well as by creating a personal website that showcases your best work.

Organization

One of the perks of being a freelancer is that you work for yourself, which means you don’t have a supervisor constantly monitoring you. However, this also means you have to be especially organized and willing to hold yourself accountable for your progress (or lack thereof).

It probably goes without saying that you always need to stay on top of your assignments and should only accept new ones if your schedule permits.

You also need to keep up with your email and other communications. Many journalists have to field dozens of messages every day (from editors, sources, colleagues, etc.), and you can’t let anything important slip through the cracks.

Willingness to accept criticism

As with other types of writing, you’ll almost certainly face criticism of your work from editors—as well as your readers and even your sources and subjects. If you’re doing your job right, people won’t always be happy with how you write about them.

Keep an open mind when you receive feedback, and try not to take it personally. Journalism is a collaborative (and unusually public-facing) type of writing, and to succeed in this field, you have to have a somewhat thick skin.

Making a name for yourself as a freelance journalist takes hard work and determination. To help you get started, we’ve created a five-step guide that’ll walk you through the process.

1. Pick a niche

There are many different types of journalism you can choose from. Take a few hours or days to research them and determine which suits you the most.

There are a lot of decisions to make. You’ll need to consider:

• Your medium: Again, there’s more to journalism than the written word. Instead of purely being a writer, you could also get into broadcast journalism (radio, TV, etc.), photojournalism, and so on.
• What type of coverage interests you: Some journalists do straight reporting work, which is meant to be objective and purely fact-based. Others write opinion pieces or reviews, where it’s acceptable for your own feelings to affect your writing.
• Your preferred story length: News pieces are often fairly short (several hundred words), whereas “feature” stories can be thousands of words long and take weeks or months to produce.
• Your journalistic beat: A “beat” is a specialty—a topic that you regularly report on. Picking a beat (to the extent that you’re able to choose for yourself) is very important, and we’ve listed several common ones below.

Common journalistic beats

Major beats include:

• Business and finance
• Celebrity gossip
• Court reporting and crime
• Fashion
• Investigative journalism
• Lifestyle (cooking, travel, hobby-related news, etc.)
• Media and entertainment (film, TV, music, video games, etc.)
• Politics (both national and local)
• Science and technology
• Sports
• Weather

To some extent, your beat may be out of your hands; this field is competitive enough that if a major publication makes you an offer to contribute as a tech reporter, it’s probably in your best interests to study up the software and tech industry, even if it’s not what you dream of writing about. Especially in the beginning, you don’t want to turn down work.

However, as you advance in your career and accumulate an actual track record, you may gain more control over your beat. You aren’t locked into your first specialty forever.

2. Create a portfolio

Having a strong portfolio is essential as a freelance journalist. You don’t need a degree in journalism to land work (and the job prospects are spotty enough in this field that you should think long and hard before going back to get one, even if it appeals to you), but you do need examples of your writing for editors to review.

If you’re already a published writer, you can collect your past work on sites like Contently and Muck Rack. Many freelancers also create personal websites to showcase their pieces.

What should you do if you’ve never published anything before?

If you have no publishing experience, you still need a portfolio. There are no excuses here—it isn’t optional.

The good news is that you don’t have to be hired by an actual publication to create a journalism portfolio. Start a personal blog or a newsletter (Substack is a very popular choice for freelance journalists) and write about something you find interesting.

In addition to serving as your online portfolio, this will also give you the chance to polish your writing and research skills—you’ll need these to be as sharp as possible when you do finally land paid work.

3. Brainstorm story ideas and submit pitches to smaller publications

Before beginning to apply for jobs, do your research on which publications publish articles that align with your writing style and the niche you chose in step one.

Where to find sites that accept work from freelancers

There are dozens of publications (including print and online magazines, newspapers, and blogs) that work with freelance journalists. You can start by reviewing our list of sites that will pay you to write articles (some of which are journalistic publications).

Additionally, you can register for Study Hall, a website that maintains a database of outlets that you can sell stories to. This service costs money—a basic plan costs $9.99 per month—but it will tip you off to opportunities you probably otherwise wouldn’t have found out about.

How to pitch a story to a publication

Freelance journalists don’t typically complete stories before placing them. Instead, they submit “pitches” to editors. These are essentially proposals that outline what you want to write about.

Most pitches are relatively short (300–600 words is reasonable). A pitch should include:

• Who you are, if you’ve never submitted to this editor or publication before
• What you want to cover
• How you plan to cover it (i.e., how you’ll do the research and investigative work, who you’ll need to interview, etc.)
• How long you anticipate the finished product being

When you pitch a story to multiple outlets, you can repurpose most of what you wrote each time, but personalize it a little bit (if at all possible, you should at least use the editor’s name instead of “Dear Editor” or “To Whom It May Concern”). Publications that accept freelance work will generally list this information (along with the editor’s email address) on a “write for us” page somewhere on their website.

You might have to spend quite a while pitching before you land your first paid work as a freelance journalist, but if you’re persistent and good at what you do, it will happen eventually.

4. Market yourself and network

Again, as an independent journalist, you have to put yourself out there if you want to place articles and land gigs consistently. People won’t work with you if they aren’t familiar with your writing (or don’t even know you exist).

Social media is a good tool to promote yourself, as well as to network with your peers. Of course, attending journalism and media events and conferences is always a good way to keep yourself engaged and relevant in the industry.

If you started a Substack or a blog to bolster your online portfolio, that’s also a good way to get your name out there. If you amass a sizable following (hundreds or thousands of regular readers), you should definitely mention that in your pitches to editors. It’ll be a strong point in your favor, since some of your fans may follow you to the publication in question, netting them readers they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

5. Continue to hone your writing and researching skills

No matter how good your writing is, there’s always room for improvement. To sharpen your skills even further, read the work of reputable journalists you admire and solicit feedback on your own work from other professionals.

Because journalism is so intensely competitive, this isn’t a field that will ever let you rest on your laurels. To get ahead, you’ll have to keep improving your craft and keep pitching new story ideas. It’ll be challenging, but it’s possible to make a decent second income (or even turn journalism into your primary career) if you’re motivated. Good luck!