Fall Back in Love With Freelancing This Valentine’s Day (The IIJ Will Never Ghost You)
Ways to Show Yourself Love + IIJ Leaders' Ask Me Anything Replay + Freelance Guidance on Insurance and Risk Management
It’s Valentine’s Day this week, a time to show yourself some love – considering freelancers are technically professionally single. Think about it: We choose who we spend our days with, we validate ourselves, we foot the bills … and are prone to loneliness and being ghosted by rotten clients.
So whether this week you have deadlines, date nights, or both, here are our self-love tips.
First up: Self-love comes from acts that support one's personal growth, and what better way to do both than at IIJ’s 2025 Conference: Beyond Surviving in just two weeks?
Investing in yourself (think: learning new skills) and your future (think: meeting new editors) leads to a more knowledgeable, well-connected, confident you.
Every session at the conference was designed to bring you closer to a career that not only aligns with your values but also pays the bills and, most important, excites and motivates you. This is self-care with a purpose.
On that note, take a leap of faith and enter your work for an award. These deadlines (in italics) are coming up soon:
2025 ICFJ Knight International Journalism Awards (February 13)
Global Investigative Journalism Network’s Global Shining Light Award (February 28)
Indigenous Media Awards (March 7)
Advancing Earth and Space Sciences 2025 Journalism Awards (March 31)
(We curate awards, pitches, opportunities, and fellowships weekly—scroll down for more!)
Other ways to show love to yourself (and others) this Valentine’s Day, Freelance Edition:
Write boundary-setting love notes: no emails after 6 p.m. or reject unfair hourly rates.
Save positive feedback or compliments in one place and refer back to them on rough days.
Share the love, and promote a fellow journalist’s work on your socials.
Daily journal with self-love prompts, like: What makes you a fantastic storyteller? What would you do if you fully believed in your potential?
And on that, refuse to let the fear of rejection hold you back. Pitch freely, enter your work for awards, or apply for that fellowship.
Signing off,
The IIJ
P.S. Register now for the IIJ conference and receive immediate access to a bonus bundle of resources, including guides for pitching editors from The Atlantic, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. We just added exclusive, brand new Q&A’s with Mark Stein, an editor at NextAvenue.org, and Alan Henry, managing editor of PCMag!
Replay Our AMA on Freelancing and the IIJ’s 2025 Conference!
Not convinced yet? Check out our webinar from last Friday about the IIJ conference and about freelancing in general, with conference co-chairs Erika Hayasaki, Sa’iyda Shabazz, and IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis. We answered your burning questions about freelance rates, portfolios and pitching, in addition to highlighting the sessions we’re excited about. Tap into our combined 40 years of freelance experience now!
Don’t Wait to Shield Yourself from Legal Risk
Telling the truth is risky business. Learn from the experts how to keep yourself covered in our free Insurance for Freelancers webinar. It’s not as expensive as you think — and isn’t it better to know that you’re protected than to ignore the possibilities?
The stakes have never been higher. Freelancers face more legal risks than ever before, including:
A hostile overall environment for media, fueled by new legal attacks on press freedom and demonization of individual journalists.
A surge in defamation and libel lawsuits.
Increased data vulnerability, making it more difficult to protect sensitive sources.
An overload of artificial intelligence content and pervasive disinformation, blurring the line between fact and fiction.
P.S. - Check out our interview with journalist Lisa Kwon on the Freelance Journalism Podcast. She was taken to court for her reporting on Airbnb operators. Listen to her reflections on the ordeal here, and hear her tips for protecting yourself.
Pitch Calls & Opportunities
✍️ Pitch Opportunity: The Guardian
Jessica Reed, an editor at the Guardian U.S., shares on Substack what she wants most in a pitch — essential reading for aspiring Guardian writers. Reed says she’s “devoted” to stories about normal people who face extraordinary circumstances. The ideal word count is 2,000-5,000 and pitches can be sent to jessica.reed@theguardian.com. Rates typically start at $1/word but vary based on the level of research required and whether it’s an essay or feature.
⛨ Shore Up Your Digital Defenses
The National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project, Aegis Safety Alliance, and the Committee to Protect Journalists invite freelancers to a free webinar on Feb 18 all about shoring up your digital security. More details and RSVP here.
P.S., While you’re at it, please submit your rates to FSP’s rate-sharing database here so everyone in the community can benefit from your experiences.
🖥️ Job Opportunity: CNET.com
CNET.com is looking for writers to review antivirus software and monitors. Depending on the assignment, rates are between $250-$2,000. Submit your resumes to CNETfreelance@cnet.com.
💻 Freelance Opportunity: MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review is seeking pitches for an upcoming print issue on power. The deadline is this Friday, February 14, and rates range from $1 to $2 per word. Read submission guidelines here and send pitches to commissioning editor Rachel Courtland at rachel.courtland@technologyreview.com.
(Looking for insider tips? Rachel was part of our panel on Pitching Business and Tech Stories last fall.)
❤️ Grant Opportunity: Media Projects on Love
The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley is offering two dozen grants of $5,000 to $50,000 to fund projects highlighting love’s power to foster connection and resilience. Think bigger than romantic love: friendship, love across differences, and community building. Grantees benefit from scientific advisors and cohort support over the 18 months of the program. Apply here by March 24. Learn more by watching this webinar from Jan. 28 featuring IIJ Founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis wearing her other hat: director of the GGSC grant program.
📰 The 19th News Fellowship
The 19th News Fellowship program provides graduates, mid-career alums and former students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities with yearlong, salaried fellowships. Applications are open until March 31, 2025. More information here.
🤖 Fellowship Opportunity: Artificial Intelligence Reporting
The Tarbell Fellowship is a one-year program for early-career journalists interested in covering artificial intelligence. Fellows secure a 9-month placement at a major newsroom, attend a week-long journalism summit in San Francisco, and are provided a stipend of $50,000. Applications will close on 28 February 2025. Their next information session is on Feb 19. For more information, click here.
🧠 Fellowship Opportunity: Mental Health Journalism
The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism support a diverse group of journalists from the U.S., Ireland, Qatar, and the UAE, dedicated to exploring society’s most pressing mental health challenges. Each journalist receives $10,000 to cover fellowship project expenses. Applications for the 2025-2026 fellowship program are open until April 2, 2025.
💧 Grant Opportunity: Freshwater Storytelling
The National Geographic Society’s World Freshwater Initiative supports storytellers of all mediums in creating projects that promote the sustainable use of freshwater resources. Applicants can request grants ranging from $20,000 to $100,000 and applications are due here by April 22, 2025.
Interesting Reads
📖 What happens when reporting on bad behavior only fuels it? Janus Rose for 404 Media explores how writing about oppressors and fascists can backfire and hinder collective ability to organize against them. The solution? Rose puts it bluntly: “It’s not as simple as ‘touch grass,’ but it kind of is” in that “no amount of posting or passive info consumption replaces the hard, unsexy work of organizing.”
📖 One of the biggest scoops about the Trump Administration came not from a legacy newsroom, but from Marisa Kabas’ Brooklyn apartment. The independent journalist beat the likes of The Washington Post and The New York Times to publish news of the freeze on federal funds. She hopes the scoop proves the value of independent journalists like her. She might even have to hire someone else to help her out. Kabas tells The Associated Press: “I’ve gone from very much taking my time, sitting with my thoughts and writing from a personal perspective to being a breaking news reporter. They are very different skills.”
📖 During the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura Gómez Rodríguez was the only woman and person of color in the Arizona Mirror newsroom. She experienced PTSD after “witnessing and writing about the suffering of people like her” a responsibility that “fueled her at first, but eventually overwhelmed her.” This piece on her experience in palabra., interrogates the systems in place (or lack thereof) to support journalists of color who find themselves in these situations.
Calendar
🗓️ THIS MONTH: Thursday and Friday, Feb. 27-28 - The IIJ Annual Freelance Conference! For only $79, enjoy two full days of live, online learning, and networking with top journalists, including keynote speakers Celeste Headlee, Deepa Fernandes, John J. Edwards III, and Gina Chua. Sessions include how to find fellowship funding, strategic marketing, the new reality of audio journalism, ethical use of AI, panels with 10+ assigning editors, and so much more. Register here!
🗓️ Wednesdays from March 26 to May 21 from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. ET - Learn the business of freelancing with IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis and multimedia entrepreneur Shernay Williams! Over 8 weeks of live, interactive classes, you’ll develop a customized business plan and path to financial and emotional sustainability. Register here for just $189 early bird.
🗓️ SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, July 12 at 8:30 AM CT - The IIJ is hosting a full-day Freelance Business Workshop at the 2025 National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference and Expo in Chicago! Early bird registration for NAHJ (July 8-12) is now open.
ICYMI 👀
Tune into the Freelance Journalism Podcast, a show all about the art and business of freelance journalism. Subscribe, watch on YouTube, and if you find this kind of info useful, please leave us a 5-star review and let us know!
🎧 Can you make $3k a month on a newsletter? Lex Roman explains how
🎧 What to do when you've been sued, with freelance journalist Lisa Kwon
🎧 Freelancing across genres with Fin Leary of We Need Diverse Books
🎧 Leveraging bylines to boost your freelance career with ex-GQ editor Chris Gayomali
🎧 Make your pitch stand out with advice from NY Times Opinion Editor Katie Kingsbury
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