Freelance - to do or not to do

After taking a sneak peak of the Screenmedia expo today, I rushed back from the Earls Court exhibition centre to participate in the live chat on new jobs in journalism. It was a chat about the murkier media world – where we discussed how lean the UK job market is, currently. The chat predominantly revolved around how to freelance, what courses one should take, Is NCTJ the thing to do and about what exactly budding journalists need to do about building their own brands. Rightly placed under this blog ‘Brand Janani’ let me recall what Professor Roy Greenslade said in the Guardian article on building one’s own brand (which initiated this discussion), and then followed by the actual discussion itself – the panel which included Laura Oliver, editor of journalism.co.uk (a site I visit at least twice daily to check for new jobs, understand the job market, know what journalists are up to, and find out how I can improve myself), Joanne Mallon, media and career coach (the website of which I have subscribed to, hoping to gain career advice) and Carrie Dunn, a freelance journalist (supposedly an expert freelancer, whom I have never come across so far).

First things first – after carefully studying the blog on what journalists – young and old – should do as editorial jobs vanish, here’s what I conclude. (This blog was written after glancing through a rough draft: an outline for a lecture on entrepreneurial journalism). Let me deal with the original posting which triggered this Guardian blog.

So, he says one needs to “Sell content to an audience” (for which I am sure you got to first build an audience), and then sell eyeballs to advertisers, and then fix a price for what you write depending upon the eyeballs. So does he mean that journalists need to first create blogs, create followers, sell themselves, and actually prove their worth to be able to find an entry into the editorial of a publishing house? Seems like I’ve got it right, as he goes on saying how participation for a blog can be created through social networking, twittering, facebooking, and it all. But, you also need to be doing some targeted advertising to your blog – by putting up on linked-in, professional networking sites and the like. The next important step he says is to build the brand, have conversations with the right crowd, and oops did you just realize YOU ARE NOT A JOURNALIST ANYMORE!!! You have to sell, market, consult, network and do all that to create space for yourself. IT IS only about your ABILITY to create audience for yourself (the bigger the number of followers your posts have, the higher you will be rated by your employer)! And, you shouldn’t stop there – extract data from your audience (try and understand your reader), repackage your blogs, devise new applications and sell and manage your content in a clever manner! Journalists are becoming marketers in SIMPLE terms.

Getting to the subject matter now - Is FREELANCING the way to go?

Here’s what Carrie had to tell me in the chat!
"Going freelance isn't the right thing for everyone. Personally, I LOVE it, but then I like being able to manage my own workload - I know lots of people would hate the insecurity and intermittent income, so consider it carefully before you do. I don't think you'd need an NCTJ qualification if you wanted to do freelance features writing, but it might give you an edge if you wanted to do in-house shifts - then having said that, you already have loads of experience, it's probably just a question of tailoring that to the jobs you're seeking. Maybe one of the other experts will have more definitive answers for you...I'm sorry that wasn't more help!"

Conclusions:
-->> Intermittent income and security - if these were my concern,I don't think I can find something worthwhile to do - at least in the current job scenario.
-->> Great! She's sensible enough to say I needn't take up NCTJ.
-->> And, finally she agrees that I have oodles of experience, so let me just tailor (read market) myself better so that my next employer can NEVER SAY NO.


So, yes! Freelancing is the way out, now!