The Future of Freelance Journalism, Part 1

La Quebrada Cliff Diver, Acapulco, MX. Flickr photo, esparta

Is there one? Decidedly yes. But it competence not be all summer breezes, giveaway booze as good as chocolate-covered strawberries. In a face of proliferating distractions, our male starts to glean which if a goal is to write some-more than 140 characters during a sitting, as good as additionally keep a kids in breakfast cereal, critical focus as good as a good understanding of risk competence be a usually sure way forward.

**Disclosure: In a researching of this post, a author, as most appropriate he can remember, perceived we guess a following element remuneration from sources alternative than his publisher: a single duck salad sandwich, two chocolate chip cookies, two cups coffee, assorted cut ripened offspring as good as chocolate, multiform eyeglasses white wine, a single sip champagne, a single glass fresh-squeezed orange juice, giveaway parking, sunshine, as good as wireless internet.

Friday, June 18, 9:15 AM, Stanford Terrace Inn, Palo Alto, CA

I PARK IN FRONT OF A CLASSIC STUCCO MOTEL handsomely done-over in Euro boutique character (where we will compensate a standard, slightly-discounted organisation rate of $155 for a room unaware a ice machine, as well as $3 for toothpaste as good as $4 for shred cream). Ive knocked about a googlemaps guess from SF by fourteen minutes. Im dosed up upon NPR as good as coffee, as good as cheered by a dissolution of a fog.

Theres a waffle club in a lobby. Guests have been gathered around it like a hearth. At reception, two young girls who competence be 12 or fourteen or 18 (I find we cant discuss it anymore) have been upon their sold smart devices, texting friends in apart lands whilst Mom works to secure a roll-away. we cant help though review a ultimate missive:

top college in US as good as a usually 72 degrees!

If we had an iPhone, w! e compet ence demeanour up who coined a word The destiny is now.

I gain a hard-copy map of a campus as good as gain accede to ditch a automobile in a underground lot. Remarkably, despite Griffin Dunne talking to me upon a air call about his father crashing a funerals of murder victims, we remember to remove a bike from a roof tiles rack BEFORE entering a garage.

9:55 AM, Clubhouse Ballroom. Freeing Your Inner Entrepreneur: Reinventing Yourself for a Changing Media World

Ive missed a giveaway bagels.

Trudeau does tweeting journos (NPR)

The contention is good underway by a time we get my nametag as good as prowl over to an open window along a corner of a room. The place is packed. The mood is casual as good as upbeat, intentionally forward-looking. A uninformed zephyr blows in from a Pacific. we strain to hear a panelists over a clacking of laptop keyboards as good as a pleasing swashing of a fountain in a courtyard.

Err upon a side of avowal is about where we catch a train.

From this vantage we can see no a single else working with coop as good as paper. Beside me stands a designer during a behind of a total event, pert, blade-sharp, quietly organizing a universe from a dashboard of her red-leather iPad.

In my stream ass-molded Moleskine, with a Mexican-made Bic secured used from a Marriot in Irvine, we scribble:

# of trad notebooks: 0 (am we seeking backward?)

On stage, full-time freelancer as good as whale partner Matt Villano moves from a theme of avowal into a significance of diversification, of expanding ones repertoire into brand new theme make a difference as good as brand new media, like a stock portfolio. Having only had a kid, he jokes (sort of) of breaking into a parenting niche.

Theres a little accord which essay for giveaway is usually a good idea might be if we have something specific to sell, r! sther th an than only for a epitome promise of exposure. The bearing had better be genuine as good as worthwhile. Writing for 10 cents a word, we dont caring who we are, says Villano, during a little point a offensive.

Dont wait for inspiration: You have to go after it with a club. Jack London, as poached from Christine Larsons website

As for Twitter as good as Facebook as good as such, ball as good as tech bard Dan Fost recommends staying off a stuff. Marci Alboher, journalist/author/speaker, describes it as a freelancers H2O cooler, which draws a call of nods from a audience. Villano, pulling from MBA theory, advises spending no some-more than 10% of your altogether bill (read: time) upon marketing (read: social networking). He does a math: 60 hrs x .1 = 6 hours max per week invested in a open persona.

Damon Brown, who writes about sex as good as record for Playboy, says he uses social media to bond some-more without delay with his audience. Then he adds: if we cover Amish enlightenment your assembly competence not be upon Twitter.

Meanwhile, upon Twitter, #ffrl:

@cmonstah: Agreement in a room which Twitter is a good journalistic H2O cooler.

@JessicaDuLong: Can we only say how vehement we am for a upbeat, forward-thinking appetite here during #FFRL ? So refreshing. Looking forward to recalibrating.

@thestrippodcast: we love which were having a contention about a row during a panel.

@kellymcgonigal: Ive proposed regulating a module called rescuetime, as good as find we spend ~1/2 my time writing. Feared it was less.

Simultaneously, behind during a front of a room, Fost suggests which maybe his most successful plan as a freelance bard has been to wed a lawyer.

In a yard there is fresh-squeezed orange extract as good as sunshine. we chat with a former staff-writer for Time magazine. After her section was shuttered, her father got a pursuit in Modesto as good as they moved to California. Shes now angling for a destiny wherein Modesto, which competence in actuali! ty have saving qualities, does not figure quite so prominently.

Next up (Part 2):

David Granger, rockstar Editor-in-Chief of Esquire, creates a strong box for The Magazine as good as his repository in sold as a biggest middle ever invented. And then lays out only how most blood, courage as good as marrow-sapping loyalty will be compulsory to participate.

Our male goes upon to representation oak-aged tequila during approx. $6/oz., refrains from joining a gin rummy diversion in a motel lobby, agrees to compensate $3 for a sample-size tube of toothpaste, creates note of a accumulation of fellowships as good as alternative appropriation sources for investigative journalism (links to be provided), learns which his father has sliced off a tip of his right index finger in a drive resource of an irrigation pump, as good as additionally which bonobos experience self-doubt, as good as is reminded (once again) precisely how most hard-labor will be compulsory to craft his next successful inhabitant repository pitch.

Stay tuned!