A free online guide to the most important business decisions freelance journalists make, with an eye to efficiency and prioritizing actions that have a bigger impact on your bottom line

I’m excited to introduce the Freelance Quick-Start Guide, a new tool provided by the Institute for Independent Journalists, which takes journalists through the most important steps for creating an independent journalism practice that will become financially and emotionally sustainable. 

More journalists are working as freelancers every month, due to layoffs, contraction and churn in media organizations, and stagnant or falling salaries. A 2022 Pew Research study found that 34 percent of journalists are self-employed, and anecdotally, the freelance community has grown since then. 

At the IIJ, we believe that sustainable freelancing is key to a healthy journalism ecosystem, and will be part of most journalists’ career path. For me, it’s been the way to pursue long-form narratives and investigative projects, write an award-winning book, cover multiple beats, and enjoy a calm and peaceful newsroom of one, despite the chaos in our industry and world. I’ve also earned more annually than when I was a national reporter for Bloomberg News — yes, it’s possible. This free, self-paced guide aims to let anyone create their own successful path. 

The guide contains learning modules that combine video tutorials, exercises, spreadsheets, and entrepreneurship education. You start by taking a pre-survey to assess your starting point, and then follow the learning path through the different modules. Topics include setting your target freelance rates, establishing a profitable mix of services, identifying the right clients for you, marketing yourself, setting up systems to manage time and money, and effective networking. New or established freelancers will design their own contracts, understand how to scope a project, and finish the guide with a business plan that will continue to support their entrepreneurial journey.

I intentionally put information about contracts, taxes, and business structure towards the end of the guide because a common misconception about freelancing is that you should start with the business basics, which causes journalists to neglect researching the market or assessing if there’s the basis for a profitable freelance practice in the first place. 

I’d like to thank the Association of Independents in Radio, a core IIJ partner, for hosting the guide on their learning platform, SoundPath. To access the guide, first create a free account on SoundPath. 

How I created the guide

When starting to build the guide, I knew the key stumbling blocks for new freelancers based on 16 years’ experience as a full-time freelancer and educator who taught journalism entrepreneurship through organizations like the Asian American Journalists Association and National Press Club, as well as at Northwestern University’s Medill School and American University. 

In order to make the resources relevant for the current environment, this fall I spoke with over a dozen freelancers and editors or producers who commission freelance journalism work. Freelancers told me that they underestimated the long lead time from going solo to actually breaking even, experienced confusion over the direction to head, and went through their savings more quickly than they anticipated. 

“The hardest lesson of my freelancing is that there’s a colossal difference between ‘We’d like to work with you’ to getting the contract signed,” said one new freelancer with years of journalism experience. 

I’m so grateful to the freelancers who spoke to me for this project, the thousands of other freelancers who’ve participated in IIJ events and helped me learn about their needs, the IIJ team for key contributions to the guide, the Reynolds Journalism Institute for the fellowship and critical support that made this guide possible, and the other RJI fellows in my class who inspired me with their creative solutions to pressing problems in journalism.

This is only version 1.0 of the freelance guide, so I welcome anyone who’s freelancing or is interested in starting to freelance to sign up and test it out. Thanks in advance for your feedback. And I’d be happy to demo the guide for any organization that would find it useful. Please reach out to me to explore collaboration or partnership opportunities – or to offer feedback and suggestions on improving the guide. 

The IIJ offers other resources for freelancers on entrepreneurship, including our annual conference, a business-of-freelancing course, and free webinars and the Freelance Journalism Podcast, featuring assigning editors and expert freelancers. We’re excited for this guide to offer another entry point for journalists looking to strengthen their entrepreneurship skills. 

Cite this article

Lewis, Katherine Reynolds (2025, March 4). How to get started as a freelance journalist — and quickly become sustainable. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/how-to-get-started-as-a-freelance-journalist-and-quickly-become-sustainable/