It’s more important than ever to learn how to build a long-form independent journalism career amid the 240 Washington Post buyouts, closure of Buzzfeed News, and layoffs across the industry, including New York Public Radio, Barstool Sports, and the Texas Tribune over recent months. I know for me, the media industry feels smaller than ever as closures get more and more brutal. Consider making a bet on yourself and peek into the world of freelance journalism, no matter what your job situation is.

Long-form journalism offers a unique way to build empathy and understanding across lines of identity and circumstance, as you immerse in both the larger context and small details of a person or situation. Often, these projects are the highlights of our careers, leading to awards, job offers, book deals and other opportunities—not to mention exposing injustice and prompting policy changes. Please join us Friday, Oct. 27 at 12-1:15 p.m. ET for our webinar on sustaining a career in long-form journalism and see if it’s right for you!

Successful freelancers will share the reality of making a living while doing meaningful work.

Speakers include:

Cerise Castle, independent journalist

Cerise Castle is a Los Angeles-based journalist specializing in arts & culture, civil rights, criminal justice, and human interest stories. In 2022, she was a recipient of the International Women in Media Foundation’s Courage Award for her work covering the deputy gangs. In 2023, she received the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for her reporting on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Her reporting and commentary have been featured by ABC, Autre, Capital & Main, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times, The LAnd, Los Angeles Magazine, MTV, National Public Radio (NPR), Salon and Vanity Fair. In addition to writing, Castle is the managing editor of Knock LA where she oversees teams of editors, photographers, graphic designers, and writers who cover local news in the greater Los Angeles County area.

Fernanda Santos, editor in digital and audio

Fernanda Santos has focused her career on elevating the stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities. She got her start in journalism in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, her home country, and was the first Brazilian to become a staff writer for The New York Times, where she worked for 12 years. She’s a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, a writing coach in the Poynter Institute’s Power of Diverse Voices and a co-writer of the Off Broadway musical ¡Americano!. Her first book, The Fire Line, is about one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history. She’s currently at work on a memoir.

Sarah Carr, independent journalist

Sarah Carr has covered education for The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, and more, winning numerous awards. Past fellowship grants include the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, and the Russell Sage Visiting Journalist fellowship. She is the author of “Hope Against Hope” (Bloomsbury, 2013), about New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina, which was selected as a campus-wide read at Tulane University and Macalester College. She has taught and mentored students at both SUNY New Paltz and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Carr was also editor of an investigative education reporting team at the Boston Globe, The Great Divide, and a staff writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, the New Orleans Times Picayune, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Moderated by Jaeah Jonae Lee, independent journalist

Jaeah Lee is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and a 2021-2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow. She has written for California Sunday, 1843 Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Topic Stories, Vice News, and Mother Jones. She is a recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for excellence in longform, narrative reporting on underrepresented groups in America. Jaeah recently served as a board member for the Asian American Journalists Association's San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, and as a contributing editor for PEN America’s The Sentences That Create Us (Haymarket, 2022), a book about the craft of writing for incarcerated people.

RSVP here.

—Aarohi Sheth, IIJ newsletter writer

Help Build the IIJ—Submit Your Conference Proposals Today!

The IIJ is an education and mutual support organization, but we’re also a community, which is why we’re asking you to help us build the IIJ conference.

Which editors do you want to learn the art of pitching from? Which publications do you want to land a byline in? What speakers do you want to hear from at our next panel or webinar?

Aside from suggesting speakers and assigning editors, you can also help us by:

• Sharing our events and newsletters with your audience

• Suggesting funders and partners who would be a good fit for our webinars and events

• Making a donation to support our work

• Volunteering to be a chat moderator or convention programming member

Submit all your ideas and thoughts here.

The deadline for proposals is Oct. 23 at 11:59 p.m. ET. All speakers, moderators, and volunteers will receive complimentary conference registration.

The conference will be held Feb. 29-March 1, 2024 from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.

Questions? Email IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis at [email protected] or volunteer coordinator Sa’iyda Shabazz at [email protected] 

We look forward to hearing from you.

Pitch Callouts, Fellowships, and Other Opportunities

Major League Baseball is Hiring a Seasonal Reporter/Producer

If you’re a baseball nut in need of your next gig, MLB is hiring a seasonal reporter/producer to help write, create, and manage MLB’s digital content. Applicants who live in or near Ariz., Cincinnati, San Francisco, St. Louis, Minn., and Los Angeles are particularly needed.

Pay: $22-$25/hour.

For more information or to apply, visit their site.

Guardian Call for Pitches

If you have story ideas on the intersections of climate justice and food, labor, and housing, consider pitching to the Guardian.

Rate: $1/word.

Send pitches to [email protected].

Esquire’s Books and Fiction Section Call for Pitches

If you are interested in writing author interviews, author profiles, book round-ups, trend pieces, and reported features about the publishing industry, consider pitching to Equire’s Books and Fiction section editor. Longer essays about books and culture are welcome as well.

Pay starts at $500.

Send pitches to [email protected].

The Open Notebook’s Early-Career Fellowship Program

If you’re a science journalist with fewer than three years regular professional science writing experience, consider applying to the Open Notebook’s Early-Career Fellowship Program.

Fellows receive a $6,000 stipend.

For more information or to apply, visit their site here.

The deadline to apply is Oct. 31.

https:/for-women-journalist

Interesting Reads

• Read Chelsea Hylton’s “Latinidad is inspiring these nail artists’ intricate designs” for the Los Angeles Times’ section, De Los. In it, she pays tribute to the Latine nail artists who are bringing their creativity and culture to the industry and the influence they’ve had on nail art in general.

• Read Fernanda Camarena’s “How Standards Editors Choose Images from Israel and Gaza” for Poynter. In it, she speaks to newsroom leaders about the power of images and the balance between showing the realities of war and not (re)traumatizing readers.

• Read Laura Entis’ “Five former journalists on why they left the industry” for NiemanLab. In it, the interviewees share the joys and challenges of their jobs and why they all eventually left.

• We're always eager to connect with freelance journalists of color who'd like to be involved in the work of the IIJ or contribute to future programs. Email [email protected] to volunteer—or if you have an idea for a partner, funder or topic we should explore.

Calendar

We love growing the IIJ family and connecting with fellow freelance journalists, so please come to one of our events! Here are the upcoming IIJ events and presentations by IIJ leaders:

• Oct. 27 long-form journalism careers webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Nov. 16 AIR webinar on the business of freelancing. For more information, click here.

• Nov. 17 business and personal finance editors panel. RSVP here to attend.

• Dec. 8 travel and lifestyle freelancing webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Jan. 19 insurance for freelancers webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• Feb. 9 sports and fitness journalism webinar. RSVP here to attend.

• April 12-April 14 presentation at the 2024 Women in Journalism workshop at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. For more information, click here.