When my stepfather recently joined my mother in home hospice, I had no choice but to step back from work.
My freelance income this year will take a big hit as a result.
Inheriting assets as part of history’s greatest generational wealth transfer lessens the financial pressure.
But I also worry about what the break will do for my freelance portfolio at such a challenging time in media. Will people want to hire me again? However, I also find myself wondering if I would want them to hire me again. Is this work I want to do? Why? If it’s not fulfilling, is the work worth it for other reasons?
Call it a “mid-career existential crisis.”
It’s so easy to get caught up in building your career that it feels impossible to take these steps back to get a bird’s-eye view. But I don’t think we should wait for something as life altering as dying parents to do it.
Setting aside even a few days to block off our calendars and really consider our career trajectory can do wonders. You don’t even have to pay a career coach. Tools as simple as journaling and deep conversations with friends or trusted colleagues can help us tune out all the noise and listen to the voice of our deepest, most intuitive wisdom.
And if you could tune out all the voices that aren’t aligned with your true self, what would your intuition tell you?
And, more importantly, would you have the courage to listen to it?
~ Sara
🚨 NEXT WEEK: Join the IIJ at Indigenous Media Conference!
IIJ leader Katherine Reynolds Lewis will be in Portland next week for the Indigenous Media Conference! She’ll join independent journalists Adreanna Rodriguez, Johnnie Jae, and Mandy Yeahpau on July 22 at 4 p.m. PT to present a panel on how freelance journalists can navigate a challenging media landscape. Katherine will also represent the IIJ at a free freelance meetup with folks from Association of Independents in Radio, International Women’s Media Foundation, and Next Gen Journalism!
🚨 NEXT WEEK: Meet the IIJ at NAHJ!
The IIJ heads to New Orleans at the end of July for a panel and a meetup at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference. Learn about “Mastering the Solo Hustle” from the IIJ’s Ann Marie Awad, data journalist Silvia Canelón, Pizza Shark co-founder Carolina Murriel, and Valeria Fernández of Altavoz Lab. They will share tools on how to set rates, negotiate contracts that protect scope creep, and more.
Before the panel, on Friday, July 24 at 5:30 p.m. CT, you can join Ann Marie and the IWMF’s Juanita Islas and Tat Bellamy-Walker for a meetup!
Pitch Calls and Other Opportunities
🕵🏾♂️ Reporters of color can apply for IRE fellowship
The Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship provides a year of training and covers Investigative Reporters and Editors conference expenses for a journalist of color pursuing an investigative project. 💰$2,000 in conference travel stipends, free IRE conference registration, and free training. Learn more and apply here. Deadline: Tuesday, September 1.
🐊 Send Florida stories to Inside Climate News
Senior Editor Caroline Jones wants climate stories from Florida for Inside Climate News. 💰$500 for 700 words, per Tim Herrera’s crowdsourced freelance rate database. Send pitches to [email protected].
🧑⚖️ Solitary confinement story grants available
Solitary Watch invites journalists to apply for its Solitary Confinement Story Grants, which seek to expand awareness about the impact of solitary confinement on incarcerated people and their communities. 💰$1,000 to $3,000. Learn more and apply here. Deadline: Friday, July 31.
🏙️ Become a NYT Local Investigations Fellow
The New York Times invites journalists to submit local investigative story ideas for its 2027-28 Local Investigations Fellow class. 💰$85,000. Learn more and apply here. Deadline: Rolling basis until Friday, August 21.
✡️ Karsh Fellowship focuses on Jewish issues
The Karsh Fellowship awards 10 grants each year to reporters for stories on issues that impact the Jewish community in the U.S. and beyond. Fellows attend training and receive support for a reporting project. 💰$4,000. Learn more and apply here. Deadline: Tuesday, September 1.
Interesting Reads
📖 The Wall Street Journal has changed its freelance photographer contracts to allow for the possibility of sublicensing images to AI companies, angering many of its regular freelancers. “For the first time in twenty years, I thought: Oh, shit. We’re going to lose our jobs,” Daniella Zalcman writes for the Columbia Journalism Review. But it’s not just about losing work — Zalcman points out the potential for harm extends to those photographed, in particular vulnerable communities like immigrants.
📖 If you ever feel you have too many books, you probably don’t — at least in comparison to Mendel Uminer, who was recently evicted from his Upper East Side apartment for having 10,000 books in his studio. The New York Times Magazine chronicled his predicament in a story that rightly pays most attention to the joy that books bring. As a friend laments, “There’s an element to the city now that’s hostile to the life of the mind, to the eccentricity that might produce it.”
📖 Patrick Radden Keefe is one of my favorite journalists right now, and he shares some tips with Nieman Storyboard about his most recent book, London Falling. I particularly appreciated his reflection on how to know when a story is ready to publish, which he says comes when he has done enough research and reporting to feel “as though I’ve earned the right to weigh in on something.”
Calendar
🗓️ NEXT WEEK! Wednesday, July 22 - Join the IIJ at this year’s Indigenous Media Conference in Portland, Oregon! IIJ founder Katherine Reynolds Lewis and independent journalists Adreanna Rodriguez, Johnnie Jae, and Mandy Yeahpau will lead a discussion on the reality of freelance journalism at 4 p.m. PT.
🗓️ NEXT WEEK! Thursday, July 23 - The IIJ is co-hosting a freelancer meetup at Indigenous Media Conference at 5:30 p.m. PT with AIR, Next Gen Journalism’s Doug Mitchell, and IWMF’s Tara Gatewood and Rachael Smith. RSVP here for more details!
🗓️ NEXT WEEK! Friday, July 24 - At the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ annual conference in New Orleans, join the IIJ’s Ann Marie Awad and IWMF leaders Juanita Islas and Tat Bellamy-Walker for a meetup from 4:30-5:30 p.m. CT, co-hosted by AIR, Next Gen Journalism, and FIJ! Register here for more details.
🗓️ NEXT WEEK! Saturday, July 25 - The IIJ will present a panel on “Mastering the Solo Hustle” at 10:45 a.m. CT at NAHJ in New Orleans. Speakers include IIJ editorial director Ann Marie Awad, Pizza Shark co-founder Carolina Murriel, Altavoz Lab founder Valeria Fernández, and independent journalist Silvia Canelón.
🗓️ Thursday, Aug. 13 - At the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in Atlanta, IIJ leaders Katherine Reynolds Lewis and Shernay Williams will join Atlanta-based entertainment journalist Tatyana Arrington for a panel called “Where’s the Bag: How to Build Sustainable Income on Your Own” at 1 p.m. ET. We’re also co-hosting a meetup at NABJ with AIR and IWMF. RSVP here for more details.
🗓️ Thursday, Sept. 10 - Join the IIJ at the 2026 convention for NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists in San Francisco! Trans Journalists Association co-founder Kae Petrin, COYOTE Media worker-owner Soleil Ho, and an IIJ leader will present a panel on “The Reality of Freelance Journalism Today.” Register here for more details on our freelancer meetup, co-hosted with AIR, IWMF, and the FIJ. IWMF leader Tat Bellamy-Walker will be there, as will IIJ leaders!
