Jem Collins on Making Journalism More Accessible
and being more transparent about rates
Hi writer friends,
If you’re new here, and I haven’t won you over just yet—hi! I’m Britany, and this is One More Question, a newsletter for freelance writers who want to keep doing the work, even when it’s really hard. There’s a lot to catch up on, like all of this week’s pitch opportunities. Check out some past Q&A’s while you’re at it, like this one with Susan Shain on writing for the New York Times, or this one with Ari Saperstein on writing for The Cut.
Jem Collins on Transparency and Collaboration in the Journalism Industry
So much of journalism is hidden and secret, and that’s one of the main reasons it’s such an un-diverse industry – if you’re not in the club, you don’t know the deal and you’re the one who loses out.
Jem Collins is the mastermind behind the hugely helpful website, Journo Resources, and she somehow still has time work on a million other things, from writing solutions-based journalism to social media for World Emoji Day. Through Journo Resources, she’s making journalism more transparent, and helping writers in the UK and all over land jobs. Jem has spent a lot of time mentoring and offering advice on resumes, pitching, and jobs, so she’s familiar with all of the challenges and doubts that plague early-career writers. (And also not-so-early career writers… those things never really go away.)
So I caught up with Jem about how the journalism industry has changed over the past few years, and how we can all contribute to making it more accessible.
Give us a snapshot of your work week right now. How much time do you devote to Journo Resources and what other work makes up your days?
My work tends to be a big mish-mash of stuff at the moment, and really varies from month to month. The ideal is spending about three days a week on Journo Resources stuff, but I’m not quite there yet, mainly because of having to pay the bills! I really want to start building our editorial content towards the end of this year though, as that’s the stuff I really love doing. At the moment, my other regular gigs include some lecturing in online journalism, heading up digital for a small charity over here called Women in Journalism, and working on various social media accounts. At the moment I’m on the team for World Emoji Day which is pretty fun. Outside of that I do try to pitch freelance stories as much as I can – I mainly focus on human rights, the media industry, and rural stories which might have got missed. For example, I wrote this a while back on what it’s like to live on a tiny rock and I did this investigation into birth rights earlier this year. I’m also a trustee for a small charity that helps student journalists, so basically, there isn’t really a typical week, as much as I would love there to be!
A lot has changed since you first started Journo Resources three years ago, and those changes have seemed more drastic recently, as COVID-19 has really ravaged the budgets of publications around the world. But can you share any good changes you've seen in the journalism industry, since you first set out to help journalists find jobs?
It’s a bit anecdotal, but when I was studying to be a journalist, I don’t think either I or my peers had any real concept of what we or our work was worth, and it certainly all felt a lot more like you were going it alone. It felt a lot like an endless treadmill of free work, before you were then expected to take a really badly paid job at a local paper, work your way up to a national and basically that was that. It’s still incredibly tough to break into the media industry, and I don’t think that’s going to ever change, but it does feel that we’ve now got to a better place where young people are able to take ownership of their work, and we’re all collaborating together a lot more.
For example, I see so many more young people who are empowered enough to start pitching their own stories straight off the bat and getting paid for them, and it feels like we’re having a a lot more honest conversations about the different routes you can take to get into the media and the other things you can do with your skills. It just feels like there’s a lot more collaboration out there – Journo Resources was built on people sharing information with each other, whether that’s salaries, rates, or pitches, but now you see it in so many other places too.
For example, the Young Journalist Community started up recently and is a really vibrant community, and there are networks like the Second Source, The Professional Freelancer, and the Student Publication Association too.
You're based in the UK and Journo Resources includes a lot of UK-based opportunities. (And this newsletter goes out to more U.S.-based journalists.) But a lot of freelance work is accessible to journalists, regardless of location. Do you encourage writers to look outside their own country when pitching and seeking jobs? Any tips for writers looking to expand their reach, geographically, while keeping their pitches relevant to the appropriate audiences?
Absolutely! The world is so connected these days, that it simply doesn’t make sense to shut off opportunities. Even if you just take the two big stories of the moment – Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus pandemic – it’s really clear that these aren’t issues that are tied to one country, and more and more people want to get the bigger picture.
You almost need to treat your location as a specialism – what perspective can you bring to readers in another country that they might find valuable? What can you get access to that reporters over there can’t? It’s also just a really good way to get a lot more out of one story pitch – the story you’d tell at home is probably quite a different framing to abroad.
Obviously this still comes with all the usual caveats – you still need to really understand the publication you’re pitching for and why it would work for them, which probably means you’re going to need to read it a fair bit. You also need to think about the technicalities of how you get paid and what the standard rates and payment terms are elsewhere, but all of this stuff is really worth doing and often isn’t as much of a hassle as you think it is.
As someone who has dedicated themselves to helping journalists find work, what is the question you're most frequently asked and how do you answer?
For the most part, everything I tend to get asked boils down to doubting that what you’ve done so far is good enough. People are constantly worried that they haven’t quite got enough experience on their CV, or that they have something missing from their portfolio, for example. It’s a tough field out there and I think sometimes people wonder if there’s one magical tip that they’re missing out on which will land them a job straight away.
When I’m looking through CVs and pitches, I tend to tell people that it’s actually more about learning how to present what you do have really well. Most people have done more than enough, but they just need to have the confidence to be able to talk about it well. Employers aren’t looking for a text book candidate in my experience – they’re looking for interesting examples of things you’ve done, and they want to know you’re able to think about the results and outcomes, as well as just churning out copy.
When I’ve been in positions of hiring before, I’m mainly looking for someone who has gone out and done something. I’m not necessarily as interested in the big name work experience placements or bylines – perhaps you went out and set up a really cool Instagram news account and grew that alongside the day job, or maybe you did a really in-depth investigation at your student newspaper. It’s just about going out and doing something, that’s a bit different, if that makes sense?
What is a question that writers don't often ask you but should?
On the flip side, hardly anyone ever asks what they should cut. I think as journalists we can have a bit of a tendency to be quite precious about our work and experiences, but if I could pay someone so no one ever makes a three page CV or a portfolio with 27 stories in it ever again I would. I see so many bits of work where people are still listing an award they got when they were ten, or including a NIB they wrote on their first work experience ten years ago, and I always feel a bit mean when I have to tell people to cut it out.
Especially as journalists we need to be critical and concise – and that includes with our own achievements. We need to be able to look at what we’ve done and know what’s relevant for this scenario and what people don’t actually need to see. Editors are busy people, the brutal truth is that they don’t have the time to read through every clipping you’ve ever written, as much as you might cherish them.
Let's say I'm a recent graduate from journalism school. What do you think looks more promising for me: looking for a staff position or jumping into the freelance game?
Now that’s a question. For a long time I was of the opinion that it’s always worth trying to get a staff job first so you can learn the ropes and get some connections, but I think things are a lot less linear than one or the other these days. I would definitely say to any student or recent graduate that they should absolutely be pitching and freelancing while they’re studying, and that you should also keep doing that while you’re on the job hunt. Even if you know a staff job is for you, it’s a great way to help you build a portfolio of paid work and give you an in with an editor. You might even find that it works out and you don’t need the staff gig after all.
Equally, I think it’s important not to sugarcoat the world of freelancing or discount a staff job – being freelance can be really tough financially and emotionally especially when you’re starting out. It’s really not all writing in your PJs. I’ve been freelance twice in my career, and there was a noticeable difference between the two. The first time round I didn’t really know what I was doing, and was just taking any shifts or work I could get. I was exhausted and not really producing anything I was proud of. This time around, I’d had time to get the lay of the land a bit more, and I know where my priorities are.
Maybe this isn’t a straight answer, but I’d mainly say don’t close any doors. Do try for the staff job if you can, but freelancing is definitely a way that you can get to the staff job, and it might be something you actually decide to come back to. The main thing is to work out what actually feels right for you and go with that.
If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about the journalism industry, what would it be?
The first thing I would get rid of is the secrecy around pay and rates. So much of journalism is hidden and secret, and that’s one of the main reasons it’s such an un-diverse industry – if you’re not in the club, you don’t know the deal and you’re the one who loses out. In short, that’s how we end up where we are at the moment. How are you supposed to know what’s good if you don’t have a benchmark? It’s still something I struggle with now.
Pay and rates are one of the biggest examples of this – we’re all too embarrassed to talk about cash, so we all end up getting ripped off and pay gaps happen. I also strongly believe that not putting rates on job ads wastes employers time too, as when you finally get to the point you chat about cash you could be on a totally different page. So, basically, salaries and rates out in the open please.
OK but you don't actually have a magic wand, so how do we, as working writers, work to change that?
Thankfully I do think this one is quite easy – all we need to do is talk to one another.
We have a big rates and salaries page on Journo Resources and there are a load of more US-focused ones like real media salaries, Who Pays Writers and Contently. Fill in databases like these and just generally talk to your peers about money; it might feel weird at first because we’re conditioned to think money is a private thing, but it really does makes a huge difference.
The recent online game you helped create in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network is a great explainer of what Solutions Journalism actually is. So I won't ask you to re-explain that. But for those who aren't familiar, can you share an example of a recent solutions journalism piece that you (or a writer you admire) has written?
One of my all time favourite examples of solutions journalism is actually this super short and super cute piece from BBC News. It’s basically a video about what happened when they switched the voice on escalator announcements at a tube station to one from a child. It’s totally not what most people wold think solutions journalism is, but it packs all the elements in within such a short space of time, I think it really proves how sojo can work in pretty much any format.
Also, if you’re into this kind of stuff, I’d very much recommend checking out the Solutions Journalism Network’s story tracker – there are almost 10,000 stories in there now, and if you’re like me and really into long reads that take you away from the world for a while, you can also sort by length. So that also means you can find the short stuff too.
That’s all for today, friends. If you’ve upgraded to a paid subscription, I’ll see ya next week with lots more pitch opps, a pitch that worked, and more! 💛