Freelancing is the fastest-growing way to be a journalist and the least explained. There is no induction day, no IT department, no colleague across the desk who already knows the going rate. Which is why, since 2020, thousands of freelance journalists have had Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson in their headphones instead, on Freelancing for Journalists.
They know the terrain because they live on it. Lily Canter is a money, health and lifestyle journalist and a senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University. Emma Wilkinson is a health journalist whose bylines run from The Lancet to BBC News. They wrote the book on freelancing, literally: Freelancing for Journalists, published by Routledge in 2020. The podcast grew out of the book and then outgrew it: roughly a hundred episodes, an award on the shelf, plus courses, a newsletter and a community around it.
Why it works
The guest list is gloriously unrepeatable: wine writers, war reporters, film critics, bitcoin specialists, travel hacks, court reporters. What they have in common is that they made freelancing work, and they say how, specifically, including the numbers. And once a year the hosts do the bravest thing in podcasting: an on-air appraisal of their own freelance businesses, income included. They practise the transparency they preach.
Where to get work, how to get paid, and everything in between.
Why we sponsor it
Because their audience is exactly who journalist.net exists for. A free profile puts a freelancer in front of the world's newsrooms and brands. Guaranteed payment and insurance on every booking handle the parts of freelancing nobody starts a podcast about. The show teaches people to thrive as freelancers; we handle the admin so they can. Sponsoring it is the most obvious decision we make each year.
If you have not listened yet, start anywhere. It is that kind of show.
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