help to build a relationship. Tap your network of fellow SEJers. For example, on the free-
lance listserv, you can ask for information about contacting spe- cific editors (if you’re not on the freelance listserv, you can sign up here:
http://www.sej.org/listserv-signup-archives; SEJ member log-in required). A pitch slam is a good place to meet editors, even if you’re not pitching. But keep in mind that pitching at a pitch slam isn’t primarily a way to sell a particular article; it’s a way to get noticed as someone who can recognize a good story and present it in a compelling way. Even if you don’t participate in pitch slams, it’s a good idea to practice explaining your story idea as an “elevator pitch,” so that you’ll have an answer ready when an editor asks what you’re work- ing on. If you meet an editor who seems open to your ideas, follow up quickly with something in writing, while the conversation is still fresh in the editor’s mind.
Seek out opportunities to meet editors at conferences and other gatherings. Look for common ground: people you both know, sub- jects you both cover, geography, shared activities such as parenting or sports. Ask mutual friends to make introductions, and offer to return the favor.
If this sounds like an old boys’ club, it doesn’t have to be. At one SEJ conference, I got an assignment in the women’s restroom. Challenge yourself to reach across traditional divides such as ge- ography, socioeconomics, ethnicity, gender and age. For example, I live in a cabin in rural Washington state, but I
don’t see that as a handicap when it comes to getting assignments from New York City editors. I encounter different story ideas and sources than when I lived in Manhattan, and I emphasize that in my pitches, because any media outlet needs a diversity of ideas to attract a diverse audience.
The care and feeding of editors
I know a lot of smart, creative people who aren’t good at rela- tionships. Maybe that’s one reason they’re freelancers. But if you’re more like a lone wolf than a Labrador retriever, that could be hurt-
Inside
Story...Continued from p. 9
for eight months and how work was divided given other demands? Banerjee:We — Jack Cushman, Lisa Song, Dave Hasemyer and I — did dailies for a time, but from about June through the end of the year, we worked almost exclusively on Exxon. You have to have the time and bandwidth to immerse yourself in the work or it won’t get done. Lots of newsrooms don’t allow beat reporters to do this if they latch onto an investigative topic, or they hand the topic to an investigative team, which might lack the subject matter expertise a beat reporter has.
It meant that other colleagues who weren’t on the project picked up a great deal of slack on daily coverage and we needed to expand our staff to keep up. There might be four people whose names are on the ICN Exxon project but it would never have come off as quickly and completely as it did if the whole organization hadn’t pulled in the same direction.
According to InsideClimate News, Exxon sowed doubt about climate science for decades by stressing uncertainty, such as in these published articles. Graphic courtesy of Paul Horn, InsideClimate News
“Inside Story” editor Beth Daley is a reporter at the New Eng- land Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom based at Boston University and affiliated with WGBH News.
20 SEJournal Summer 2016
ing your freelance business. In this economy, lone wolves don’t have the luxury of waiting to be discovered. They have to act more like Labrador retrievers if they want to find a place by the fire and get fed. The same goes for editors: Writers are drawn to those who are the most approachable and friendly, not the snarly types.
Many of us might benefit from spending less time on our pitches and more time reaching out to editors. It’s difficult for any freelancer today to survive without at least one or two steady gigs, and getting those is usually a matter of developing a long-term relationship with an editor who trusts your judgment and professionalism. The care and feeding of editors came home to me, literally, after I worked with a writer on an investigative feature article about several American soldiers who were left behind alive after the last battle of the Vietnam War. He hadn’t written for the mag- azine before, but I believed in him and his story and championed both for the many months that it took to shape the story for publi- cation. Afterward, the writer surprised me by sending a jar of cook- ies and a thank-you letter telling me that he had just received a book contract. Editors aren’t the only people who like cookies. Barbara
Fraser, a freelance environmental journalist in Peru, recently told me that one of her favorite editors is also a Girl Scout leader who always keeps a couple of boxes of Thin Mints tucked away for Bar- bara’s next visit to the United States. Now that’s an editor I’d like to meet.
Dawn Stover is a freelance science and environmental jour- nalist based in White Salmon, Wash., and a contributing editor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. She was an editor at Popular Science magazine for almost 20 years, and previously worked at Harper’s and Science Digest. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Conservation, High Country News, New Scientist, Out- side, Backpacker, The New York Times,
ForeignPolicy.com,
MSN.com and other publications. She is a charter member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and a volunteer co-coordina- tor of the SEJ Mentor Program.
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