Why I went freelance
In 2019 I chose to quit my job at a national newspaper and go freelance. It was an easy decision, because in fact I didn't choose to do it at all.
For those starting out in the media industry, there often isn’t a choice of where your career path takes you. Your work placement at a local paper may transform into a contracted gig, hunting news stories, sourcing pictures or editing wire copy. Or, your first job out of university may pay by the shift and hold you to late hours in dark, quiet newsrooms, the mice and eccentric night editors your only company.
I still remember the first journalism job I ever did – filing Euro 2012 football match reports for a barely-read website from my student kitchen in Headingley, Leeds. Since then I have worked for global clients, traveled the continent reporting on live events, interviewed sporting legends, edited one of the UK’s largest sports websites… and now eight years later I’ve finally found my balance.
For many, freelancing in media is a result of being made redundant, looking around elsewhere and realising there’s nothing that suits your needs. You end up picking up odd jobs to keep ticking over, and eventually you resign yourself to never finding a contracted gig again, unless you retrain in another industry or accept unsociable hours. This has happened to plenty of Fleet Street reporters and subs who fall victim to constant cuts. Others use their experience from working within the industry to quit before they’re pushed and go it alone.
You probably won’t explicitly pick where you end up in the media industry and of course, leaving a secure job and turning to the freelance world is not a luxury most of us have. I didn’t choose my Fleet Street job – and I didn’t like everything about it. I weighed the benefits of steady pay, an editor’s title and working in the tantalising world of sports journalism – surely the only industry any football- and tennis-mad kid wants to get into – against unsociable hours and a never-ending cycle of obsessive targets. I liked the security and so thought I was happy because I was doing what I’d always wanted to do. But reality doesn’t always reflect your dreams, and as the years rolled on I realised I was deeply unhappy.
I now understand that if you’re frustrated with or sick of your work then you can choose to do something about it. You don’t just have to bury it and keep your head down. I didn’t work this out until change forced itself upon me, my original passion dampened and my career goals spiralled – and it’s something I want to spend some time reflecting on in these blog posts.
Over my next few posts I’ll explain why I waved goodbye to a steady contract and the buzz of working at a national newspaper, stepped into the freelancing world and didn’t look back. I want to share the good and bad things about freelancing, and why it’s compatible for some but not suitable for others.
Hard work may be its own reward – but equally as gratifying is being in control of what that hard work achieves.