FFJ Guest Voices: Show me the dollars!
Some tips on working for overseas publications
In our Guest Voices slot, we’re on the look out for diverse and different takes, advice, tips and projects. If you have an interesting (and practical) idea there is a Google form for your pitches here.
This guest newsletter is from social affairs journalist Sally Howard. As The India Story Agency, Sally and her Delhi-based colleague Geetanjali Krishna write joint byline stories together on health in the global south for US journals and magazines and the pair are Gates Foundations/European Journalism Centre grantees for their reporting work on refugee vaccine access in India.
Our tips for pitching to overseas publications
When sterling dramatically lost value against the US dollar a couple of weeks ago, many British journalists speculated about the deluge of pitches US publications would receive from UK-based journalists. Rebecca Tidy, who writes about wellness, health and travel and is based in Cornwall, tweeted a rallying cry to her fellow British freelance journalists:
Is this breezy picture of the ease of cross-national reporting an accurate one? Well, yes and no. It’s true there are rich rewards in working for dollar rates and building an overseas profile, but there are also cultural differences to navigate and, when it comes to the US, differences in the way publications operate that can be confusing to foreign freelancers. Here we set out our top five tips for making it work.
1. Refer to pitching guidelines
If you are thinking of pitching North American titles, the first step is to subscribe to New York-based journalist Sonia Weiser’s Opportunities of the Week newsletter which lists pitching callouts from local and national titles across the US and Canada.
You’ll see from this newsletter that many major US publications publish pitching guidelines. These resources are invaluable to direct your efforts and avoid wasting time with off-topic pitches, which is a risk if you are overseas and can’t peruse the back-catalogues of the publication online. Paid members of US media networking site MediaBistro also have access to detailed pitching guidelines for major US publications.
Though less common than formerly, US magazines and periodicals often publish useful forward-planning guides for the topics/themes they intend to cover over the course of a year and it is worth asking for these to cut down on off-topic pitching.
2. Allow more time to nurture case studies
Reporting on Indian NGOs for British and US clients, Geetanjali often finds that she has to rely on her stock of good favour, and her reputation as an Indian columnist, to secure expert interviews. It is a good idea to allow more time to nurture interviewees for cross-national stories, she says.
“Sometimes respondents feel that publicity overseas does not give them the benefits of being published in a national/domestic daily,” she explains.
“For many Indian charities, for instance, who do not have licences to accept funds from abroad, being written about in international publications has few positive effects. In contrast, being published in national dailies helps them increase their donor base and reach the notice of policymakers.”
3. Be aware that time difference management is a challenge
“Time difference management is the biggest challenge [in cross-national reporting]” says Jai Breitnauer, who is Bristol based and works for overseas publications including New Zealand’s The Spinoff, with international differences in daylight saving presenting unique traps.
“I recently discovered Zoom sets meetings automatically to GMT so when we are in BST I keep missing important conferences,” she says. It’s true that time zone differences can rapidly lead to burnout if poorly managed. When based in the US Midwest, your correspondent frequently woke to half a day’s worth of emails from the UK, living five to six hours behind London depending on the time of year, and once memorably fielded an unscheduled conference call from a ten-woman Condé Nast editorial team at 5.30am.
For these reasons, make sure that your message notifications are turned off overnight and consider a permanent out of office message to alert overseas editors to your time zone and the times when you will be available to respond to emails.
Catherine Cooper, who is based in France and writes for UK publications says time zone differences can, however, work in freelancers’ favour. “I like working for UK publications living in France as we are an hour ahead so it makes it look like I start earlier than I actually do,” she says.
4. Fact-checking cultures differ
Filed a story to a US or Canadian publication and keen to dispatch your invoice and move on? Not so fast, my friends! Unlike UK publications, where fact-checking is undertaken by sub-editors who also cut copy to fit to the page and write headlines and standfirsts, US publications have fact-checkers whose main task is to guard against the US’ litigation culture.
This might mean that any assertions you have made in a piece that cannot be adequately backed up by a source the publication considers reliable are dropped (which can cause anger and frustration to those new to this style of editing). You may also be asked to send backups of all of your resources, again for legal reasons, which may include audio recordings of interviews and scans of pages from your notebooks.
In a 2021 post on UK freelancers facebook group No. 1 Freelance Media Women, esteemed music journalist Miranda Sawyer spoke humorously about her spat with a US fact-checker who questioned her assertion in a story that the ‘sky was blue’ in a paragraph setting the scene for an interview. “She had looked up the meteorological reports that day and told me that it was in fact cloudy.” Be prepared for these requests for in-depth corroboration, and for a lengthier fact-checking process, when you file your copy.
5. Watch out for form filling and mystery bank fees
When working for US publications you will need to fill in a W-8BEN form to be paid. This is a bamboozling Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mandated form to collect correct Nonresident Alien (NRA) taxpayer information for individuals for reporting purposes and to document their status for tax reporting purposes. It is worth asking fellow journalists who work across markets to help you with this form.
Also keep an eye out for sneaky mystery fees charged by banks for international payments, which can amount to tens of pounds. Consider setting up a Wise account in a dollar denomination, which also means you can transfer amounts into sterling when exchange rates are at their most favourable (free passive savings - yeh).
You might find you also have to be discriminating about the publications you work for based on their accounts admin processes. Some US titles, for example, pay in posted dollar-denomination cheques/checks, which are near impossible to pay into UK bricks-and-mortar bank accounts (unless you have a paid-for dollar denomination account). Indian English-language titles often demand that tax is paid in India by foreign contributors on top of any taxes you will pay in your home nation.
Hope you found all that helpful. You may also be interested in these two Facebook groups for Australian-market journalists and writing job postings in the US.
Last chance to sign up
We have just revamped our four-week online course run in partnership with Journalism.co.uk. If you are new to freelance journalism or want to boost your success and want lots of feedback, support and guidance as you go, this may be just what you’re looking for. Kickstart your freelance journalism career is one of the most reasonably priced courses out there and previous attendees have achieved commissions on the back of pitches they worked with us on in the Guardian, Metro, Runners’ World and EuroNews to name but a few.
To find out more and grab your place for November, click the button below. We should stress this can all be done in your own time, assignments are voluntary and the course also now includes live Q&A sessions.
Upgrade for bonus content
For anyone who wants more support with their freelancing and access to extra resources, you may want to sign up to the premium version of this newsletter. For just £40 a year you get access to bonus podcasts, Ask Us Anything sessions and helpful resource lists. Any questions just shout at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Triumph of the week
Getting copy filed to at least have one or two days of half-term off.
That feeling when
You’ve approached 50 experts for a feature and have generated one comment…
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!
