Introducing The Freelance Media Network
A new community for media professionals - freelance and staff (and those inbetween!)
This week’s newsletter is for the media professionals in my Substack - or, if you know a media professional, please do forward this on to them.
Introducing The Freelance Media Network: Community and connection for professionals in the media.
The Freelance Media Network will be a vetted, private community of media professionals, staff and freelance. And its USP is that it is for all media professionals - from journalists and PRs, designers and photographers to podcasters, media creatives, TV, Radio, broadcast... the list goes on.
This goes beyond journalism - because working in the media goes beyond journalism.
It’s for everyone in the media because none of us are ‘one thing’ - we might be a writer and a sub editor, a designer and a blogger, a videographer and a podcaster… Editors do freelance work, authors might work in-house at magazines.
What is The Freelance Media Network?
The Freelance Media Network (FMN) is a new, unique place for media professionals to connect, share, find work, celebrate and commiserate with each other about everything to do with the rollercoaster that is working in the media.
It’ll be a curated, vetted, private community of media professionals, across a wide range of disciplines, both freelance and staff and those who work in between. From the staffer who also freelances, to the freelancer who works on in-house shifts or is on a contract.
There’ll be a regular stream of posts (I hope, hah!) as well as weekly co-working. The FMN will also offer workshops (which will be cheaper for members) and exclusive downloadable courses.
Other key exclusive elements include a jobs board, and, in the future, I plan to introduce live Q&A sessions with key members to share their insight as well as IRL meet ups.
Who can join The Freelance Media Network?
The Freelance Media Network is about connecting people in the media, both staff and freelance, and that middle ground we have all experienced, where we might be on a contract or shifts. The Network will be open to women and men - everyone from a new journalism graduate to a TV news producer or senior editor. Everyone from a freelance PR to a videographer working on a news desk.
The Freelance Media Network will be about collaboration and community - it’s not a one-way street, but rather a space for media professionals to share ideas, experiences, wins, losses, frustrations, joyful moments and even the ‘daft stuff’ (the group will have a ‘watercooler’ section for general chat, much like we all used to enjoy when we were all office-based.)
It’ll welcome people from across all areas of the media - the main theme is that you work in or with the media in some way. That’s everyone from a journalist or sub editor to a commissioning editor, a news editor, designer, art director, photographer, podcaster, radio or TV professional, broadcast, all the way through to copywriters and designers who work in the media. The group will welcome PRs and comms professionals, and those who work in press offices.
It won’t be a matchmaking group - so sadly small business owners looking for press visibility or opportunities won’t be able to join. Similarly, if someone runs a business or is freelance and also blogs on their website, that would be a no. Your main ‘thing’ needs to be working as a professional in the media.
But the idea is that members will be able to help one another with a wide range of things: Of course, commissions or work for media professionals, but also perhaps the writer who can help the podcaster with blog content. Or the designer on a magazine who also creates brand logos and can help an author with theirs.
Brand new yet also established…
The Freelance Media Network is brand new and established all at the same time. Let me explain…
17 years ago a freelance friend and I created a group on Facebook. It was created on a bit of a whim, a quiet day on shifts, when Facebook was new and we weren’t even sure if it was going to last. Now, nearly two decades on, the group is over 10.1k members strong, and well-known in the industry for connecting journalists and other media professionals. It was called the No1 Freelance Ladies’ Buddy Agency - it’s now called the No1 Freelance Media Women.
Building a new version away from Facebook has been a dream of mine for a while now. I say a while - about ten years, on and off! I have - along with some other amazing admins - seen the group grow, seen the benefit and joy it can bring to members. My goal is to bring that energy and purpose but to a platform where the membership is curated and even more involved. It is to offer way more than a Facebook group can - to take the professional interaction to the next level, and bring together those who are active members as well as new voices, to expand all our networks. In order to do that it needs to go from ‘FB group’ to ‘bonafide membership’.
I nod to the brilliant Steve Folland at Being Freelance, Frankie Tortora at Doing It For The Kids, Matthew Knight at Leapers and the team at IPSE for support, counsel and inspiration. You may remember my platform Freelance Feels (the original name of this Substack) - The FMN feels like ‘Feels 2.0’.
I’d also like to shout out to Journo Resources, Women in Journalism and Freelancing for Journalists as platforms to follow and engage with if you’re a freelance journalist.
Members of the No1 Freelance Media Women have already been told about the move, and that the group will stay open until the end of September, when it’ll archive. If you’re a member there and haven’t heard the news, please do look for the pinned post on the featured posts at the top of the page. There is also an ‘admin statement’ on that group. I am immensely grateful to the admins past and present.
Please note: There will be no Facebook group for the FMN and there will be no replacements for the No1 Freelance Media Women. Any groups which claim to be the ‘New No1’ are not endorsed by No1. Beware of imitations!
What will The Freelance Media Network offer beyond a Facebook Group?
One of the biggest elements of a new platform is that it can be curated and designed with the members in mind. For me, it’s the equivalent of going from a village hall to a multi-room purpose-built co-working space. Dedicated areas will allow those in different areas of the media to connect directly, as well as co-working to bring us all together.
Facebook is a platform where many come and go - some use it daily, involving themselves in groups, while others dip in and out, or miss out on groups because they aren’t active on Facebook. A group in Facebook is also subject to the comments on posts, as well as admins working behind the scenes to moderate. The feed for a Facebook group is also a big scroll. For example, pictures can clog up the feed, or a post get lost below others.
In my experience, a Facebook group can also include lurking, trolling and unfair comments - something that the other admins and I have dealt with over many years, and something I wish to leave firmly in the past.
(Current reading is Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams).
What I bring to the group
My name’s Jenny, and I’ve been a journalist for 25 years. I have worked everywhere from a local paper to a national features desk, in-house on digital websites and magazines. I’ve written for a huge range of titles - That’s Life!, Chat, Pick Me Up!, Bella, Reveal, Look, Woman, Woman’s Own, Woman&Home, Red, Good Housekeeping, Psychologies, Hello!, Marie Claire, Glamour, Stylist… the list goes on.
As a freelancer I have pitched to and been commissioned by The Telegraph, the Guardian, Grazia, the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror and The Sun (including its Sunday supplement, Fabulous magazine). I worked on the features desk of the print newspaper, Metro, for two and a half years, where I worked across lifestyle, interiors and ‘trends’ - including launching and overseeing a restaurant review page. During my time there I wrote a dating column called Boyfriend by Christmas, which became a novel of the same name, published by Penguin Michael Joseph.
I have worked on maternity cover and fixed term contracts at the BBC (BBC Three), PA/Press Association, Archant, Future, and, most recently, MoneySavingExpert.
My writing has covered everything from dating to dieting, being a midlife bride to cold water swimming. I’ve case study hunted, sourced experts, written headlines, worked with subs, liaised with picture desks and contributed to social media feeds.
All that is to say: I’ve been in the media industry a long time. I’ve experienced it from many sides and understand the freelance life as well as the editorial desk life. I’ve pivoted from print to digital, and run the gauntlet of pitching, job applications and redundancy.
And to add to that, I am a trained and experienced coach, and have worked as a coach for the past six years. I have dabbled in copywriting, advertorials (sponsored content) and now mix writing and coaching by running workshops and training for small businesses. I coach freelancers, many of them media professionals, and I also write regularly for national outlets. As one workshop attendee said to me: “I like that you’re still a jobbing journalist!”
The biggest thing I’ve learned in my career and in watching those of the media professionals around me is that none of us are ‘one thing’ and being a media professional goes way beyond being a ‘journo’.
In my career I've moved between staff and freelance numerous times, sometimes staff or on shifts and commissioning, other times freelance and pitching. I see the crossover for media professionals as so much more than editor/journo, though.
There is the video editor on a newsdesk who needs a contribution of a video from an event. A journalist or designer was at the event and can provide the video. Or there's the editor who needs a case study and a PR can provide it. A new connection for both.
There is the designer who not only works in-house, but on client projects, and can answer a journalist's shout out for a new logo for their freelance work.
There is the editor who is facing redundancy and needs to come to find community with those on the 'freelance side'. There is the sub editor who wants to move into proofreading, or the writer who wants to try copywriting.
Do you see yourself here, in these descriptions? I hope so. Creating a community for all media professionals is a big challenge, and one I am embracing. I'd love you to join me.
The first step is to sign up to the newsletter for The Freelance Media Network and also follow on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Doors to the new community will open in July! An exact date is TBC but at the moment, signing up to the Beehiiv newsletter will keep you in the loop.
Jenny x