Is your publication or Web site recruiting experienced writers, editors, graphic designers, or photographers? You couldn’t ask for a better market.
As the newspaper industry spirals downward, newsroom downsizing has sent hundreds of talented journalists on job searches. One of the best places to find talent is the Website of the Poynter Institute, the journalism school founded in 1975 by Nelson Poynter, chairman of the St. Petersburg Times and its Washington affiliate, Congressional Quarterly.
Job posting packages start at $50 per month and include access to the résumé database. From experience, I recommend searching the database as well as posting a job. Qualified people may respond to a personal e-mail who wouldn’t respond to a job posting. After you’ve sent out 100 résumés, with no responses, it’s easy to get discouraged.
Another suggestion: Offer a tryout assignment. It’s a good way to learn whether your organization is a good fit for a particular journalist. Be prepared to propose terms. Many journalists are entering the freelance market for the first time and will be new to concepts such as project rates and kill fees.
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[...] wrote a few weeks ago about the tremendous pool of talented journalists coming on the market as newspapers downsize their [...]