Study Hall Sampler

This is a once-a-week sampling of Study Hall’s collection of tools and resources for media workers.

If you want to try out the new Study Hall, grab 50% off your first 3 months here. 

Opportunities

-Climate Home News' senior reporter, Chloé Farand, is still looking for pitches “on the manufacturing of clean energy technologies (especially wind turbines and solar PV) in South East Asia” for the “Clean Energy Frontier” series. They want "hard-hitting accountability journalism" and “particularly welcome strong character-driven stories and the use of data or satellite images to unveil new trends.” Preference is given to local reporters. The rate is around $1 a word for a 700-1,500-word story. Send pitches to [email protected] with the word ‘Pitch’ in the subject line by “the end of the year.”

-Business Insider's deputy editor, Conz Preti, is looking for pitches of essays on the following topics: being childfree by choice and how that affected relationships; parenting teenagers (all of the topics); American families who moved abroad (all countries are welcomed, but would love more South America stories). Send pitches to [email protected]. 

--The New York Times is hiring a temporary Well desk reporter to “produce outstanding news, service and enterprise journalism focused on brain health, aging and longevity.” Candidates should have at least six years of digital health reporting experience. The annual salary range is between $111,049.64 and $125,000.00 and the position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY, but it’s unclear how long the role will last. 

-ARTnews is hiring a social media editor based in NYC to oversee its social media strategy, including for Art in America. Candidates should have at least two years of experience managing and directing strategy for social media platforms, ideally covering art or culture. They must have some knowledge of art and the art world. The salary range is $64,500-$67,000.

-The Oral History Association is accepting applications for its HBCU Radio Preservation Project Archival Fellowship. The program "seeks to provide learning opportunities and mentorship for early-career archivists from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented populations," and fellows will assist in the preservation of materials at the radio stations located on HBCU campuses. The one-year fellowship can be remote, pays $45,000, and will begin on January 2. Apply by November 25.

How To Bring A Killed Story Back To Life 

By Hannah Docter-Loeb

My heart sank as I read the email. An article I had spent around 30 hours on, commissioned by a major outlet, was getting killed. My editor’s note was very kind, offering feedback as to why the story–– a piece about a dubious medical procedure––wouldn’t work out for them. To make it work, I’d likely have to do a full on investigation, something the publication doesn’t usually allow for freelancers to undertake for liability and legal reasons.  

She offered me a 50% kill fee of $750 for all my hard work––a rarity for the outlet she said– and even hopped on the phone with me to discuss potential other stories. It was the first time it happened to me and I couldn't help but feel like I had failed myself and even worse, my sources. 

For the past few months, I've been passively working on the story, hoping to bring it back to life.  But I wish there was more of a resource for what to do in this situation. 

Speaking to other freelance journalists who have had similar experiences, it’s clear that a killed story is something of a rite of passage. 

But if this happens to you, there is no reason to succumb to doom and gloom, there are ways to forge ahead––and land another commission.

In the feels

Other journalists I spoke to had similar feelings of disappointment and frustration. Arielle Gordon, a freelancer who covers music, felt this recently when she had been commissioned by a UK-based music publication to write a profile of an artist–– only for them to kill it shortly after. 

“I was angry because I felt like I had done a good job,” she explained. “I didn't push back. I just kind of did the work, put my head down, and gave them what I thought they wanted.” 

It’s also hard not to take it to heart.

“There’s a feeling of shame as well,” Gordon added. “It felt like a comment on my writing craft and my sentence craft.”  

And unlike staff writers, who have somewhat of a safety net when a piece gets killed, freelancers are in a tricky situation where a killed piece means a reduction to income. Lana Hall, a journalist who has covered the criminal justice system and municipal politics, pitched a 5,000-word long-form feature about a homicide with global implications. She spent months reporting on it, only for it to get passed onto a new editor who lowered the rate and word count before eventually killing it. 

“I felt like I had no real leverage, and that shitty kind of precarious feeling … that someone in a position of seniority can take your work out from underneath you, with no real regard for your labor,” explained Hall. 

Killing also isn’t always only an editor’s choice. Sometimes there are differences in vision. A few years ago, Allison Salerno, a freelancer in Georgia, was working on an audio story about a former combat veteran who started a nonprofit to help other veterans with PTSD heal through farming. However, after she was pushed to make multiple trips down to visit the source––who suffered from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury––she asked them to pull the plug.

“The editor was asking me to continually interview him about his trauma, and I felt very uncomfortable, because I felt that every time I interviewed him, I potentially was retraumatizing,” Salerno said.

…Want to read more Study Hall content? Subscribe today…