Club works to become a home for freelancers

National Press Club members trying to survive in the competitive freelance market may see their lives become a little easier this year.

Amid concerns posed by some members that freelancers aren’t getting enough value out of their membership, the Freelance Committee is taking a series of steps aimed at making the Club more attractive to writers working outside of established media outlets.

“The one most important thing that I think we can do is to put together some opportunities for freelancers to get more business,” said Freelance Committee Chair Tam Harbert. “A lot of other organizations that have freelance writers among their membership have things like a jobs bank, where editors can list what they are looking for.”

Harbert said that an ideal scenario would be to set up a similar system at the Club, in which freelancers could connect with other Club members looking to assign projects.

Doing so, however, may be more difficult than it sounds. For instance, the Club lacks a comprehensive list of its freelance members, let alone one of editors who would want to use the exchange.

“We’re starting to put our heads together to figure out how we can do this,” Harbert said. “I’m trying to build up a knowledge base on who are our freelancers.”

One method that Harbert has employed to gain additional information is including brief questionnaires on the online RSVP forms for committee events.

Harbert insists that despite the immediate challenges, the effort will be well worth it, not only for freelance members, but for the Club at large because it will likely help bring in new writers.

“There are a lot of freelance writers. Freelancing is becoming more and more common as a career choice,” Harbert said. “As a freelancer, when you go looking for value, you aren’t going to join the National Press Club if you don’t see the value.”

With the possibility of increasing membership, Club President Angela Greiling Keane has thrown her support behind the committee’s efforts.

“I don’t think it's any secret that the Press Club would like to have more members,” Greiling Keane said. “To be the place of the future, we have to make sure we’re recruiting more younger members -- and that certainly includes freelancers.”

Improved services for freelancers is a priority for Greiling Keane in her one-year term, but she added that freelance members will benefit as well from other goals she has set for the Club.

“At the beginning of the year, I said freedom of the press domestically as well as internationally, focusing on women and focusing on journalism training for mid-career journalists were the top three priorities,” Greiling Keane said. “I would say those issues apply to freelancers as well as they apply to any journalist.”

She said that because freelance journalists often cannot afford new training programs or legal counsel if they land in hot water, the Club could fill an important vacuum for freelancers.

The Freelance Committee is sponsoring two upcoming events. On April 3 from 8:30 a.m. to noon, the group with co-sponsor a workshop with the Society for Professional Journalists. The event will feature editors explaining what they need from freelancers as well as a panel on how freelancers can best use technology and social media. Register here.

On May 14 at 6 p.m., the Freelance Committee will host a panel on sponsored journalism.