Freelance Journalism In Ba

kclane

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Hi everyone. I am a recent journalism graduate with a specialty in broadcast and I am moving to BA at the beginning of May. I am not fluent in Spanish so pursuing a journalism job for a Spanish speaking company is not an option at this moment, however, I wanted to hear more about other freelance journalists' experiences in BA to learn more about the opportunity for English speakers, the difficulty, life as a freelancer in BA, etc. and also job opportunities how the job market is for English speaking journalists in the city. Thanks!
 
I could imagine exploring the minimalist hand-to-mouth existence of being an independent journalist here, sleeping on people's couches and covering the news that the mainstream is afraid of. People here love to talk, and there is an educated slice of the population who are expat-friendly and have very interesting views on everything under the sun and would enjoy talking to you in English.

A freelance journalist though? I don't know, people help me out here. I haven't seen any broadcast media from here in English... ? And I imagine if there were, the pay would be less than stellar.
 
Hey,

Well I would suggest seeing about a possibility of being a correspondant for international news agencies or media outlets aborad to report first hand what goes on in BA or your perspective on things. Of course id also suggest learning spanish ASAP because that would help on getting a deeper grasp of the situation.

Hey is there an english news paper in BA anyone? I lived in Athens Greece and we have an english newspaper with the local news but I havent seen any here, not have I really looked for it.

Good luck!
 
I worked as a freelance journalist here several years ago, two years after graduating and with just two years solid experience working for a news agency. It was tough then and it is certainly tougher now. Six or seven years ago, a lot of young freelance writers came over here because the low cost of living meant that they could work for peanuts/free in order to build up their portfolios, maybe substituting the occasional journalism gig by teaching English. I rarely came across anyone that had been lucky enough to get a half decent gig (most of them worked for the Argentine Independent and another expat magazine around at the time, wrote occasional pieces for online media,etc). I don't know how anyone could get by doing that now. The major news outlets already have stringers/contacts here with 20+ years experience so its difficult to find a niche (at least one that pays the bills). I mostly wrote for foreign lifestyle magazines (low profile ones). I got a couple of articles placed with national newspapers, a couple placed with decent (but low paying) magazines and a gig with the Lonely Planet. I substituted my income editing and translating (which I hated!) and still lived hand to mouth (and this is when BA was cheap).
If you're fresh out of university, I think your best bet is to get the best internship you can find, work a few years and then when you've built up some decent contacts, think about going freelance.
 
Thanks ya'll, I appreciate all of the great advice. Very helpful!
 
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