Feedback on the FIRE Guide to Freelancer Protection

Below are sample comments from freelancers and other journalism professionals about FIRE's pilot Guide to Freelancer Protection, a tool for journalism in a perilous time.

FIRE is grateful to craig newmark philanthropies for making this Guide possible. More on the Guide itself here.
 

"Excellent source"

The Guide is an excellent source for freelancers and hopefully a step forward to compel media outlets to more aggressively support the freelancers on whom they rely for so much of their good content.

—James B. Steele, legendary investigative journalist and co-winner of
more than 50 professional awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes,
two National Magazine Awards, and six George Polk Awards

 

"Career saver"

Finally, freelancers can fully know the legal peril in which they work—in this environment of toxic attacks on journalism. They now have a guide from FIRE that explains which protections they need from publishers, and which publishers provide those safeguards. This is a career saver. It will allow more freelancers to dare to do the tough stories for the right newsrooms.

—Brant Houston, Nonprofit journalism leader; board chair,
Global Investigative Journalism Network; FIRE advisor

 

"Hugely valuable—I hope you advertise this widely"

A great and important project. We’re clearly in an unsettled and scary space and I hope you advertise this widely to freelancers. It will be hugely valuable, especially if it can grow to include even more big national outlets!

—Zach Dorfman, Freelance national security and
intelligence reporter (Wired Magazine, Politico, etc.)

"Very important now"

Under the Biden administration, I never thought about needing this protection. But things are changing very quickly, and I now want this protection spelled out. I am starting to pursue bigger stories in the US, and will be asking editors about these protections in my future contracts. I consider this Guide very important now. I also appreciate the color coding and the non-legalese.

—Name withheld by request, Freelance reporter
(New York Times, Washington Post, etc.)
 

"Super helpful: Why have I never heard this?"

The FIRE guide is super helpful. I've been a freelance reporter for 11 years and have gone to multiple workshops on navigating contract language, and I have never heard the intelligence below. It's senseless that more people don't disseminate this information to both freelancers and staff editors and I'm really grateful to you for doing so. There are so many perverse incentives in the freelancer/publication relationship and they drive me nuts—it doesn't have to be this way.

[Quoting the Guide's "Analysis and Conclusions"] "a little-known fact: The publisher actually does not choose whether or not to protect a freelancer, only whether to  promise to do so. It is their liability policy or insurance company that decides. ...An outlet’s insurer almost never wants its client to contractually exclude freelancers. Media insurance expert Chad Milton…has never seen an insurance carrier condone a publisher’s suggestion to isolate, expose, or externalize a freelancer."

—Julian Nowogrodzki, freelance science reporter
(New York Times, National Geographic, etc.)

"Valuable for publishers as well"

The Guide is an immensely valuable resource not just for freelancers, but for publishers as well: News executives will appreciate the careful legal analysis that shows why supporting freelancers is the smart business choice as well as the moral thing to do. And if that's not sufficient, the well researched ratings will demonstrate the reputational hit an outlet can take for refusing to do the right thing—a loss of trust that can result in losing valuable content and relationships.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, The Center for Investigative
Reporting, publisher of Mother Jones and Reveal

 

"Triggers a powerful competitive incentive"

As a long-time journalist and newsroom lawyer, I've seen many news organizations place the legal risk of investigative reporting on the shoulders of reporters. This is not only a moral failure, it's a journalistic failure. It means that too many important stories in the public interest will never be written because the freelance reporter has no access to affordable libel insurance and no financial ability to risk litigation. The public, who depends on this reporting to make informed decisions, is being cheated.

The Guide reverses the trend in the only way practical: by providing reliable, transparent intelligence that helps freelancers migrate to safer ground. That triggers a powerful competitive incentive, nudging outlets to reform their practices to attract the best talent, and in the process fulfill their public-interest obligations.

—Charles J. Glasser, Jr., Esq., Media lawyer and former Bloomberg
News Global Media Counsel; FIRE Guide advisor

 

"[Helps] publishers adhere to best practice"

It's always good to have intelligence on publishers' practices. It's even better to create an environment in which publishers want to adhere to best practice by being rated Green. That would be very helpful.

—Peter Aldhous, Freelance data and science reporter (Inside Climate News,
Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, etc.)

 

“Like journalism itself: facts and transparency”

This Guide is really good. It challenges one of the oddest paradoxes in media risk management:  Why do outlets refuse to accept indemnification of freelance writers? Why not make a reasonable promise? Refusing to protect the reporter is not only counterproductive because freelancers lack financial resources, and journalism suffers; it's also unnecessary because their insurers are generally willing to add freelancers to the outlets' coverage.

And yet the outlets still insist on indemnification from freelancers.  That leaves the freelancers themselves, informed by this Guide, to bring pressure and awareness to the outlets. Just like investigative journalism itself, this Guide brings facts and transparency that can inform the freelancers' decisions to work with an outlet.  But it takes time for individual decisions to reform the marketplace.  It's important that FIRE's work on the Guide continues.

—Chad Milton, Media insurance consultant; FIRE Guide advisor

 

"Great resource"

I do think the evaluations in the Guide are a great resource for freelancers—especially for helping prioritize and choose which publications to pitch, and for navigating contracts with these publications. Without it, unless you know of personal anecdotes from other freelancers, you really wouldn't know what the contracts are like at most publications. You might waste a lot of time (and potential income you could be bringing in during that time) pitching a publication and then having to walk away because of liability issues.

—Delger Erdenesanaa, Freelance environmental reporter
(New York Times, Texas Observer, etc.)

 

"Genius idea: keep it going"

The FIRE Guide is a genius idea—a total lifesaver. No matter how many years that you work as a freelance journalist, no matter how much experience or industry contacts you have, you're still often operating in the dark. Multiple times I have invested significant unpaid time in pre-reporting for a big story, endured a lengthy pitch process with an outlet, and had a story finally greenlit, only to then have my heart sink when I see the contract and realize it's so horrible that I can't sign it. The Guide helps make the industry more transparent. The level of detail and nuance in the color ratings really helps freelancers know what to expect. I'd hate to go back to the dark times before we had this resource and I really hope FIRE is able to keep it going.

—Levi Bridges, Freelance audio reporter
(Deutsche Welle, The World, etc.)

 

"Could not be more timely"

The Guide could not be more timely. What a great job you've done! As a freelance journalist, I worry more than ever about legal exposure in this political climate where reporters are prime litigation targets. Considering the unprecedented risks, I would rather drop a challenging investigative project altogether than work with an outlet that would not indemnify me. With the Guide, I can assemble a short list of news organizations who indemnify before I start pitching a story. The FIRE Guide is the first serious effort I’ve seen to pull together the information reporters need to identify which news organizations are protecting freelance reporters and which are not. We need to twist the arms of outlets that don’t offer protection to freelancers.

—Name withheld by request, Freelance reporter
(New York Times, Bloomberg News, etc.)

"Priceless"

Very helpful. I will definitely be consulting it. The evaluations of individual media outlets are priceless, but maybe the most valuable thing about the Guide is that it helps journalists understand how at-risk we can be, what kinds of legal protections we need, and that we can insist on them. Thank you so much. I hope the Guide will be an ongoing project, analyzing even more news outlets.

—Maeve McGoran, Freelance audio reporter (Audible, Wondery, etc.)