European Federation of Journalists

Recruiting freelance journalists: example from NUJ, Great Britain


As the media industry grows more freelances, so the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK and Ireland is trying to ascertain how to attract freelances into membership.

The main question is: What services and benefits could the union offer to freelances that are not covered in our ’10 Reasons’ leaflet ? As everyone agrees, the priority for freelances in the current climate is to find work – work that pays!

One of our members has suggested a Freelance Salon, an event with speakers who will discuss how to go beyond the traditional pitch to editors and navigate new ways to make journalism pay. There will be an opportunity to network with drinks and snacks. Members have priority for booking places, but non-members will be able to attend by paying a small fee. We hope to convince them by the end of the evening to become union members.

We are also in the early stages of planning a one-day Freelance Fair, which we hope will be attractive to members and non-members alike.

In time, we might have 10 new reasons to join the NUJ, said John Toner, NUJ, EFJ Co-chair of Freelance Expert Group.

For the EFJ, recruitment is a main objective,

see also: https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2015/05/19/special-edition-newsletter-focusing-on-recruitment-news/

see: https://www.nuj.org.uk/work/freelance/freelance-10-reasons/