Successful Freelancer Spotlight: Joe Grimm

Good Monday morning readers! Today, I am shining the spotlight on Joe Grimm, a former recruiter for Gannett and the Detroit Free Press.

After a 32-year career in the newspaper industry, Joe took a buyout from the Detroit Free Press this past August. He then began working as a visiting editor-in-residence at the Michigan State University School of Journalism. Joe also writes the “Ask the Recruiter” column for the Career Center at Poynter.org, and has just published his sixth book, The Best of Ask the Recruiter, which includes 150 pages of the best questions and answers from his popular column.

Given all of the recent layoffs in the media industry, I thought Joe would be an excellent resource for readers who are considering a freelance career or who now are freelancing following layoffs or buyouts—either as a second act or as a way to generate income while looking for another full-time job.

Can you tell me a little bit about your career? How long have you worked in the media business, and how long did you work as a recruiter?

I was lucky. I broke in at a 70,000-circulation newspaper, The Oakland Press, in Pontiac, Mich., in 1976 as a copy editor. I got a new position about once every nine months. I then moved to the Detroit Free Press in January of 1983, again, as a copy editor. I worked through a few jobs and became the recruiter in 1990. It was the best job I’ll ever have.

I understand that you took a buyout package from the Detroit Free Press last August. Can you tell me about your decision to do that? How did you reach that decision?

It kind of surprised me. We had talked about it at home and thought, “No way, we’re too old to make a big financial mistake.” We’re 54. But we thought about it and realized several things had changed over the past year. Our sons graduated and have jobs. The mortgage was paid off. Suddenly, it started seeming like a window of opportunity that might not ever open again. We decided there might be time to start something new, sort of like a second career for me.

Since taking the buyout, you have quickly reinvented yourself—can you talk a little bit about some of the projects that you’re working on now and how you managed to line those up so quickly?

I am very grateful to a lot of great people. What I learned was that your network can really help you out. Four days after I left the Free Press, the Michigan State University School of Journalism asked me to come be a visiting editor for a year. Medill, Columbia, Reznetnews.org—a Native American news site—the Wall Street Journal classroom edition, and the Freedom Forum have all talked about work that would supplement MSU.

I have continued the work I was doing pre-buyout with Poynter.org and Oakland University. And I have been writing books, blogs and Web sites for a few years.

There are many people in the media and publishing industries who are facing the same decision you did back in August. And a good number of these people are choosing to freelance. Any advice for these people given your recent experience?

Full-time freelancers amaze me. It seems to me that the way to make a living at it is to nail down one solid, steady customer who will be good for at least 40 percent of your compensation and to then build around it, sort of how I am using Michigan State University as my anchor.

With so many cutbacks and layoffs right now, where do you see the media and publishing industries headed and what do you think this means for freelancers? Do you think that traditional full-time staff jobs at newspapers and other media outlets are going away?

There will always be full-time journalists. It just can’t be done piecemeal. But some parts of it can be, and they can be done at a distance, whether that is offshored to someplace like India or homeshored to freelancers working out of their home domestically.

The development that is surprising me most is that copy editors, who until quite recently were deemed “mission critical” are now being marginalized by owners who feel they don’t generate any content. Wrong! They generate the content that readers are most likely to see.

As someone who has spent a number of years in the newspaper business, can you talk a little bit about the current crisis facing the media industry and what it means for the survival of newspapers?

I spoke recently with a friend who is a 62-year-old editor. He said that he expects that the newspaper will have a rough year in 2009, but that things will perk up again in 2010 and that maybe by then we’ll have figured out how to monetize the Web. This is wishful thinking.

We are not just going through a cycle and we do not have a lot of time to get this right.

Many, many newspapers are owned by companies that took on way too much debt. Lee, McClatchy, Tribune Co., Gatehouse Media, Journal Register Co.—these all could be looking at huge problems quite unrelated to
journalism in 2009.

As a former recruiter, what would you advise people to do in regard to pursuing traditional newspaper and publishing jobs right now? Should people even bother? What are you advising your students to do?

I am a big believer in journalism. We are increasingly a knowledge economy. Journalists are right there. But we have to learn and change. Content—good, original, meaningful content—has value. People will pay for it. But it has to be good, it has to be original and we have to find a way to let its creators benefit from it.

Some recently laid-off newspaper and magazine employees are starting to freelance—either as a temporary stopgap or a permanent career move. What does this trend mean for the existing career freelancer? Do you think that longtime freelancers will begin to experience more competition? Will it be more difficult to land new gigs and assignments?

More freelancers means more competition. I’m doing a little of it myself. But I do not want to be lulled into thinking I can survive by depending solely on an industry that is under so much pressure. I need to branch out.

I hijacked my editing and reporting classes into making audio slide shows. I just bought a microphone today so we can do it. We practice optimizing our stories for search engines. We just can’t hang back and wait for the ship to right itself.

From a recruiter’s perspective, what can freelancers do to improve their chances of landing assignments in this competitive marketplace? How can people make themselves more marketable—either as a full-time job candidate or as a freelancer?

The problem I’m hearing is that all budgets—even freelance budgets—are being cut. Look, freelance journalists have a jump on mainstream journalists in that they are already entrepreneurial.

They may have set up little companies. They invoice. They get accountants to help them figure out their taxes. Freelancers should take the next step—and keep ahead of people with jobs—by creating more content that they own themselves. Blog. Build Web sites. Publish print-on-demand books. Those have become so easy! Make things that will pay.

Based on your experience as a recruiter, what are some of the most common mistakes that people make when looking for work or new gigs?

They simply don’t know their quarry. I have interviewed people who did not even bother to read the publication. Some called it “The Press,” when everyone knows it’s called “The Free Press.”

Don’t make lame pitches at a hundred companies; make targeted pitches at 10.