Newspapers.

Maybe at small locations it would be, but reporting gigs are always in ample supply, much more than the average person might believe. Perhaps you are just expecting things to be harder than they need to be. When somebody hears the word reporter, they picture someone going after the juicy gossip of the day, or discovering the next great scandal. Really what a reporter does is find the news, and confirm the news, whatever that news may be. Plenty of newspapers want sporting events covered, or local events such as elections and city council hearing. It’s not always glamorous, and yet the point is it’s not as hard a job to get as people may think.

All types of normal gets reported on, and the unusual. A resident wakes up to bulldozer tracks through the back yard, and no idea how they got there. A simple little league ball game played for the area championship. A rare, but terrible violent crime at a small town, or the happy graduation day at an elementary school. A car flips over and rolls several times on the freeway, or a robbery at an area liquor store. Basically the reporting of events as they happen, and the reporting of what the impact on society the events have had or will have.

Newspapers need writers that can give the facts and tell the story in print. You will need to be the type of writer that can convey in print the story as you have learned the story to be. You will also need to learn to do your best to use the amounts of words that the paper would like to have based on the allotted space that the story will have on the print page. Papers have awesome editors that do the final cut, however the closer you can get to the mark, the easier you will make the editor’s job. It is always a good idea to be considerate to the editor. That by itself will get you more assignments, and keep the peace as the work continues to flow.

Please get used to my constant reminders about the amazing value i see in ebooks for gaining insight into almost any topic on earth. Get yourself an ebook or purchase a book online that is purely devoted to writing for news print, or as close as you can get to what you are wanting to do. My posts are intended to be a starting point for you. Ebooks can take you much farther than a website post, and for under five dollars, you really cannot go wrong.

One last word of advise. Newspapers often throw a human interest story into print, especially if the more juicy stories are in short supply. If you want to make money doing freelance with newspapers, keep writing. That’s right, any time you know of an interesting human situation, write about it, and create a portfolio of true stories to see at any time. Just be sure they are true. Newspapers are all about credibility, and as a reporter, so should you be.