Giving up a full-time journalism job to become a freelancer can come with many risks, and even more so if it also involves moving to a new country, where building a network can take time.
In this article on Columbia Journalism Review, Yardena Schwartz, a freelance journalist and Emmy-nominated producer based in Tel Aviv who was previously a producer at NBC News, provides tips for reporters looking to move abroad and get started by themselves.
She advises saving up before taking the leap, and taking time to refresh your knowledge of the local language, or learning it from scratch, because in many cases you might end up acting as your own fixer. Schwartz also suggests pitching to your existing network of editors but also to English-language outlets in your new area and finally, not being afraid of cold calling publications.
For more tips on getting started as a freelance journalist abroad, check out this article our former technology editor Abigail Edge wrote when she moved from the UK to Denver in 2015.
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