This practical masterclass will focus on the financial side of working as a journalist - how you can:

• Stop wasting time on pitches that don’t get commissioned: how to target publications more effectively and improve your pitch rate success

• Negotiate higher fees when you do get commissioned - how much extra to ask for and the phrases to use, with real life examples of successful negotiations

• Ways to save money - how to cut your costs and reduce your tax bill

You will leave feeling empowered to get more commissions and increase your earning potential.

The session host is Donna Ferguson, a multiple award winning freelance journalist who is on the committee of Women in Journalism. Donna is a regular freelance writer for The Guardian and the Observer, writing for a plethora of different sections, including Observer magazine and the newsdesk.

She has won eight awards for her work as a freelance journalist and been shortlisted for 29 others, including most recently freelance journalist of the year 2023 at the inaugural Freelance Journalism awards.

She decided to go freelance ten years ago, after having a baby, and says that getting pregnant was the “best career move she ever made”, thanks to everything she has since achieved as a freelancer. She has never had a staff job on a national and started out with very few contacts, cold pitching all the editors that she now regularly writes for.