Last month I worked on a piece of work for the website Contributoria. This is a site, set up and currently funded by The Guardian, for journalists to pitch an idea to their peers. If the story they are proposing to write is popular with people then they will back it and the work is commissioned.
Once you pitch an article plan (this will include vague details of your investigation, your fee, the article length etc), you have to gain a certain amount of points – which other users can award to you if they like your idea – and if you reach your allocated points target then you are fully ‘backed’ and can now write your article for the next issue.
Last month I proposed an article which will follow a case study of a young pregnant lady who was struggling to cope with pressure from her local council to pay the bedroom tax.
I won’t give away too much on here…but the article was fully backed and so I got to carry out the investigation and complete the story for the May 2014 Contributoria issue!
This also means that I will receive payment for the article at the end of the month, and there is nothing wrong with more P’s in the bank.
But it was great to know that the work I was proposing was backed by professional journalists, and that these people also helped support the drafting process of the article as it came along made a huge difference.
The article can be found here.
sophiemdrake 