switching to freelance journ

[fernzmal]

am an established journalist but am thinking of making a gradual transition to freelancing, so that eventually i'll be working from home.

am particularly interested in writing features for magazines, or even press releases for companies...can anyone tell me how i start? how do i approach magazines which i'm interested to write for? what do i say? and must i always 'pitch' a story idea or can i just write a general letter saying 'I'm interested to do freelance work for your mag' type of thing?

many thanks for advice..

Hi there
I've been doing this for many years. I would target which magazines etc you'd like to work for, then find out who their features editors are. Then come up with a few ideas for each and contact them with a brief rundown of who you are.
TBH, they're more interested in a good idea than anything else, so you don't need to go into reams of detail about background etc.
As for press releases - I hate to say this, but this isn't easy. Every freelancer I know would give their eye teeth for some realtively easy ££££ dong this, but PRs usually do it all in-house. I've done it a little bit, but mainly for small, one-woman-band businesses here and there.
Best of luck anyway.