Today, in one of my WhatsApp groups, someone asked the question ” How does one get published in newspapers and magazines?”
I was a freelance journalist between 1999 and 2005. At the time, I was associated with a content syndicate, whose owner would assign me articles for supplements of The Hindu, back when I was still a Post Graduate student. One thing led to another and I soon had a column called ‘Campus Notes’ in The New Indian Express, for which I contributed three campus stories per week. I was also associated with an advertising agency, which used to assign me articles for some other sections of The Hindu. I wrote feature articles for a few magazines. The pay was a princely sum of Re 1 per word in those days, which is okay when you are a student, but is appalling when offered to people in the industry. These days, freelance journalists pitch to publications.
