The most popular FWT advice of 2025
It's been a rough year, but our community came together in huge ways.
Hello friends, happy holidays! The year is almost over! It’s officially winter now! It’s all happening!
In the time-honored tradition of publications rounding up their best work of the year, this week I’m pleased to present 2025’s most popular FWT posts. Below are the newsletters and stories that have most resonated with the FWT community, not only in terms of traffic, but also in the robust conversations that surrounded these topics. Some are super practical — like the nuts and bolts of getting started in freelance journalism — while others are more abstract, like how to get editors to come to you.
But more broadly speaking, what did we learn this year?
Not to get too ~down~ during the holiday season, but one of the overarching themes of many conversations I’ve had this year with freelancers is that ... well, it’s rough out here. Between budgets being slashed, opportunities disappearing, and competition being tougher than ever, so many of us have had a rough year in the industry.
Personally, I have found a weird sort of comfort in that. Despite all of us facing pretty rough headwinds, the freelance community has rallied around each other and supported one another in ways I haven’t seen since the worst days of the pandemic. The generosity of freelancers has been on display in a wonderfully heartening way this year, and though the bad times aren’t going to end any time soon (or ever?), the succor I’ve seen freelancers offer has been a beautiful example of lifting others up. No freelancer makes it without the support of fellow freelancers, and it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. (Sorry to get all sappy, but I really mean it!)
With that, below are the 10 best posts from FWT this year. I hope you’ve gotten as much out of them as I did researching them and putting them together, and I’m so excited for a ton of really great stuff coming in 2026. (And a quick programming note: I’ll be off this Thursday, but back in the saddle after that.)
Happy holidays!
Upcoming Zoom workshops in January and February
• Jan. 15 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to write story pitches editors will actually read — and commission. Join me for an in-depth examination of what goes into a fantastic story pitch. How do you structure it? What must be in it, and what should you leave out? How much pre-reporting should you do? How can you head off the follow-up questions an editor will inevitably ask? How do you even find editors to pitch or know what publication to shoot for? We'll cover all that and much, much more in this workshop. (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, whether they attend live or not, and paid Substack subscribers get 50% off admission.)
• Jan. 25 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: The art of structuring a longform feature. Come along as I lead a deconstruction exercise of a longform narrative story and give you tips on how to use those tools in your writing. This workshop will be structured like a grad school-level class, with participation encouraged (but, of course, not required). We will analyze a published longform narrative as a jumping-off point, and go into detail about what it takes to go long on a story. Bring any and all questions you have about building longform features, and be ready for a deep dive! (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, whether they attend live or not, and paid Substack subscribers get 50% off admission.)
• Jan. 29 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: Everything to know about pitching Opinion articles and op-eds. Join me and Rachel Sonis, former opinion editor at TIME magazine, for an in-depth look of what goes into a fantastic Opinion or op-ed pitch. How do you structure it? What must be in it, and what should you leave out? How do I build an argument in the actual pitch? How can you head off the follow-up questions an editor will inevitably ask? We'll cover all that and much, much more in this workshop. (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, whether they attend live or not, and paid Substack subscribers get 50% off admission.)
• Feb. 5 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to start and grow a newsletter. Join me and a special guest newsletter expert for a workshop on how to launch and grow a successful newsletter. We'll cover the best platforms for publishing your newsletter, how to find your target audience, how to promote your work, the ins and outs of developing your niche, and so much more! (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, whether they attend live or not, and paid Substack subscribers get 50% off admission.)