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JFP Writers Guidelines
The Jackson Free Press is an award-winning alternative and community news and culture weekly in Jackson, Miss. We publish a weekly print edition, as well as short breaking news and culture features daily on our Web site, and in our afternoon e-mailed JFP Daily. Our primary audience is the Jackson metropolitan area. Our online content draws a wider audience from around the state, and beyond, especially among Mississippi expatriates and those who have a high interest in what happens in our very interesting state. Our goal is to provide high-quality, engaging and informative writing that lives up to Mississippi’s reputation as a state filled with great writers.
The JFP is proud to draw on a community of talented freelance writers for a variety of stories, from hard-hitting exposés to coverage of local cultural events and sports, to profiles of local people making a difference, to fun [FLY] pieces about weddings, local shopkeepers and do-it-yourself projects. Our bias is for stories with a local or Mississippi focus, especially when the stories show a side that is unexpected. Our reporting and writing style is narrative story-telling with an emphasis on detailed reporting.
JFP writers get great exposure, locally and nationally. Many JFP contributors have developed impressive careers based on the stories they published in the JFP, helped along by our staff’s national and regional connections. We believe in helping the writers who help us look good! To that end—making us all look good—we do hold our writers to high standards, offering free writing and reporting workshops, and working with them closely through the editing and re-write process. Our goal is to challenge our writers constantly be the best they can be.
Types of Queries Accepted:
We are always looking for new ideas, but here are the types of stories we typically run and that are open to freelance writers:
• Cover stories can be about any subject area—from news and politics to entertainment and features. Cover stories are usually assigned to staff writers, or experienced writers. They start at 2,500 words and required a detailed query letter and suggested outline for consideration.
• Talks: news and short features/profiles, preferably local/metro Jackson. Must be timely. Word counts vary with the story, anything from 200 and up.
• Profiles of local people, home-grown businesses, and celebs making appearances locally. Jacksonian profiles (page 3) are a maximum of 450 words.
• Interviews: Short “dishes” are five to seven questions and run between 700 and 1,000 words. The JFP Interview, which profiles local newsmakers in depth, runs up to 5,000 words.
• Opinion Columns: Word counts from 450 to 750 words.
• Arts, Culture and Lifestyle Features run from 700 to 1,200 words on average, and can cover:
Food and Drink (cooking, restaurants, wine, cocktails, DIY)
Theater reviews/features
Book reviews/features
Movie reviews/features
Gallery/Art reviews/features
Music reviews/features
Sports features
Health and wellness features
Beauty and style features/DIY
Weddings: “Hitched” features (up to 1,000, including info boxes)
[FLY] and GOOD features (200 to 1,000 words with heavy graphics)
***Hint: The best way to break into the JFP is with shorter features and Talk pieces.
The JFP will always consider something different and new, so use the above only as a place to start. If you have a story idea, please send a short one page query (not the story) to submissions@jacksonfreepress.com, and tell us:
• What is exciting you about the story.
• Why you think the story is important to JFP readers in particular.
• Where your story fits into our format.
• How you will do the piece (Who will you interview? How will you report it?).
• How many words you want to submit.
• When you can deliver the story to us.
***For opinion pieces, please submit full manuscript (up to 750 words) to opinion@jacksonfreepress.com
Additional vital information:
• Your submissions should include up to three published clips or links to stories if you have them (no more!). Please do not send unsolicited stories or completed manuscripts (other than opinion columns); chances are good that they will not be read or published.
• The JFP will make assignments based on compelling submissions if you are an experienced/published writer. Please note that an assignment is not completed if it is over or under assigned word count (more than 100 words either direction), if it does not include requested phone numbers for sources, if the writer has not factchecked it or it there is any vital information missing.
• All writers for the JFP should expect to be asked to make edits to your piece, sometimes extensive if needed. If the story comes in on time, we will return your edited piece to you to look over and/or make additional changes to as instructed.
• If you are inexperienced, we may ask you to write the piece “on speculation.” This means we will take a look at the piece you want to write to see if it meets our standards for publication, but will pay no kill fee if we do not choose to run it. Publication of a submitted piece is never guaranteed, nor is the date of publication, although we strive to publish the completed piece in a timely fashion.
• The Jackson Free Press buys only first print rights (plus shared Web rights), which means that writers cannot publish the same story in another venue (including personal Web site) for 14 days after our issue date. After that, the rights revert to the writer, and you are welcome to re-publish the piece. We ask that a tagline be added to the bottom of the story if resold, saying that it first appeared in the Jackson Free Press.
• The JFP will consider reprints of relevants articles published outside our immediate market. Send full manuscript in that case with a cover letter explaining the rights that you hold to the piece.
• All JFP writers must sign a code of ethics. Writers must disclose any connection or conflict of interest with the particular story or anyone involved with it.
• The JFP reserves the right to make any needed edits to your story.
• We will always include your byline. We pay from $5 to $50 for short features, and more for cover stories, depending on the story length and difficulty, and will contract for the word count and amount on assignment. We expect first-use publishing rights as outlined in our code of ethics, which you will be expected to sign before we publish.
• Payment is on publication. The JFP strives to pay within 30 days of invoice receipt. (Please see invoice guidelines.)
• The JFP only pays pre-approved expenses of freelance writers.
• We will provide manuscript submission and invoice instructions, as well as specific writing advice and tips, once we accept your query.
