{"id":4228,"date":"2022-10-04T14:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T14:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/sara-madou-journalist-hoofdredacteur-en-contentstrateeg\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T08:57:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T08:57:04","slug":"sara-madou-freelance-journalist-editor-in-chief-and-content-strategist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/sara-madou-freelance-journalist-editor-in-chief-and-content-strategist\/","title":{"rendered":"Sara Madou \u2013 Freelance journalist, editor-in-chief and content strategist"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Sara Madou (37) works as a freelance journalist, editor-in-chief and content strategist. At age 29, she became the editor-in-chief of CJP (the Dutch Cultural Youth Passport) while working for magazines such as Vogue, Vrij Nederland and Flow. She now also works as a PR & Marketing expert for non-profit organisations through her company Shake Productions, as well as in the cultural sector and for a publishing house. Her secrets to being a successful freelance editor? Check LinkedIn, stick to agreements and do a solo brainstorm on, for example, Ameland once a year.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A solo brainstorming session on Ameland. Is that as fun as it sounds?<\/strong>
\u201cYes, absolutely. Listen, I\u2019m not a traveller, so you won\u2019t find me on the other side of the globe with just a backpack. But I do need help relaxing, because of course there are always distractions, chores and things to do. On Ameland, I don\u2019t have cats to take care of, or my man around. There, I have nothing to do, which actually allows me to really reflect on my work. Sometimes I come up with a brainstorm question for myself or for a new client, sometimes I come up with an annual business plan, and sometimes nothing comes up at all. I\u2019ve done it about 6 times now, and it\u2019s just always such a nice gift to myself. I can thoroughly recommend it to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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You\u2019ve been working as a freelance editor for 5 years now. Is it everything you expected to be?<\/strong>
\u201cI used to dream of becoming editor-in-chief of a glossy. So that idea was stuck in my head for a while, until I found out that it suits me less than I thought. Sitting in an office from 9 to 5 just isn\u2019t for me: I\u2019m at my most productive in the evenings and I also like a bit more variety. This led to me doing more freelance assignments on the side, resulting in taking small steps back in working hours at my permanent job. Until, during a job application, someone asked me: \u2018Why don\u2019t you start freelancing full-time?\u2019. Strangely enough, I\u2019d never given that any thought. It\u2019s many years later now, but I\u2019ve never, for one second, regretted making this choice.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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How do you chose your clients?<\/strong>
\u201cI now mostly only work for organizations I feel a connection with, otherwise it doesn\u2019t really work out because I\u2019m just much too honest and direct. My curiosity in particular is leading when making decisions. I will very occasionally choose a job just for the money, but that rarely makes me really happy.
That was also one of the reasons I started freelancing, so that I would have the choice to pick projects I feel comfortable with. I now work for a publishing house and for the documentary department of NTR, and I\u2019m also a freelance writer for NRC and Libelle, among others. The latter has a super cool supervisor who allows you to put forward your own ideas.
I\u2019ve also found a great balance working as part of a team with at least one client, otherwise my work life would get pretty lonely.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you find most difficult about being a freelancer?
\u201cPeddling my ideas was always one of the things I found the hardest, but since the Covid pandemic I\u2019ve been tweaking my work in such a way that I no longer have to be bothered with that.
Perhaps that\u2019s also because I\u2019ve started working in the non-profit sector more, for clients such as AVA (an organisation that stands up for women\u2019s rights for abortion and contraception), ATRIA (a knowledge institute for emancipation and women\u2019s history) and Rutgers (expertise centre on sexuality). I did a number of communication projects for such organisations in which my skills and experience counted more than my ideas. I found that very refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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What are your future ambitions?<\/strong>
\u201cWell actually, my ambition is to work less, haha! I\u2019d like more peace and less stress about being able to find enough work, because I\u2019ve never been without a job or assignment in the past 5 years. I find it very difficult to say no. There\u2019s so much I like doing: from editing, to PR and communication. Which sometimes results in being tempted too easily to take on another assignment.
And I always have to answer emails within 24 hours. Not that anyone expects that from you, but if that\u2019s something you always do, you actually create that expectation for yourself.
I would like to write for newspapers more, like I do now for NRC. And I\u2019m very happy with my PR assignments for the publishing house, because it means I get to read a lot.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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And now, the key question every freelance journalist would like an answer to: what are the core characteristics of a good editor?<\/strong>
\u201cI once wrote an article about that for Villa Media (website about journalism), and about the fact that as a supervisor I was quite annoyed by the so-called \u2018lax freelancer\u2019.
By that I mean that there are so many journalists that don\u2019t stick to agreements. For example, when meeting with an editor and asking them to provide some ideas and then never hearing from them again. Or they\u2019ll email you 2 days before the deadline to say they\u2019re ill and can no longer submit an article, leaving you with 2 blank pages.
There are so many freelance writers or student journalist who are afraid there\u2019s not enough work for them. But I always tell them: if you do your job well enough, there certainly is work. Furthermore, it\u2019s very important, especially when making a pitch, that you can clearly explain why you are the right person for that particular article. And also: what\u2019s the angle of the article? And why should it be written now?
Also, just stick to the agreements you made and indicate on time that you\u2019re unable to meet the deadline. Consult with your client, because that\u2019s what they\u2019re there for after all.<\/p>\n

Oh, and one last tip: check out Linkedin. Many people working in the creative sector think it\u2019s boring, but you\u2019d be surprised how many nice assignments I got through that platform.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara Madou (37) works as a freelance journalist, editor-in-chief and content strategist. At age 29, she became the editor-in-chief of CJP (the Dutch Cultural Youth Passport) while working for magazines such as Vogue, Vrij Nederland and Flow. She now also works as a PR & Marketing expert for non-profit organisations through her company Shake Productions,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4232,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions\/4232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwstaging.keesdeboekhouder.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}