What is the opportunity all about and who is involved?
This opportunity forms part of the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP), which aims to support and strengthen investigative journalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is a partnership between the Henry Nxumalo Foundation, Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Centre, Viewfinder Centre for Accountability Journalism, IJHub, the INK Centre and the Centre for Collaborative Investigative Journalism. The project will provide training, grants and editorial support to investigative journalists in the region.
This project is co-funded by the United States Government and the European Union. The project will run for three years.
What is the difference between pitching as a freelancer and pitching as a permanently employed journalist?
When pitching, you will be asked whether you are a freelance journalist or a permanently employed journalist. We welcome your pitch, regardless of your employment status.
Freelance journalists who submit successful pitches will enter into an agreement with HNF. Grant payments will be made directly to the freelancer. If necessary, HNF will assist the freelance journalist to secure a publishing partner and to produce any photo or graphic accompaniments to the story.
Permanently employed journalists will need the approval of their line managers to enter into an agreement with HNF. The funding is intended to allow the journalist to take a short sabbatical from the daily responsibilities of their employment to investigate and write the story they pitched. The story will be published with the journalist’s centre or newsroom. HNF will assist the newsroom or centre to secure further publishing partners and to produce any photo or graphic accompaniments to the story, if necessary.
Both freelance and permanently employed journalists will be assigned editors to help them plan and execute the reporting effectively and to deliver the best possible investigative story within a pre-agreed timeframe. We will also work with you to maximise the impact of your story.
How do I pitch?
To submit your pitch you should fill out the project’s Pitching Questionnaire on Google Forms.
What happens after I submit a pitch? How will it be adjudicated?
Your pitch will be reviewed by SA | AJP’s editorial committee. You may be invited to pitch your story idea to an editor via a virtual call. The committee will then decide whether to provisionally ‘approve’ or ‘reject’ your pitch.
My pitch has been provisionally approved, what comes next?
If your pitch is provisionally approved, you will work with an editor to review and finetune your plan for delivering at least a “minimum story” and for pursuing a “maximum story” within an agreed timeframe. The concepts of a “minimum” and “maximum” story will be central to how we move ahead, and these are explained in the SA | AJP’s pitching questionnaire.
The journalist and their editor should endeavour to produce a final version of a reporting plan within a week. This plan will be reviewed by the project’s editorial coordinator.
Once you, your editor and the SA | AJP’s editorial coordinator agree on the “minimum” story you will produce and the “maximum” story you will pursue, your pitch will be greenlit, you will sign an agreement and get reporting! Conversely, the editorial coordinator may decide that the story you pitched and your reporting plan has too many holes in it. In this case, you will be given feedback and asked to resubmit your pitch once you have addressed these concerns.
My pitch has been rejected, what comes next?
Often, a pitch will be passed over because not enough groundwork has been done by the journalist to convince an editor that they are able to deliver an investigative story. If your pitch is rejected, you may be given feedback on how it could be improved along with an invitation to pitch again once those comments have been addressed through some groundwork reporting.
What funding is available to contracted journalists? And, what is it for?
A flat fee of $1 200 will be ring fenced for every story pitch which is greenlit. To secure this fee, the contracted journalist must report, write and deliver the best possible investigative story within a pre-agreed timeframe (usually within six to eight weeks from signing an agreement).
Journalists may also apply, when pitching, for funding of up to 300 USD for input costs (such as travel, airtime, expert services) associated with their planned investigation and reporting.
If I sign an agreement with HNF, how and when will grant payments be made?
When signing an agreement, journalists will be asked to provide their own or their employer’s bank account details, depending on whether they pitched as a freelancer or as a permanently employed journalist.
Of the flat fee, 20 percent will be paid upfront on signing an agreement. The remaining 80 percent will be paid once a final draft for a story has been filed, edited, fact-checked and cleared by the project’s editorial coordinator for publication.
Any pre-approved grants for input costs (such as travel, airtime, expert services) associated with the reporting will be paid upfront, on signing the agreement.
How will SA | AJP support me to deliver on my pitch?
The project will assign an editor to work closely with each contracted journalist. This person will provide editorial advice, and support the journalist to execute on the story that they pitched.
If necessary, the project will assist the freelance journalist to secure a publishing partner and to produce any photo or graphic accompaniments to the story.
What deadlines and requirements must I adhere to, if I sign an agreement?
Contracted journalists must report, write and deliver the best possible investigative story they can by an agreed deadline (generally six to eight weeks from signing an agreement).
Journalists will be expected to provide email updates and meet with their editor weekly to discuss their progress and challenges. Journalists will be expected to meet progressive deadlines: a rough draft of an agreed “minimum” story should be filed within two weeks of signing a contract, the first draft of the story they intend to finally should be filed within four to six weeks after signing an agreement.
Each journalist will also be expected to keep a file which will include all source material (documents, interview recordings, notes etc.) they have acquired during the course of their reporting. This file will be shared with their assigned editor, and must form the basis of all written drafts.
What if my proposed investigation may pose a risk to my safety?
SA | AJP is concerned to minimise any risk to you of doing the story. When we accept your pitch, we will ask you to fill in a detailed risk assessment form, which will form the basis for any steps needed to ensure your safety.
The final draft has been filed and cleared for publication, what comes next?
Once your story is filed and cleared for publication, the remainder of the journalist’s fee will be paid. But, we would like to support quality investigations to continue. If you reported your story well, it is foreseeable that more leads and angles would have arisen for you to pursue. Perhaps you have made inroads with sources or identified new hypotheses to be pursued and reported. In such cases we will encourage you to pitch ideas for follow-up stories or a new investigative angle to pursue under a new contracting agreement.
Have we not answered your question? Email henrynxumalofund@gmail.com