Beware of trying to build a freelance career on the time or on the dime of a company that employs you. The work you try to sell may not be your own.

You have many arrows in your communication quiver, and choosing the right one is important, because choosing the wrong one can convey unintended messages.

By JOE GRIMM One meaning for the expression “over my head” is that I didn’t understand something because it was a bit beyond my intellectual reach. To be “in over your head” means essentially the same thing, an allusion to drowning. In newsroom politics, “going over my head” means that somebody spoke to my supervisor [...]

Warning signs: The newsroom paper rack is coin operated … they give the mobile journalist a paper route …

Even after 25 years as a newsroom manager, I pitch ideas that never make it to the plate. When that happens, I have to try someone else, or go back, re-evaluate what I’m pitching and try again.