How important is it to lay out the complete article to a freelance writer? Do you provide the questions, the sources, the angle? Or do you give the writer the concept and turn them loose on it?

You really have to give them a good steer if you want a good article, so that includes at the outset a clear outline of what you want to cover in the article - and just as importantly, why. I also suggest the angle I want the article to take, although as we all know that sometimes when you get into a subject the actuality of it is quite different from what you think.

I nearly always, unless I have been working with the freelancer a lot and know how they operate etc, will provide a set of questions that covers the main points I want addressed. I also always leave the freelancer some room to explore.

You must also give the writer good sources, every time. Leaving them alone to explore a concept from scratch is in my view a complete waste of time.

We have freelancers familiar with certain topics, so we'll start by making sure the assignment goes to the right person. Then we give them a solid idea of what we're looking for from the article, and provide solid leads to start them off. Our freelancers know that if a lead is not panning out, they need to come back to us or create leads of their own. The more information and background you can provide, then better the article can be.

I suppose I'm late to the party with this response, but just joined the forums and wanted to offer my input as a freelancer.

A good freelancer does not necessarily need to be fed sources; we should be as capable as you of posting a ProfNet query or contacting various other outlets and assessing the suitability of sources. Of course, if you have specific voices, industry experts, or contacts you would like to send along, it just makes our jobs easier.

The most important thing, I think, is to give us all of the information you currently have and not withhold anything as a sort of "test." It is important that you know you have a viable story idea -- if it is a hunch, tell us, so our research can proceed accordingly. If you have a picture in your mind of how the article should look (2,000 words, 4 sources including one industry analyst, etc.), please tell us. If there are trends in the field that you think we may not be aware of, please share or at least ask if we are familiar with the information.

It doesn't hurt to establish a check-in point with writers new to you so that you can see if we are on track. But once you have a trusted writer, you should be able to share your vision and perhaps a source or two and let us go. And, of course, we always appreciate positive feedback in the form of regular work!

This depends a lot of the freelancer. I try not to give some freelancers hard and fast ideas, since they tend to go for the big story they uncover regardless of what I ask for, which is often better.

Yet, most need guidelines on expectations, or they just completely miss the basket. I lay that out online in a blog, at

http://latintraders.blogspot.com/2005/04/reporting-guid...for-latin-trade.html

which, well, some read and some don't. Those that get it keep working for me. Some don't, then it's a matter of figuring out of they don't understand (fixable) or don't *want* to understand (lost cause).

When commissioning stories to freelancers, they must first understand what the publication is all about, its readership and clients. I would usually provide new freelancers the publication's media kit for them to have a sense of what the publication is all about.

Freelancers will then be commissioned their stories. If the stories are generic and non trade-specific, I will usually give them the autonomy to chose their sources and spin their stories. If it is trade specific, I will usually suggest sources and preferred companies for them to work on.

Other than that, they have the room to explore on how they want to present the issues in the story on their own.