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General guidance, not legal or tax advice. This is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Consult an accountant, solicitor, or your NUJ branch for your specific situation. Read our full disclaimer.
Negotiating your notice period
Your contractual notice period is a starting point for negotiation, not necessarily the final word. Statutory minimum notice under UK employment law rises with length of service, but most staff journalism contracts specify a longer contractual notice period — commonly one to three months for experienced roles — which both sides can agree to vary by mutual consent.
If you want to leave sooner than your contractual notice allows — for example, to take up a firm freelance commitment or another opportunity — raise it directly with your editor rather than assuming the full notice period is fixed. Employers sometimes prefer a shorter handover if they have already begun recruiting a replacement, and may release you early or agree pay in lieu of the remaining notice (PILON). Get any agreed variation to notice confirmed in writing, including exact leaving date and final pay date, so there is no ambiguity over your last day of employment for tax, pension, and benefits purposes.
Who owns the stories you wrote as staff
Copyright generally belongs to your former employer
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, copyright in work you created in the course of your employment vests in your employer by default. This applies to articles, investigations, photographs, and other journalistic output produced on staff time, regardless of who conceived the idea. Your contract may vary this default, but it is uncommon for staff journalism contracts to assign copyright back to the individual journalist.
What you can and cannot do with your former output
You can generally reference, link to, and list published bylines in a portfolio — this is standard industry practice and does not require separate permission. What you cannot do without consent is republish full articles elsewhere, sell syndication rights to work your employer owns, or reuse substantial original research or investigative material you developed on staff time for a new freelance commission with a different outlet, since this could be treated as your former employer's intellectual property or, in some cases, a breach of confidentiality.
Ideas and story leads in development at your departure
Story ideas and leads that were pitched, commissioned, or actively being developed on staff time typically belong to the process your employer was running, even before publication. Discuss with your editor, before you leave, which in-progress stories you can take with you as a freelancer versus which should be handed over to a colleague to complete — this avoids later disputes about whether you took work product that was not yours to take.
Cultivating freelance clients while still employed
It is natural to want a pipeline of freelance work lined up before you resign, but doing so while still employed carries real conflict-of-interest risk. Most staff contracts prohibit or heavily restrict outside work without written consent, particularly work for a directly competing outlet, and using your employer's time, contacts, or resources to develop freelance business is a disciplinary risk regardless of what the contract says about outside work generally.
A safer approach: have exploratory, informal conversations about future availability once you have decided to leave, but hold off on signing freelance commissions or contracts until your notice period has been served or you have your employer's explicit consent to begin outside work early.
Leaving-date logistics to sort out before your last day
- 1Final pay and P45: Confirm your final pay date, any outstanding holiday pay owed, and when you will receive your P45 — you will need it (or the equivalent starter information) to register correctly for self-assessment and to confirm your PAYE record for the tax year is complete.
- 2Pension continuity: Decide whether to keep your workplace pension pot where it is, transfer it, or start contributing to a new personal pension or SIPP as a freelancer. Do not let pension saving lapse entirely just because auto-enrolment no longer applies to you.
- 3Register for self-assessment early: You must register with HMRC for self-assessment by 5 October following the tax year in which you start self-employment. Registering early avoids a scramble near the deadline and gives you time to understand payment-on-account requirements before your first tax bill.
- 4Set up business essentials: Before your last staff day, ideally have professional indemnity and public liability insurance in place, a separate business bank account or clear bookkeeping method, and invoicing templates ready so you can start billing from day one of freelancing.
- 5Return company property and complete an exit interview: Return any company equipment, ID passes, and access credentials, and use the exit interview or handover meeting to clarify in writing what confidentiality and outside-work restrictions continue to apply after you leave.
A first-three-months freelance survival plan
The first three months of freelancing are typically the leanest, because invoicing lag means income from your earliest commissions may not land until eight to twelve weeks after you start pitching. Plan for this gap deliberately rather than being surprised by it.
- Start pitching to editors before your notice period ends, where your contract permits, so commissions are already in the pipeline on day one of freelancing.
- Keep a savings buffer of at least three months of essential outgoings, ideally more given typical 30-60 day payment terms from commercial clients.
- Set aside 25-30% of every invoice for income tax and Class 4 National Insurance from the very first payment, rather than waiting until your first tax bill to start saving.
- Prioritise one or two reliable, regularly paying clients over a scattergun approach to many small one-off commissions in the early weeks.
- Track every invoice, payment date, and expense from day one using simple accounting software, so your first self-assessment return is not a scramble.
- Join the NUJ if you have not already, and use the Freelance Fees Guide and freelance office contacts as a benchmark and support network in your first commissions.
NDA obligations and PILON explained
Confidentiality clauses in your staff contract typically survive after you leave, covering genuinely confidential editorial, commercial, or source-protection information you learned during employment. This is distinct from non-compete or non-solicitation covenants, which restrict specific future activities (working for a named competitor, soliciting former colleagues or clients) for a defined period, and which courts will only enforce if the restriction is reasonable and no wider than necessary to protect a legitimate business interest.
Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) allows your employer to pay you a lump sum instead of you working your full notice period, if your contract permits it or both sides agree. Since April 2018, HMRC treats all payments in lieu of notice as earnings subject to income tax and Class 1 NICs, regardless of whether the contract contained a PILON clause, so do not assume a lump sum payout will be tax-free. Read the relevant clauses carefully, and if a restrictive covenant looks broad enough to prevent you working in journalism at all, take legal advice before signing any settlement agreement or accepting the payment.