Does adding a freelancer affect premiums? 

Protecting an individual freelancer does not incur additional cost, immediately or otherwise—premium rates do not rise when a publisher or broadcaster chooses to indemnify an independent contractor.

They may rise for other reasons. Typically it happens when an outlet unexpectedly takes on a new identity—a different mission, focus, or emphasis bringing a different risk. Let’s say a newspaper secured insurance for local tourism coverage, but then abruptly started investigating alleged corruption among state politicians, which began provoking litigious hostile sources.

In that case, the insurance carrier could claim that the publisher’s original application misrepresented its content—and demand to renegotiate terms for the following year, or even outright deny coverage for a claim.  

But that’s true regardless of whether the newspaper used staff reporters or freelancers. Conversely, if the paper has been doing accountability journalism all along, hiring a freelancer doesn’t really change anything, or add any extra cost.  

 

It’s true that a newer outlet may pay slightly higher premiums for relying heavily on independent contractors. But that’s because the outlet is new; it has no track record or internal practices known to insurance carriers. That disparity tends to disappear over time as the outlet adopts and refines rigorous vetting procedures—for staff reporters and freelancers alike: the more an outlet proves its journalistic reliability, the less price disparity it incurs for using independent contractors.  

For established outlets there is no difference.

In any case, that’s in the aggregate. As for the use of individual freelancers, the publisher or broadcaster doesn’t usually even need to inform its insurance carrier at all, because most policies allow the outlet to include independent contractors automatically or as the outlet sees fit, without paperwork.

---