My first on-assignment work came to me - by clients finding me as a photojournalist in this area through the Web portfolio I had in the National Press Photographers Association’s own Web site. Literally, my first on-assignment work for a daily paper came when my cell phone rang when I had it in my hand as I was getting ready to go eat. But - to seek out potential gigs - you need something organized: a listing of contacts at daily newspapers, magazines, wire services, and possibly other possible clients.
And this “Rolodex” really has to be computerized - as you want it to have records of your contacts with these people on what kind of stories, and of what any that hire you paid. Having records of what a paper paid last time on what story will not only be a “reference” when dealing with that paper in the future - but will help you avoid getting lowballed on rates. Doing this in a desktop card-type Rolodex really would be inconvenient at best - as you will constantly be updating it as people at publications come and go, you have newer stories you covered for them or pitched to them, and possibly even phone numbers change. So do it as a text file. You can’t keep all this information in your smartphone, either!
For each publication, you want the name of the:
Director of photography
Phone number of director of photography
Email address of director of photography
Phone numbers and email addresses of
others in the photo department there.
Mailing address.
Stories you have worked for that paper.
Stories you pitched - and when.
Rates offered or paid.

Paula Broadwell’s sons with neighbor and another kid.
Shot on assignment for New York Daily News.