Carney is an outspoken advocate of freelance writers and writes frequently on his blog about the struggles that freelance journalists face both in the field and navigating the business side of the profession. He is unusual in that he argues that magazines often have exceptionally high profits, and the low pay and contract terms that writers get are better attributed to exploitative business practices instead of a poor overall market for the written word. He founded the website WordRates, which operated from 2015 to 2017, to provide journalists a new way to sell and market their work.