What a response! Last week I used the blog to ask freelancers to provide me with information – with all anonymity preserved – on what different publications pay for contributors’ copy. The inbox has been inundated with information, starting as a trickle moments after the blog post appeared, and building to a gush by lunchtime. I now have over 100 responses, and am trying to write it all up in understandable form.
Keep it coming.
Meanwhile the Media Alliance – the journalists’ union – has stated that its recommended freelance rate of 89 cents a word or $219 an hour is:
Based on a J5 Grade under the Metro Daily award (an amalgam of the Fairfax Media and News Ltd J5 graded rates) and is based on the assumption that a freelancer can producer two 1000-word features in a week – it also includes provision for annual leave, sick leave, etc plus costs related to running a freelance business (not including superannuation). The recommended rate is increased on January 1 each year based on the average percentage pay increase set down in the Fairfax and News Ltd agreements.
But does anyone actually get that amount? A Media Alliance survey of freelancers conducted in 2008 found that one in five earned $300 a week or less from their craft – although there were also sizable proportions earning amounts of between $1000 and $3000. The Alliance found that corporations and governments were the best payers, followed by big publishing houses. Australian Consolidated Press was the best payer after Government, closely followed by Fairfax. At the time of the survey, Fairfax was paying an average of 65c a word, with some contributors getting $1.10, and News Limited was paying an average of .54 cents a word, peaking at $1 a word.Here’s the table of wordage and hourly rates, compiled by the Alliance, but sadly I fear their information is out of date, and misses out some of the higher payers.
Patience, I will get the data from my call for info up ASAP.
|
Publisher |
Word Rate (cents) |
Publisher |
Hourly Rate (dollars) |
|
Business |
79 |
Business |
100 |
|
Government |
72 |
Other Commercial |
91 |
|
ACP |
67 |
Government |
90 |
|
Fairfax |
65 |
Other AUS MAGS |
77 |
|
Ninemsn |
63 |
TIME |
75 |
|
Yahoo!7 |
63 |
Fairfax |
43 |
|
Other Commercial |
61 |
Yahoo!7 |
39 |
|
TIME |
60 |
ACP |
38 |
|
Other AUS MAGS |
59 |
PBL |
37 |
|
PBL |
57 |
ninemsn |
35 |
|
NewsLtd |
54 |
NewsLtd |
34 |
|
APN |
50 |
APN |
No Response |
|
WAN |
34 |
WAN |
31.5 |
3 Comments
Margaret
Thanks for taking up the cudgel.
I write about workplace safety matters as a freelancer. I am probably never going to earn an income from this as the field is very narrow. I know of less that five others in Australia who write freelance for this niche.
I use my SafetyAtWorkBlog as a portfolio for my writing and have received a couple of paying jobs over two years. Only one at a decent rate.
Last Friday, I thought the blog paid off after I received an mail for a legitimate UK publishing house who produces quarter magazines on workplace issues. The publisher had seen my blog and said flattering things about independent thinking. As she was still awake in England, I rang her to introduce myself and thank her for the approach.
She said that writers usually take the kudos gained from being published as sufficient payment for a three thousand word article. I politely said as a freelancer I need to earn an income and won’t be submitting anything.
They expected three thousand words which, by your estimated rates, could have provided me with between $A1000 and $A2400!!! I could live on a monthly gig like that.
Many magazines run this BS line about prestige, including the Alliance’s Walkley magazine.
Crikey.com and BusinessSpectator are two Australian examples of new media with strong journalistic ethics who one would have expected to pay but they do not. I have met with the publishers of BusinessSpectator and pitched a regular column in an area that, I don’t believe, their current columnists cover enough. But they don’t pay.
I can write. I have been published. My blog has been shortlisted for (one) award. An independent and literate voice on workplace safety issues is unique in Australia but only one OHS trade magazine out of around eight, Australian Safety, pay for contributions.
Taking the high ground on freelancer rates is admirable but it creates a tension in one’s family over unequal financial contributions that is difficult to cope with.
On a related matter, the union, journalists and (perhaps) media companies seem to have a perception that freelancing is what a journalist does in between paid employment. Freelancing is not knocking off an article on the kitchen table after a hard day at the newspaper office.
There are many of us out here trying to exist on freelancing jobs without a paid fallback position. (I had to seek out a morning shift job from 4am – 7.20pm to bring in some regular and meagre dollars. This post-Christmas period has been particularly hard on the family)
Yes, I chose this lifestyle and, hopefully, career path as I am good at and in an important and neglected area of industrial relations and society. But it might not be long before I knock on your door to deliver your pizza.
Sad to read Kevin, but if the market’s not there for your work, clearly time to think of another way to earn a living? Maybe combine freelance work with writing technical manuals, giving safety talks, safety compliance consulting, taking care of PR for safety companies…I’d have thought there would have been quite a few ways to parlay your skills into other revenue sources? Or write on safety for other publications, maybe your knowledge could be applied to making potentially dangerous recreational pursuits safer?