christopher copywriter's blog

Journalists Should Not Work for Free – So Tell Me What They are Paying

One of the most depressing things about the present climate is the number of talented journalists who agree to allow mainstream media to publish their work for no payment.

“But I quite enjoy it,” said one such to me the other day. Well, yes you are allowed to enjoy your work. But letting employers and publishers think they can get quality work for nothing merely speeds the decline of the profession, and undercuts your colleagues.

So it was with interest that I read this post by Silicon Valley blogger and media executive Alan Mutter, whose argument I entirely agree with. Mutter goes one step further and provides a spreadsheet for working out what to charge for a 600 word freelance journalism piece .

The figures are relevant to the US, of course. Depressingly, they come out with a wordage rate of just US $0.35c a word – which even allowing for the exchange rate is low by Australian standards.

Or is it?

I think it would be useful to find out what different freelancers are getting paid by our mainstream publications. Here’s what I know:

Fairfax broadsheets start by offering .60c to.70c a word these days, but can be pushed higher if they want you badly enough. Section editors are adept at getting around the bean counters’ rules.

The Monthly still offers its $1 a word, which was princely when that magazine started, and still handsome.

I hear the RACV magazine pays well for both words and photos.

Responses to this article written by Margaret Simons may be found at The Content Makers

We’re happy to see the 2010 Approved minimums for freelance and casual writers, broadcasters, photographers and artists released by MEAA  (Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance) recently. (These minimums are exclusive of GST and are effective 1st January 2010.)

At christopher copywriter we often don’t charge anywhere near these specified industry pay rates for freelancers. Prospecting clients often come to us wanting everything done on the cheap. There’s a difficult X-factor skill  involved with keeping the clients impression – of the value of our work high – perhaps it’s the “trust” factor. It operates well beyond the actual and very real value of our work. That’s to say – sometimes a  particular clients expectations and understandings of a job, determine the monetary value of what we do. Surprisingly, if you think about it – this is often well within the actual monetary returns (profit) a client gains from our contribution to their business or company.  When there is lots of work on, these expectations are less of a factor. We just get on with turning over the jobs to the best of our ability and everybody is much happier. We always aim to do excellent work and exceed the clients expectations!

Online internet based article writing is an invaluable second level search engine optimisation and publicity tool. Obviously, when client comes on board for a long-term relationship – we’re happy to reduce our rates accordingly for the ongoing and continual work. We can also do far more to help a company in these situations. We currently price web based article writing slightly lower than print published journalism even though it can receive much more attention! This really depends on the story itself and how well we craft it.

As standard practice, Freelance business copywriting of promotional material in print and web mediums – is charged slightly lower than print journalism features or publicity mentions rates – because positive pr and publicity can achieve a far greater impact! Yet again, regarding our rates – you’ll find are usually somewhat more cost-effective for our commercial copywriting work than the prices listed below. We’re expanding by completing more work at a slightly reduce price – without any skimping on quality or performance.

Ghostwriting, on the other hand is best priced for us by taking a percentage of the final profits and a smaller retainer upfront – like a business partnership. This way the incentive is on us to create a wonderful work that sits within the current market climate and can sell recouping any of our clients costs. Obviously ghostwritten novels or novellas requires a considerable amount of work – including research – drafts and a full immersion into the subject matter. This somewhat depends on our clients desired out comes and roughly changes on a  job by job basis. We offer a set rate if the book just needs to be written with little concern for it’s outcomes. christopher copywriter has had plenty of offers to write clients books at some extremely ridiculous and unfeasible rates – and interestingly enough – especially from the property development sector – perhaps always existing with an eye to make a quick big buck.

Have a read and please take a special note and respect the industry standard pay rates for the work you need. We’re happy to cut different rates for the different article writing, copywriting, ghostwriting and publicity jobs we perform in our clients best interests – but we would much rather recognise and adhere to the 2010 Australian National Industry Minimum Freelance Rates – this would be a wonderful world for everybody!

This document can be downloaded as a .pdf and detailed questions, concerns or membership applications forwarded to MEAA.