IMCista rebel leaders
*Citizen Journalists Compete for Readers
Countless new forms of journalism allow nonprofessional writers to disseminate their views to large audiences. Even some mainstream media outlets have experimented with this citizen journalism as way to engage readers.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/email/redir/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/index.html
Tomorrow never dies?
Another black day for Elliot Carve...Fairfax
IT was a doubly dark occasion for John Fairfax Holdings yesterday when a former owner of Australia's once-proud newspaper group was charged with criminal fraud, and the lights went out on a new chairman and chief executive as they were being publicly attacked by their own journalists.
Lord Muck charged over Hollinger fraud
ARREST warrants were issued yesterday for disgraced Canadian media tycoon Conrad Black over the alleged looting of Hollinger International, once one of the largest media companies in the world.
They're free, but they also get lanced
Mark Juddery - November 17, 2005
FREELANCE journalists, artists and photographers must lead a blessed life. They work at home and choose their hours, away from the stress of the office. Yet they can still win awards, see their byline in print and usually retain the rights to their work (unlike staff journalists, whose work is usually owned by their publisher).
Moreover, they are highly sought after. Many freelance journalists are "marquee" names. Others are well regarded for their specialist knowledge. "If you're good at what you do, it gives you the ability to pick and choose," says Claire Montgomery, national claims officer at the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. "I suppose that freelancing is for people [who] don't want to be tied to a desk job." Indeed. What could be better?
Well, a few things, actually. The most recent survey of Australian freelance media professionals, commissioned last year by the MEAA, confirmed what many of them already knew: freelancers are underpaid and exploited, with no job security.
The drawbacks go well beyond sacrificing their superannuation and buying their own stationery.
Although it is possible to make a good living, 70 per cent of respondents earned less than $40,000 a year from freelancing. (This is roughly the amount earned by entry-level staff journalists. High-level staffers can regularly make up to $95,000.) About half of the respondents supplemented their income with another job.
These grim figures were revealed to an audience of freelance journalists at the National Freelance Convention in April 2004. They contrasted sharply with some of the healthier assessments of the previous year's convention, when Shelley Gare, who at the time was editor of Fairfax's Sunday Life lift-out magazine, said: "I think this is the best time to be a freelancer."
Her optimism had some logic behind it. With the media recession, newspapers and magazines were trimming staff and using more freelancers. "There's no liability in terms of annual leave, leave loading, sick leave, maternity leave," says Montgomery, who believes that newspapers and magazines are contracting more contributors "because it creates a business relationship, as opposed to an employer dealing with an employee. From an economic point of view, it's far more advantageous for publishers."
Despite this, freelancers are still struggling. Just because a publication has reduced its staff, it doesn't necessarily make it a freelancers' goldmine. Why outsource your writers if you can fill your space with wire copy (from news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press, or from foreign newspapers) without having to pay for new material?
Also, many publishers ignore the union minimum, set by the MEAA, of 73c a word. Several leading companies pay only 50c to 70c. Rural Press Ltd pays established freelance journalists as little as 12c a word, less than one-sixth of the union rate, for its newspapers, including The Canberra Times, which boasts a daily circulation of more than 36,000 (and 67,000 on Saturdays). Editors at Rural Press newspapers have privately apologised to their contributors, confessing that they are embarrassed by their low rates. Negotiation attempts, however, have been met coldly by the pay offices.
To veteran freelancers, news about low pay is nothing new. However, according to half the respondents to the survey, the rates have decreased in real terms, failing to keep pace with inflation. Another problem they face is copyright, as more publishers want them to sign away their rights. This all-or-nothing tactic has not always worked. After British publisher IPC Media was purchased by AOL Time Warner in 2002, IPC issued contracts demanding that writers relinquish ownership. The contributors arranged a formal protest, sending "No, thank you" letters to the publisher. IPC quickly relented.
There are few indications that a similar action could be co-ordinated in Australia. "Freelancers with lots of experience, seven to 25 years in the industry, feel reluctant to ask for better pay or conditions ... because they have no employment security," says Greg Day of Education Image Pty Ltd, which conducted the survey for the MEAA. "Yet employers are relying on them and using them for many years. It's as if they were permanent, [but] without the benefits. The response is to seek out the employers who pay better money.
" I think it's a natural trend. People should say, 'I only work for people who respect my work, give me fair pay and pay on time."'
The business is further devalued by idealistic would-be journalists offering to write for nothing more than the ostensible glamour and the exposure. Take a recent case in which ACP's Dolly magazine (not exactly a struggling small-press journal) published a 1000-word article from a young aspiring journalist (without informing her), then refused to pay for it because it had been requested as part of a job application.
Such tactics are nothing new in magazines. The difference this time was that the journalist, Amalia Illgner, persevered, a lesson that many more experienced freelancers could learn. She even took her story to the ABC's Media Watch. In the end, Dolly reluctantly paid up.
Illgner's victory, however, was an exception in an industry where independent journalists are not always respected.
As long as writers are willing to be unpaid or underpaid, long-term freelancers believe, some media employers will never treat them as professionals.
Mark Juddery is a freelance journalist.
Famous Australian's Lance Boyle and Sir Les Patterson advise the RAT institute on how to ' cover the waterfront ' so -to-speak. Remember all donations are tax avoidable.
Countless new forms of journalism allow nonprofessional writers to disseminate their views to large audiences. Even some mainstream media outlets have experimented with this citizen journalism as way to engage readers.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/email/redir/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/index.html
Tomorrow never dies?
Another black day for Elliot Carve...Fairfax
IT was a doubly dark occasion for John Fairfax Holdings yesterday when a former owner of Australia's once-proud newspaper group was charged with criminal fraud, and the lights went out on a new chairman and chief executive as they were being publicly attacked by their own journalists.
Lord Muck charged over Hollinger fraud
ARREST warrants were issued yesterday for disgraced Canadian media tycoon Conrad Black over the alleged looting of Hollinger International, once one of the largest media companies in the world.
They're free, but they also get lanced
Mark Juddery - November 17, 2005
FREELANCE journalists, artists and photographers must lead a blessed life. They work at home and choose their hours, away from the stress of the office. Yet they can still win awards, see their byline in print and usually retain the rights to their work (unlike staff journalists, whose work is usually owned by their publisher).
Moreover, they are highly sought after. Many freelance journalists are "marquee" names. Others are well regarded for their specialist knowledge. "If you're good at what you do, it gives you the ability to pick and choose," says Claire Montgomery, national claims officer at the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. "I suppose that freelancing is for people [who] don't want to be tied to a desk job." Indeed. What could be better?
Well, a few things, actually. The most recent survey of Australian freelance media professionals, commissioned last year by the MEAA, confirmed what many of them already knew: freelancers are underpaid and exploited, with no job security.
The drawbacks go well beyond sacrificing their superannuation and buying their own stationery.
Although it is possible to make a good living, 70 per cent of respondents earned less than $40,000 a year from freelancing. (This is roughly the amount earned by entry-level staff journalists. High-level staffers can regularly make up to $95,000.) About half of the respondents supplemented their income with another job.
These grim figures were revealed to an audience of freelance journalists at the National Freelance Convention in April 2004. They contrasted sharply with some of the healthier assessments of the previous year's convention, when Shelley Gare, who at the time was editor of Fairfax's Sunday Life lift-out magazine, said: "I think this is the best time to be a freelancer."
Her optimism had some logic behind it. With the media recession, newspapers and magazines were trimming staff and using more freelancers. "There's no liability in terms of annual leave, leave loading, sick leave, maternity leave," says Montgomery, who believes that newspapers and magazines are contracting more contributors "because it creates a business relationship, as opposed to an employer dealing with an employee. From an economic point of view, it's far more advantageous for publishers."
Despite this, freelancers are still struggling. Just because a publication has reduced its staff, it doesn't necessarily make it a freelancers' goldmine. Why outsource your writers if you can fill your space with wire copy (from news agencies such as Reuters and Associated Press, or from foreign newspapers) without having to pay for new material?
Also, many publishers ignore the union minimum, set by the MEAA, of 73c a word. Several leading companies pay only 50c to 70c. Rural Press Ltd pays established freelance journalists as little as 12c a word, less than one-sixth of the union rate, for its newspapers, including The Canberra Times, which boasts a daily circulation of more than 36,000 (and 67,000 on Saturdays). Editors at Rural Press newspapers have privately apologised to their contributors, confessing that they are embarrassed by their low rates. Negotiation attempts, however, have been met coldly by the pay offices.
To veteran freelancers, news about low pay is nothing new. However, according to half the respondents to the survey, the rates have decreased in real terms, failing to keep pace with inflation. Another problem they face is copyright, as more publishers want them to sign away their rights. This all-or-nothing tactic has not always worked. After British publisher IPC Media was purchased by AOL Time Warner in 2002, IPC issued contracts demanding that writers relinquish ownership. The contributors arranged a formal protest, sending "No, thank you" letters to the publisher. IPC quickly relented.
There are few indications that a similar action could be co-ordinated in Australia. "Freelancers with lots of experience, seven to 25 years in the industry, feel reluctant to ask for better pay or conditions ... because they have no employment security," says Greg Day of Education Image Pty Ltd, which conducted the survey for the MEAA. "Yet employers are relying on them and using them for many years. It's as if they were permanent, [but] without the benefits. The response is to seek out the employers who pay better money.
" I think it's a natural trend. People should say, 'I only work for people who respect my work, give me fair pay and pay on time."'
The business is further devalued by idealistic would-be journalists offering to write for nothing more than the ostensible glamour and the exposure. Take a recent case in which ACP's Dolly magazine (not exactly a struggling small-press journal) published a 1000-word article from a young aspiring journalist (without informing her), then refused to pay for it because it had been requested as part of a job application.
Such tactics are nothing new in magazines. The difference this time was that the journalist, Amalia Illgner, persevered, a lesson that many more experienced freelancers could learn. She even took her story to the ABC's Media Watch. In the end, Dolly reluctantly paid up.
Illgner's victory, however, was an exception in an industry where independent journalists are not always respected.
As long as writers are willing to be unpaid or underpaid, long-term freelancers believe, some media employers will never treat them as professionals.
Mark Juddery is a freelance journalist.
Famous Australian's Lance Boyle and Sir Les Patterson advise the RAT institute on how to ' cover the waterfront ' so -to-speak. Remember all donations are tax avoidable.
posted by professor rat at 11:12 PM
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