Okay, now let's start a stringer rates threat...

Yes and no. If freelancers demanded more pay then newspapers would have to decide if they paid it or covered the events at all. Right now they don't need to decide because the freelancers willingly take it.

 

Agree with all of this. One publication's sports editor told me that their freelance sports rates are $15 to $20 a story - I told them thanks, but I couldn't justify it for any less than $50. Even that's kind of low, but hell, I'm new to the area and just sitting around the house. I did accept $30 for a news assignment from an online-only place, but that was only because it was something I could do entirely from the house. (Just a couple phone calls, because it was a preview story.)

 

I used to get a lump sum for every story. It was the same regardless of what story I wrote, for good or bad. But over all I came out way on top in an hourly sense. If I had that one high school baseball double header that lasted eons, at least I'd have five or six 6-inch previews for the local D-II college that took a phone call and 15 minutes to write to counter it. So in a way, $30 if it doesn't take much effort is at least somewhat defensible, although still kind of crappy. Getting a $20 bill for five hours of work with multiple tasks and not even including getting there and back is bull. I once babysat two kids for 8 hours when I was 16 and the mom gave me a 20 when she got back and I never gave her the time of day again. But now as a professional adult I should be happy with something similar? Nonsense.

 

A web site in the area is paying me $50 a game to write short stories for the high school football team I used to cover. I don't even have to go to the games (which is good since I moved out of the area). Just have coach send in info and write something that works. I could watch the game on the radio station's web site if I want to, but if I can devote maybe 30 minutes Saturday morning versus 3 1/2 to 4 hours on Friday night to make it work, that's more than fine with me.

 

That's not how markets work.

 

The Dallas Morning News pays $55 per game for high school football and hasn't budged from that rate since 2000. (Three grafs and a box ... easy money.) For those stringers who livestream games with stats, they paid $75 at the beginning but that could've gone up.

 

I rarely string anymore but this spring I covered a prep state championship softball game (story and photos) for $75, and I thought that was fair. I've also covered state volleyball for $50 (story and stats only).

Back when I started out, in the mid-1990s, I recall getting $30 or $40 for a Friday night football game (story and stats).

I think the main difference today is newspapers use stringers for state tournaments instead of sending full-timers ... because they don't have the staff anymore. And they don't have the budget to use stringers for "regular season" prep games.

 

Just took a second look at the typo in the thread title … and based on the lowball last-minute offer I got today, I’d have to say that stringer rates are indeed a threat — to stringers’ solvency.

 

My most recent experience was on the editor end. The lower level guys I’d give $50 for a three graph recap, scoring summary, and writethru. Our real people got 100 but I needed a full box, writethru and a second day story.

 

Fixed that for you.

 

That's shit. The DMN used to pay $100 for the same boxscore and 3-5 paragraphs in the '90s.

 

Anybody else notice that there is a thread about low pay for stringers while there is another thread about the high prices for obits?