what's up w/ Patch.com

Understood. I got confused with the way you'd initially phrased it. Apologies.

 

Huge hiring push in my neck of the woods for this gigs. They are looking for editors and freelancers everywhere. Anyone know what they pay? What's the ceiling on this things? Worth giving a look?

 

Standard freelance seems to be $50 for a smaller story, $75 for longer stories with pictures. They might go a bit higher for a take-out piece, though I'm not sure how many of those they do.

No idea what the editors make, but I know one of them and he works insane hours.

 

Does anyone know what the editors make?

 

We've had a few reporters leave our chain to start up as editors at Patch.com here locally. The figure we've heard is $40,000, plus a laptop and iPhone.

 

That sounds about right.

For a reporter at a 30k daily, that's a lot of money. For a guy working in a big city, that's not.

 

I've also heard a laptop, iphone and a bunch of software is included. Certainly much better than some of the pay I've had.

 

Laptop, iPhone or Blackberry or Droid, a printer, a police scanner, a wireless connection card (24/7 Internet thing as I call it), plus other nice things like a (small) expense account.

 

Anyone have any experience doing the directory listings? I've got a small batch to do and they don't seem too bad.Just checking to see if anyone had advice, etc.

 

People love it or hate it. It's not exactly journalism, more of a writing job. One woman did 250 of my 300 listings because she loved going out and meeting people. One did about 50 in two weeks, and she was done; she still writes for me, she's a good writer but didn't care much for the work. And one flaked out completely.

 

Seems like it would be a good way to get out and make connections in the community, though.

 

Yeah I've only got a couple.. not nearly that much. My editor is using them as a try out of sorts to check if you are reliable. I know one marketing guy is doing a bunch for him but I'm hoping I only have to do these few. But hey, seems like a few quick bones.