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

[GoogieHowser]

If I would've covered every game last football season I could've paid for my moms obituary.

 

[Batman]

My publisher keeps asking me to find stringers, which I've had a hard time doing. For whatever reason, we've found some good photographers around town but no writers I'd trust to get me something halfway decent and clean on deadline.
Part of it, too, was that I was embarrassed to tell them what we pay. For a long time it was $25 a story. I got them to go up to $50 for one reliable guy I trust and it took some asking. Covering a high school football game is a six-hour gig when you factor in travel. $50 is minimum wage. $25 is an insult. I'd rather ask someone to do it for free as a favor.

Thankfully, our two photography stringers do do it for free. One guy is semi-retired and makes good money. He says a couple hundred bucks over a couple of months is more aggravation than it's worth because it's extra paperwork on taxes.
The other guy, his wife works at the paper and their daughter was a cheerleader at one of the schools until recently. So he was going anyway and did it for us to get free admission to the games (I know, I know; but he knows the rules of professionalism and does great work). He also shoots college football for us for basically the same reasons. He enjoys it. The trade is, he sends me a crap ton of pictures and he doesn't have to buy season tickets. Works for me.

 

[Della9250]

I have that same problem -- plenty of photographers but no one wants to write

 

[SFIND]

Same here. I've grown tired of emails of Moms/Dads with cameras or the self-professed "semi-pro" photographers (whose action work is absolute shirt) emailing me wanting work. I've got a boilerplate response on the ready.

Of course, I know why there are plenty wanting to photograph and none wanting to write. The sideline access and shooting is "fun." Writing is "work."

 

[Della9250]

Same here. I've grown tired of emails of Moms/Dads with cameras or the self-professed "semi-pro" photographers (whose action work is absolute shirt) emailing me wanting work. I've got a boilerplate response on the ready.

Of course, I know why there are plenty wanting to photograph and none wanting to write. The sideline access and shooting is "fun." Writing is "work."

I have actually talented photogs, not just parents but young kids in college/just out that want to shoot. I'll be in trouble when they get actual jobs

 

[playthrough]

My publisher keeps asking me to find stringers, which I've had a hard time doing. For whatever reason, we've found some good photographers around town but no writers I'd trust to get me something halfway decent and clean on deadline.
Part of it, too, was that I was embarrassed to tell them what we pay. For a long time it was $25 a story. I got them to go up to $50 for one reliable guy I trust and it took some asking. Covering a high school football game is a six-hour gig when you factor in travel. $50 is minimum wage. $25 is an insult. I'd rather ask someone to do it for free as a favor.

Thankfully, our two photography stringers do do it for free. One guy is semi-retired and makes good money. He says a couple hundred bucks over a couple of months is more aggravation than it's worth because it's extra paperwork on taxes.
The other guy, his wife works at the paper and their daughter was a cheerleader at one of the schools until recently. So he was going anyway and did it for us to get free admission to the games (I know, I know; but he knows the rules of professionalism and does great work). He also shoots college football for us for basically the same reasons. He enjoys it. The trade is, he sends me a crap ton of pictures and he doesn't have to buy season tickets. Works for me.

I've told this story before, oldie but goodie ... my old shop covered a ton of games and my editor was always on the lookout for more stringers. I'd sometimes have one shadow me on Fridays and come Monday I'd check in with the boss to tell him whether the person was worth sending out on their own.

One night I had an older fellow and we got along quite well, and he really seemed to know his stuff. Asked if he could leave at halftime, no problem, I knew he'd be able to handle it. Editor calls me Monday ... "Jeez, you didn't have to kill the guy." "Huh?" "Your stringer candidate went home and died." You can imagine how long the jokes followed me around the newsroom.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

I've told this story before, oldie but goodie ... my old shop covered a ton of games and my editor was always on the lookout for more stringers. I'd sometimes have one shadow me on Fridays and come Monday I'd check in with the boss to tell him whether the person was worth sending out on their own.

One night I had an older fellow and we got along quite well, and he really seemed to know his stuff. Asked if he could leave at halftime, no problem, I knew he'd be able to handle it. Editor calls me Monday ... "Jeez, you didn't have to kill the guy." "Huh?" "Your stringer candidate went home and died." You can imagine how long the jokes followed me around the newsroom.

I knew you were hiding something ...

 

[daytonadan1983]

Ooops.

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.

 

[Tweener]

Our local Gannett shop runs word-for-word releases from college SID releases on games they don't cover, and they accept weekly notebooks put together by the SIDs. That has replaced their stringer budget, and for free. They don't cover local pro golf tournaments, and lower-level pro tennis stops, but allow their PR people to write stories on it.

Seems shady as fork, especially when the basketball team loses by 30, but the release has 8 grafs at the top about how Local State outscored Tech University by 4 points in the second half. Take the information, edit it and run it with a "Staff Reports" byline. But they don't have any copy editors or clerks to do that anymore.

Wow, that's kind of unbelievable. What's their justification for not covering the pro golf and tennis?

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

"The page views don't warrant the time and expense to cover it."

Given that there are thousands and thousands of people who pay (not-cheap) tickets to attend every single day, and the corporate interest for "country club" sports that generally attract fans with a lot of disposable income, I'd maintain the problem isn't interest that turns into page views. It's not covering it in a way that attracts page views.

 

[sgreenwell]

"The page views don't warrant the time and expense to cover it."

Given that there are thousands and thousands of people who pay (not-cheap) tickets to attend every single day, and the corporate interest for "country club" sports that generally attract fans with a lot of disposable income, I'd maintain the problem isn't interest that turns into page views. It's not covering it in a way that attracts page views.

Also, as even Vince McMahon among others can attest to, there's a big difference in what kind of companies you can get advertising on golf pages vs. other, "low brow" stuff.

 

[flexmaster33]

Ugh, so true.

One non-newspaper site locally pays $75 per story and box score for football. No photos, no video. Not the greatest, but not horrible, either. They pay quickly, too.

Our local Gannett shop wants you to feel fortunate when they offer $40 for a game, and then acts like they are doing you a huge favor by upping it to $50. fork that. Heard of a twice-weekly in the area that has offered freelancers $30 for a story, and they want photos, too. fork that hard.

It's a miracle if you can get Gannett to take on an assignment. But yes, those rates are absurd. If I see it's a Gannett paper I just pass on even offering most times. I remember checking their website to purchase one of their photos years back and it was a ridiculously high price.