How much do you pay freelancers?

Agreed.... that is unacceptable.

 

I think $15 is great. Let's see. For a single individual, the U.S. poverty line is set at $10,787 a year. That's only 719 stories a year! And that doesn't even include tips!

 

I miss the days when I would get $200 to get a single quote for SI.

 

If we're talking about the same state, I'd say $20 to $100... But most of the rags are between $30 and $60.

 

Anything less than $50 is insulting...and bad business....

 

As opposed to being figuratively good enough to work at a daily?

 

I would agree with that.

 

It should be the Just Say No threshold at the smallest papers.

 

Hell, I got that much to string volleyball games in 1992. It shouldn't have gone down since then...

 

I can tell you that I have worked for $50 for the past two years, and I always thought it seemed like a standard that had been around for a number of years. I guess I was right. I started adding an extra $10 for some assignments. I figured the editors would say something if they didn't like it. But it was my way of getting a few extra bucks for the longer trips.

With the cost of everything rising these days, it seems natural to want more per assignment. But it's tough for a newspaper to justify paying someone $75 to cover Podunk vs. Shitsville. This is particularly true for those papers that try to cover the mediocre to abysmal games.

So some prep guys are probably trying to decide whether to pay stringers $50-$75 and limit their coverage to the bigger match-ups or pay a bunch of stringers $35-$40 and cover more games.

Of course, it's getting a little wild with all the cost-cutting. So who knows how things will come out when the wash is finished. I just know that my underwear will be pink.

 

I worked for a mid-sized metro that paid around $30 per story. I thought it was good until other papers started offering $60, $75 and $100 per story.

 

Dang. I thought we paid badly, but now I don't feel so bad.

$15 is OK only if it is something like a roundup of stuff you already know. Otherwise, unless you need the clips, it's not worth leaving the house.