How much do you pay freelancers?

I got mileage paid for all my $30 assignments. So I would make a few extra bucks that way.

 

i was never paid $50 per story during my stringing days

 

Dude, I don't care if the circulation is one person, you're getting hosed.

 

Last time we had a stringer, we paid $35. With gas prices now, I doubt I'd have any problem convincing the boss to up it to $50 per story. We're a 16K circ.

 

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First, thank you for all the responses so far.

To answer some of the questions asked:

1. Sometimes I'm the middleman and other times I'm the writer.

2. Mileage is paid at IRS rate.

3. I wasn't clear, but these are weekly papers with a 4K or lower circulation.

4. All prep sports and mostly game stories. Occassional sports features once in a while.

5. One time use. We sometimes license the stories to multiple publications.

6. We are in located near a college town where the cost of living is nearly the lowest in the state.

I agree the pay isn't too great if where in a larger metro community, especially for a five hour football game. We try to cover games where we have multiple publications interested in the content so with two team sports or events so we'd actually earn $30 for that coverage.

Again thanks for your input. If you have additional thoughts I'm listening. Thanks!

 

Logan, based on all that info I'd say $30 should be fine, maybe $50 for features. Never $15. If you're spending more than an hour combined at the event AND writing it, $15 is a slap in the face.

 

Logan, it has nothing to do with the cost of living. It has everything to do with the price you put on your time. When I was 20, I was happy to make a buck. Today, my kids don't eat if I write stories for $15 a pop. My time is worth much more today. I can't justify $15 for four hours of work. That's not even $4 an hour. If that's all I'm making, I'd rather be a door greeter at Walmart. At least they get a cool blue vest.

 

Most of the smaller daily papers around here pay $25 per story with no mileage included, including my own. I feel bad about it (I have no say in the pay amount), but typically it's college kids who want experience (and would do it for nothing) and usually it's an easy assignment like football tab previews that involve calling a coach and talking for 10 minutes and writing a story in 30 minutes. In those cases, it's not such a bad deal.

 

I string for papers all shapes and sizes all over the country and I've never been offered less than $50 per story. That includes a 5K weekly that I contribute to on occasion.

 

Yeah, but I hear Shitsville is loaded this season.

 

We start at $60.