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stringer rates

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Love_Sports, Dec 29, 2008.

  1. Andy Dufresne

    Andy Dufresne Member

    My first year in the business I covered the state swimming championships for my paper, and a major metro from the other side of the state gave me $75 to get a couple quotes from three winning swimmers. All I had to do was e-mail the quotes, and they wrote the story off the quotes I provided. Easiest gig I ever had.
     
  2. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    I'm averaging $75 a night.

    Very bad trend -- basketball coverage is being cut. December - January used to be the heydey, now its September-November with football. And damn the AFL ownership -- the AFL was a nice income stream during the summer.

    BTW, I too did high school football for $55 for 2-4 paragraphs, agate, and scoring updates. When kickoffs are 7:30, the teams are throwing 30 times a game and deadline is 10:45, we were getting paid for promptness.
     
  3. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    Just got $125 for an 18 inch NFL sider for a major metro.
     
  4. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    Promptness or not, it is a giant waste of money. Running two to three graphs on a game isn't going to sell papers anyway, so why spend that much money?
     
  5. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Did you actually sit there and watch the game?

    Seriously, I'll get $50 per piece from a small daily and $75-100 from a larger one up the road, depending on whether its a gamer or feature. Truth be told, and i've told them this 100 times, stringers for regular season games are just a waste of money. If you're going to pay somebody, might as well get a halfway interesting feature that people might read.

    Gamers you get from an SID or coaches' phone call.
     
  6. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    The paper I worked for had my ``story'''' on the web within an hour....
     
  7. Dan Hickling

    Dan Hickling Member

    You are a businessman...with a service to offer...you have to gauge what the traffic will bear, and if you find that you can't stay afloat by accepting lesser amounts, you have to make the hard decision and get out...if you can generate enough work and $$$ to make it work, then stick around and build your client base...but face facts because (to use a tired phrase) the facts are the bottom line and the bottom line is the bottom line...now...I will say this...the days of making a freelance living (even a modest one) by stitching together gigs from daily newspapers are over....I repeat, O-V-E-R ...you have to generate web and magazine business, and if your writing chops aren't up to those standards, then there are literally hundreds of freshly out of work professionals whose chops are...on the other hand, no matter how well you write, youe customer service skills (and priorities) have to be much better...After all, you're not in the journalism biz. That's been MY bottom line...
     
  8. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Of course. ;)
     
  9. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

     
  10. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    Small dailies can go as low as $30 here in upstate New York.

    To me, that's a Saturday watching a ballgame, then the money for food and a couple of beers. Not a real income.
     
  11. daytonadan1983

    daytonadan1983 Well-Known Member

    It was $75 for a break-out game -- 8-10 graphs
     
  12. ColbertNation

    ColbertNation Member

    I used to get $25 a story at my rinky-dink first paper. I freelanced for a mid-size, which offered me $50 and a major metro, which offered $100 per. Of course, neither of those last two places ever paid up (I wrote 1 story for the mid-size, and 3 for the major).
     
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