Trying to get paid more when you are paid by the story

I write a weekly roundup of the varsity sporting events of the city's only high school for a weekly newspaper. During the summer, the roundup generally consists of the high school's summer football and basketball tournaments, as well as how the high school's golfers and tennis players fared in their tournaments.

I am paid a designated amount for each story. That amount has not changed for several years. I will soon seek a pay raise. I am looking for winning arguments to make to the publisher, who I expect will claim that the advertising downturn will make a pay raise impossible. (The paper is distributed free.)

 

#1 - Ask

If you're valuable, an editor will certainly consider it. If you're silent, the editor assumes you're more than content to just keep working for the same amount.

 

It is best to have proof of how your costs have gone up. If you have any records of how much more you are paying for gas, phone bills, computer upgrades and maintenance, accessories (I bought a Flip video camera last year to provide video content with some of my stories), supplies, notebooks, pens, tape recorder and tapes, show them to the publisher. And be ready to walk away. There is someone right behind you, unfortunately, willing to do what you do for less. Not better, just cheaper. And publishers like cheap.