Comments on: So, You Want To Freelance For The Bay Citizen? Here’s What You Should Know.

By: Matt Baume

Matt Baume — Tue, 25 May 2010 04:43:07 +0000

To be clear, they do have a staff of full-time writers to produce some of their content. The rest of the content will come from wire services, partners, and freelancers. And maybe from other sources that they haven’t yet revealed.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:43:55 +0000

I want to hope that at some point they hire writers, in-house. I want to hope, that at some point a journalism school gets a booster shot of staff assistance on site, paid interns at the “paper” (website) and some grants/scholarships for student projects.

Right now, sure, this gives some ‘kid’ the way to make some cash along the way, but it doesn’t sound like enough to count on anyone ever negotiating benefits. What happens when stories go “big”, do the writers get residuals? What happens when a “big name writer” wants to do a column? My point is that real investigative reporting takes backing, teamwork, an institution, it can’t be a couple reporters putting everything on credit cards and hoping they have a book deal after fighting the other sides lawyers. That’s called a pot shot, and it means that intrinsically we lose most of the time. That’s not the way to build it.

By: Susie Cagle

Susie Cagle — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:42:32 +0000

Am I the only one who’s less than thrilled with these rates, considering how bankrolled the Bay Citizen is? Comparing a media organization with millions in start-up capital to a non-profit that pays reporters via private donations seems a little cuckoo to me — especially when with the latter you retain the rights to your work. I’d be interested in how long that nebulous Bay Citizen “exclusivity period” lasts.

By: Sarah Fidelibus

Sarah Fidelibus — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:12:50 +0000

Great article, Matt. I am not a “writer getting paid,” but I am someone who is supremely passionate about quality news and information; if TBC is adopting a “best practice” when it comes to working with freelancers, then this arrangement sounds like it will be good not only for freelancers but also for those of us who are voracious consumers of media of all types.

Full disclosure: I donated to TBC back when they still appeared to be affiliated with KQED; I had no idea at the time that my small donation would end up landing me tickets to their launch party, so I will be there on Wed. evening.

The tone of your article is, to my mind, pretty balanced, and I appreciated your thorough coverage of the meeting.