Picture: © Dave Rotchelle

The Gong - Officer magazine

This month's Gong - a wake up call to late payers - goes to the Officer magazine. They are clearly not gentlemen, as a still-outstanding dispute with a Branch member shows.

Its editor, Colonel Mike Dewar, commissioned a piece from her in April 2005. She wrote the piece, which Officer said was "great", and confirmed in writing it would be published. "Time passed, as did more emails - until in mid 2006 it was too late. "I asked for a late payment fee, whereupon Dewar claimed the piece was unpublishable," she reports. A stiff exchange with the Freelance Office followed. Due to the workload of the freelance concerned, she has not yet had time for her day in the Small Claims court.