Online only

Fees Guide update - not all bad news

THE NUJ has updated its Freelance Fees Guide section for print media - newspapers, magazines and books. The news on rates is generally dire - but not all bad. We are able to recommend significantly higher rates for freelances who do shifts editing or writing for newspapers and magazines

We can do that because we have received reports of better rates actually being paid for this work.

Across the board, however, we have been able to increase our suggested rates in these sectors by only about 10 per cent since the last major update - while prices have increased by at least 25 per cent.

In the case of local and regional newspapers we are not able to recommend any rise at all.

Why we need your Rates for the Job

The Fees Guide is legal because it is based on an open market survey, not least through NUJ members and others submitting rates they've received to our Rate for the Job service. If it weren't for this process, the Fees Guide would be at risk of being declared a "cartel" - as if freelance journalists were as maliciously powerful as, say, the US railroads in their pomp.

This is why we cannot simply publish the rates that ought to be paid..

And it is why we urgently need you to tell us about your best rates - in strict confidence and anonymity. If you are the only freelance doing work for Cheese Monthly then reporting the title alongside the rate would identify you - so please tell us with a note that the title is private and we will offer a generic description.

We know that the Fees Guide and the Rate for the Job help freelances negotiate because, for example, they have helped us secure a 35 per cent increase on a rate offered us: “but your competitors are paying...”

So in this case your self-interest is served by others sharing in solidarity: and to make it work you need to return the favour.

Submit a rate to the Rate for the Job

Print media - national newspapers Freelance Fees Guide

Print media - magazines Freelance Fees Guide

Print media - editing/producing books Freelance Fees Guide