The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 29th March 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 29th March 2024
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Most of us are sick to death of watching some overpaid BBC journalist spouting utter nonsense, which in some cases is refuted by what is going on in the background. But spare a thought for those further down the journalistic food chain. These include freelance journalists who not only suffer from low pay, but are systematically denied any reward for their work even if it is reproduced many times after its original appearance.
Recent research commissioned by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) show that low pay and rights grabs are increasingly widespread in the highly profitable media business.
The survey of 458 journalists discovered that the median income for freelancers who spent at least half of their working time on journalism was £17,500. Disabled journalists earned significantly less than non-disabled colleagues at £11,250. Most present-day journalists now come from at least comfortably off backgrounds because they can get help from the bank of mum and dad to tide them over for a few years on low wages before they hit the big time. It is also a business where many people run their own blogs for free while in pre-social media days they would write angry letters to the newspapers.
A Wild West
Like acting, journalism and other forms of writing is one of those seemingly glamorous businesses where beginners are willing to tolerate harsh conditions in the hope that one day they will be the next John Pilger or Bob Woodward. Needless to say for the vast majority a career which begins with reporting local court cases and the local flower show often does not rise much above from where they started.
One journalist complained that “everyone seems to assume you’ve got a private income – so class is a factor. It makes me furious”.
At the launch of the report at the House of Commons, Angus Batey, the Chair of the NUJ’s Freelance Industrial Council, said “we need rates that don’t stay static for decades and we need help enforcing those rights that we’ve managed to hold on to”.
Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ general secretary added that “it is clear efforts to address disparities in pay for freelancers from lower socio-economic backgrounds and for marginalised groups must be bolstered alongside investment to ensure journalism remains an accessible industry for all.”
The report describes the freelance world as a “Wild West” of low pay and no rights. It reports that 47 per cent of journalists have been forced to sign exclusivity clauses, locking them out of benefiting from wider opportunities, often in perpetuity. A bit like a Tesco shelf stacker being forbidden to work in Sainsbury’s.
The average salaries ranged from the £27,000 reported by those working full-time in UK journalism. This has not changed in years. However those who spend at least 50 per cent of their working time on journalism, but not all of it, earn £17,500 on average. A second job outside journalism is required to bring their total annual earnings up to £25,500. Nearly half the respondents said they spend more than half their time on freelance journalism and nearly a third were full timers.
The ALCS is the body through which writers, including journalists, can register articles they have written (in magazines, not newspapers) and receive royalties if these are licensed out by the publications. This is similar to Performing Rights Society payments made to musicians whose offerings are played in public.
One freelance journalist reported that “in staff jobs people get pay rises and promotions – or they change jobs and get an increased salary. As freelancers we just get paid the same rate. I think most freelancers are afraid to ask for more in case they aren’t commissioned anymore”.
One journalist who is lucky enough to get commissions from abroad noted that UK rates are much lower,“I make the lion’s share of my income from US based publications” he said while a veteran complained that “in general, journalism has become a much more unstable and challenging profession. It is not well rewarded – and I’m one of the luckier ones. Every day doing the job is a small victory”.
Grumbles were made about the fact that “payment on publication” was “problematic both for increasing the risk borne by the journalist in the event their work is not used, and as disproportionately affecting those journalists covering controversial or hard-hitting topics, which are less likely to be published”. So it is best to write about the food served in posh new hotels rather than raising awkward questions about waiters’ wages.
Only eight per cent of all those surveyed said that they had ever received a payment resulting from licensing agreements between publishers and platforms. These only average a modest £500 per year. That means publishers, not writers, benefit from syndication.
The ALCS CEO warned that things were getting worse: “while digital platforms and artificial intelligence present both risks and opportunities for freelance journalists, the Government must do more to empower these creators, by supporting mechanisms to negotiate compensation for the use of works in the platform economy”.
Feminists will be delighted that freelancers have a “reverse gender gap” with more women than men among the respondents and women earning slightly more, but at £18,000 that is not much to celebrate. This could be because it is harder for women to secure more permanent jobs: “There is a lack of career opportunities in the industry, particularly for post career break women who are forced into a freelance work pattern due to non-existent jobs and gender-based discrimination”.
Many contracts are made using “off-hand emails, Whatsapps and oral agreements… which lessens the security of a freelance journalist if they are exposed to a dispute”, in addition 40 per cent of freelancers work without any contract at all”.
However, most contracts were tough ones for the freelancer with non-negotiable, buy-out contracts with boilerplate conditions imposed on a take it or leave it basis which force them to sign away any future rights.
Freelancers will suffer from AI. While this may be no bad thing as the ghost-writers who write essays for dumb but rich students are replaced by ChatGPT, but a survey by London’s Imperial College showed that writing jobs have declined by 30 per cent over the past three years.
Carry On Screen Writing
In the film and TV industry freelance writers and other workers are also having a hard time. Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (BECTU) has also been surveying its freelance members.
Last month it reported that two thirds of the 4,000 respondents (a tenth of the union), were in actors’ terminology, “resting”. This indicated that there has been a much less than expected recovery from the scriptwriters strike in the USA which had a huge knock on effect on writers in Britain. 30 per cent had no work at all in the previous three months, while 58 per cent saw no recovery in their employment since the end of industrial action in the USA.
BAME workers were less likely to have worked at all over the past three months 29 per cent of white respondents have not worked at all, but 32- 38 per cent of the three main other ethnic categories were out of work.
Unsurprisingly 88 per cent were worried about their financial security over the next six months. Younger workers were the most depressed and increasing numbers, particularly women, want to leave the industry.
One producer said “I have never known a more dire situation in television in twenty years. Every freelancer I know is unemployed. Every freelancer I know is extremely worried about money, growing debt and the future of production. Freelancers are already living precarious lives. Now it is untenable.”
A Costume supervisor added to the picture of misery by pointing out that: “I am extremely concerned about the younger and more junior members in our department. I have noticed that their financial struggles are quite extreme. To the point some of them cannot afford lunch or rely heavily on work-provided food in order to make up for income shortfalls. It is very disconcerting… there should be more support available directly through productions, not just charities.”
BECTU’s general secretary, Philippa Childs, said in response that “alongside rampant mental health challenges and debilitating financial difficulties, one of the most concerning takeaways from our research was the emphasis respondents placed on how the current crisis is amplifying existing inequalities across the industry”.
She told the Secretary of State for Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport that “the time for warm words and platitudes is over. You cannot have a thriving industry without a thriving and properly supported workforce, and we hope this report is the alarm bell the industry needs. Broadcasters and government must act now to halt the exodus of diverse and talented crew and tackle the structural challenges that leave workers feeling isolated, that damage their mental health and devastate their financial security”.
BECTU says the TV license fee is too low and there is not enough advertising revenue coming in for ITV and Channel 4 to keep its members in a job.
The actors union Equity cites as an example of this is the decision of Channel 4 to cut the soap opera Hollyoaks from five to three episodes a week. Despite it being rubbish Equity claims it, and other series, are desirable because they maintain media jobs outside London.
Ms Childs condemned the solution offered by broadcasters: “What really concerns me is that the solutions the broadcasters have come out with have been giving money to the Film & TV Charity to pay grants and providing training”. It is not unreasonable to expect wages rather than hardship funds.
She also warned that BECTU had learnt the lessons of the American strikes which saw the Writers Guild secure considerable wage and royalties increases. The strike she said “set an expectation in the States that you probably have to take strike action to get everything you can get from employers.” That could mean no Coronation Street for months...
At the same time the Competition and Markets Authority is presently investigating several TV production companies whom it suspects are breaking completion law by operating a cartel against freelancers. The companies include the BBC and ITV themselves and producers such as Hat Trick Productions and Sister Pictures Limited. CMA suspects the companies are fixing the wages of camera operators and sound engineers, and have agreed not to engage in a bidding war for scarce skills. If found guilty they could be fined up to ten per cent of their turnover.