The Gloucester Citizen is looking for a new columnist. It’s a nice gig: 350 words, once a week. Simple, regular work – the freelancer’s dream.
Oh, but here’s the catch: there’s no pay.
This won’t stop dozens – perhaps hundreds – of people spending time on carefully crafted ‘competition entries’, in the hope of winning the ‘great opportunity’ to provide free content for their local paper. It’s not their fault – it’s the paper’s. Because as long as there are businesses and publications who expect something for nothing, there will be people willing to do it. People just starting out. People who aren’t yet confident enough of their own abilities to demand a fee. People who deserve better.
Local papers struggle with budget constraints and free content is essential to editors. That’s why well-written press releases will often find a place, and thinly-veiled ‘advertorials’ fill the middle pages. Columnists are different. Columnists are, in my view, the life-blood of a newspaper or magazine. A witty or insightful columnist can carry an entire publication: it can be the page readers turn to first, or even the sole reason they pick up a copy. To openly seek someone to carry out this role for nothing is insulting to anyone who writes for a living. It undermines the very foundations of our profession and is in direct breach of NUJ guidelines. It suggests that words have no value, and that the Gloucester Citizen puts no value on its own content. Why would anyone pick up a newspaper like that?
I’m not completely against the idea of writing for free: in fact, I think there are times when it is an extremely astute move. But the ball should be firmly in the writer’s court. I have just written a 200-word column for a police newsletter. For free. I did it because it took me half an hour, and because it gave me an opportunity to promote my forthcoming book to a directly relevant audience. That’s it. I don’t write my Cotswold Life column for free. I don’t write articles for free. I don’t write for businesses for free. Because quality content has a value. And because, however it’s sold to you, ‘great opportunities’ don’t pay the bills.