A funny thing about journalism is rates are often measured per word, as in, you earn maybe $1/word.
Very nice friendly people will often respond to a pay rate with something like “a dollar a word?? I can type so fast, I’d make so much money!”
No hate because I recognize this as a playful flippant comment, and not everyone has to know how everything works! But if you WOULD like to know, let me explain:
If I said “this surgeon makes $500/hour,” you would know that doesn’t mean I can just call myself a surgeon and make $4k in 8 hours, and by the way, skip all the medical school, paperwork, scrubbing in etc. The same goes for any other unit of measure; I can’t make the same per-case as a lawyer or per-job as a plumber or per-house as a garbage collector or per-post as an influencer. Because the prime-time actions, like snapping a photo, are not the only investments that go into producing those services.
As a journalist, I might get an assignment that’s $500 for 500 words. I think most journalists would consider that pretty good, although not all, especially considering the cost of living these days. That was National Geographic’s rate (for me) when I wrote for them in 2016 and 2018 or so. If you want real numbers, freelancers will post what rates they have received in the past on WhoPaysWriters.com. (Most companies don’t want to publicly say how much they pay, including news outlets, here’s why)
So, for that $500 assignment, I’ll research, organize, find interviewees, interview them, write and re-write. Delete a bunch of stuff once I realize that’s not where the story should be going. I might write around 800 words, then cut it down to 600. Then it goes through an editorial process and some after-work, including editing, sometimes building in a CMS, getting photo rights, and answering questions for the editors and multimedia team. The invoice is still $500.
As with many of my journalism posts, please keep in mind that I like this job but I do NOT recommend it “for some extra cash” or “because I don’t know what I want to do, figure I’d try it.” Journalism is NOT a cash cow, it is only really profitable for a few people who are already famous, got in when the standards were completely different, and have connections. That’s not you or me.
