In an e-mail, a reader says Gannett is replacing newspaper employees with contractors paid less than on-the-payroll workers. The reader wonders how many other papers or TV stations are going this route:
I'm a freelancer at a Gannett newspaper who basically works part-time as a reporter, but for freelance pay. It'd be interesting for you to look into the whole phenomenon of replacing full-time-with-benefits reporters with second-class-citizen freelancers. We're still reporters, but we get the short shaft when it comes to using equipment, the newspaper office, and even the database of old articles for research.
Is this happening at your work site? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
9 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't think Gannett thinks it can run newspapers entirely on the backs of freelancers.
ReplyDeleteThere have been so many layoffs and cutbacks in the past five years that if a newspaper uses a freelancer, they could be perceived as replacing full-timers and part-timers with freelancers.
To know for sure, you'd need stats like the percentage of work coming from freelancers over time.
The Gannett paper in our city hires freelancers all the time, especially for photo assignments. They've lost half of that staff, but the number of assignments hasn't dropped much at all.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered if there's any employment law that addresses this, but I bet GCI has covered themselves.
I hope freelancers at Gannett get treated better financially than I was treated when I was a freelance writer there. That's an oxymoron - Gannett freelancers. Folks, if you freelance, make sure you get paid. Who knows what will happen now?
ReplyDelete"they could be perceived as replacing full-timers and part-timers with freelancers."
ReplyDeleteperceived? dude, that's what they're doing! the features section i used to work for is almost all wire crap and freelance now. writers and copy editors were shed like autumn leaves.
We had a freelancer when I was a web editor at a Gannett TV station. She didn't get an e-mail address, didn't post anything online, just did her stories and left.
ReplyDeleteThen she came back and tried to get a p/t weekend job editing web and was atrocious.
I left Gannett to be a contract worker for a cable television station. I love the job, I love the people, but management is (against their will, mind you) FORCED to treat me as a second-class citizen -- I can't attend all-staff meetings or holiday parties, I can't leave work early on early-release days unless I forfeit pay for those hours, I get no vacation or sick time, and if the company doesn't renew the contract I have to lose money going out to do interviews because I won't get paid for the time I spend doing them.
The thing is, the quickest way to become a real employee is sometimes to start as a freelancer or contractor. You're there, you're known, you can do an awesome job, and if something better comes along, you aren't locked into being a full-timer. Plus, contractors have recruiters working on their behalf to get them better jobs.
I don't regret leaving Gannett, especially the way things have gone in the past six months, but I'm a little concerned what will happen at my new job if my contract isn't renewed -- or, worse, if it IS renewed and I have to keep paying 35% of my monthly pay to COBRA to keep myself and my children insured.
Freelance writers are the way of the future for Gannett. It's much cheaper to hire -- and fire --- them. I used to work with assigning freelancers at a site and know that the push is toward using complete freelance help. Once the copy editing and line editing get pushed to hubs most newsrooms will contain a shell staff of people to facilitate the freelance process.
ReplyDeleteI would think all free lancers would want to review IRS and employment rules pronto.
ReplyDeleteThe only way an all-freelance strategy will work in the long term is if nobody starts up a competing newspaper or website.
ReplyDeletePeople don't have the captial necessary to start up newspapers. Gannett doesn't care about competing websites. In my view Gannett really doesn't take competition seriously.
ReplyDelete