Comments on: How to Pay Journalists

By: A Post on Paying Journalists « Mid-Career Grad Student

A Post on Paying Journalists « Mid-Career Grad Student — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:29:30 +0000

[…] compensation. I’ve written about some of those thoughts in my personal blog, CF2 Technotes, and invite you to take a look. Feel free to comment either here or there — I’d like to […]

By: Lucas Grindley

Lucas Grindley — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:05:37 +0000

I like the way you think. Careful, though. Words matter. And the thought of paying a “commission” versus the thought of paying a “bonus” will hit the journos vastly differently.

A bonus is additional to pay, while a commission usually replaces part of baseline pay. At least in the beginning, and maybe in the longer term, a page-view bonus cannot replace existing pay.

Eventually, we should give the reporter/editor incentive to choose whether all of their paycheck should be based 100 percent on traffic. Keyword: “choose.”

Salary is tied to our most vital needs of providing a roof over our family’s head, and just getting by. So new forms of pay are assumed risky until we take the risk out, and folks give it a try.

By: curtis_franklin

curtis_franklin — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:55:08 +0000

You know, you’re absolutely correct: I was sloppy with my language. I’m not ready to move to a “commission” model for journalist’s pay, but I meant to say that it was a useful way for publishers to work the concept into their business models. Just as sales commission is a fixed percentage of new revenue, the “bonus” paid to the journalist would be a fixed percentage of that same new revenue.

At many publications, on-line work has been added to print work with no real increase in compensation to the writers and photographers. Basing additional compensation on the additional revenue generated by the new work is fair to the journalist and sustainable by the publication.

Thanks for the comment.