Payment in kind
And a sale on video tutorials and guides
This weekend I am heading to a festival with my family. When I get back on Monday I will be writing up a 700-word review for the local paper. I am not getting paid for this work. But what I am getting in return is free tickets, worth around £600.
I personally don’t have a problem with this. At FFJ we have always said that working for free is a personal choice and it is not a black and white situation where you should never work for free. There are nuances depending on the situation but there are also times when it is exploitative. We did a podcast on this topic a while back (listen here).
But what I want to discuss today is not working for free as such, but payment in kind. For me this is when you get something of monetary value in return for your work. I was inspired my Jenny Holliday’s newsletter on skills swaps.
There is the argument that working for free and having your work edited and getting feedback, has value, and indeed this could be viewed as a skills swap. But I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole today (it’s something our Facebook community get very passionate about).
Instead I am talking largely about the ad hoc reviews I do throughout the year in return for payment in kind. I will caveat this by saying I do not specialise in arts and culture journalism, and writing reviews is not the way I make my living. If I was a professional reviewer payment in kind would be exploitation in my view.
But I do think there is a difference between writing theatre or festival reviews for the local paper, where there is no word count or deadline expectation, and writing reviews for a national or specialist publication. My reviews are decent but they are not the literary masterpieces of people who do this for a living - freelance or staff.
I write about six to eight theatre reviews a year and in return I get free tickets which can be worth more than what I would get in a commission. Four tickets to the panto could easier set you back £200.
Since I am not getting paid for this work I have set my own rules. I file the copy when it suits me which is never at 11pm after the show. It is usually the next day but sometimes a couple of days later. Since the reviews are online only I write what I think it’s worth. If I haven’t got much to say I might only file 400 words but if I am flowing with inspiration it could be double that.
I do this for no payment because I want to support my local theatre who find it difficult to get reviews in the local paper. I don’t do it to support the paper, which has a flawed business model and can’t motivate its skeleton staff to go to the theatre.
I also think I have a writing hangover from working in local papers. When I wrote reviews as a staffer I always had to write them in my own time because it was seen as a perk to have the free tickets. Right or wrong this has stuck with me.
I will also point out that I approached the theatre and the newspaper after going freelance asking for this arrangement. They didn’t come to me. I wanted to continue going to the theatre for free and I wanted the challenge of writing something a little more creative and opinionated every now and then.
This arrangement now stretches to local festivals, hence our trip to Shambala this weekend for the fourth time.
Now I’m going to sound like a hypocrite and maybe I am one, but I don’t accept payment in kind when it comes to running gear reviews. I review a lot of running shoes and other fitness gear and although I get free kit (often worth more than commission fee) I still get paid for these reviews, and wouldn’t write them for free.
And that’s for several reasons. First of all I specialise in running and fitness. I am a running coach and have knowledge and expertise in this area which holds value.
Secondly I write for publications that get millions of views per month and have a big freelance budget, so there is no reason they should not pay me. My running kit reviews net thousands of hits whereas theatre reviews probably garner a few hundred.
And thirdly, I get a very detailed brief and have to write very specific, technical reviews which can be quite laborious and time consuming. Plus I have to spend many hours testing the gear. I also have a specific word count and deadline.
A theatre review will take me an hour to write whilst a running review could take most of the day. They are just not comparable.
And fourthly the theatre reviews benefit others not just me. I can take my friends and family for free and we can enjoy an experience together with no financial pressure.
So what is the main takeaway from this? Payment in kind works for me, for some things. But I have to weigh up the time cost and the overall social value.
It’s also a very personal decision and won’t work for everyone. But that’s the beauty of freelancing. It’s up to you to decide whether payment in kind is workable for you or not.
Summer sale on video tutorials and guides
You may be pleased to learn we’re having a summer sale on all things freelance journalism! Digital guides just £3.50, video tutorials £5. We have everything from pitching advice to story idea guidance with lots of real life examples, templates and checklists. You can find it all at our Payhip store by clicking the button below.
Triumph of the week
Getting paid to write about your holiday
That feeling when
You get invited to four press trips in one month and have to choose between them
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!
