Freelance Journalists: Raking in the Dough Yet?

I was at Vancouver's East Side Pride yesterday, where a friend of a friend who has also trained as a journalist but who also does not work as one asked for my blog address. Embarrassed, I told her I hadn't been on it in over a year...

...I've been busy. I spent two years as a freelance journalist, never getting rich. Though I was very happy with the work I was doing and it was getting published in magazines and websites like rabble.ca and Kyoto Journal, I was not getting payed for any of it. More and more of my expenses were going on my credit card. Not a good thing, so I came up with a back-up plan for financial stability: in 2012 I signed up for a TESOL (teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) diploma at Vancouver Community College. I was two-thirds of the way through when I got a job teaching settlement English (English for immigrants). It was a split shift, plus I was tutoring on weekends, plus I was finishing up my practicum for my diploma. I had no time for anything else.

A random pic of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West, who were lovers and travelled (Vita did) and had lovely dogs, and generally enjoyed the finer things in life without needing "a job."

Things changed in the new year, and I have had more time for journalism these last few months. So here's an update on what I've done, journalistically speaking:

-I am a contributing journalist on The F Word, a feminist show on Co-op Radio Vancouver. The transition from "print" journalism (which actually includes writing for both paper and electronic publications) was a bit of bumpy road, with some technical glitches. But I've come a long way. For May Day this year, I produced a show that features an interview with Kate Braid, a Vancouver poet and carpenter who talks about the status of women in trades, then and now.  I also talked to SD Holman, a local photo-based artist who had an amazing exhibition called Butch: Not Like the Other Girls at the Cultch in East Vancouver last spring. Holman talked to me about sexism in the art world, guerrilla art for gender equality, and queer identities. The show is available on rabble.ca, where the F Word posts its pod casts on a (semi) regular basis.

-I've been a member of the Growing Room Collective, which publishes Room magazine, Canada's oldest literary journal for, by, and about women. In the latest issue, One for All and All for One, I talk to Elee Kraljii Gardiner, a poet who co-ordinates Thursdays Writing Collective in the Downtown Eastside. This issue is available at bookstores now or by subscription--check out the link above.

So that's what I've been up to. Still not making much money from journalism, but really enjoying the work that I do. If you have a secret to becoming a rich freelance journalist (without selling your soul to The Man) I would love to hear it. If you're struggling (like most of us) or have given up, or have come up with some kind of plan to make it work anyway, I'd love to hear your comments too.

Quebec: Media task force recommends new contract between the press and the state

An academic study commissioned by Quebec’s Ministry of Culture recommends an overhaul of journalism practice to address poor work conditions for journalists and political pressures that compromise journalism ethics, according to an article just published in Montreal’s Le Devoir (in French).

The study, entitled Task Force on Journalism and the Future of Information (Le groupe de travail sur le journalisme et l’avenir de l’information) was conducted by Professor Dominique Paquette at L’Université Laval in Quebec City. 

Professor Paquette’s report proposes a “new contract between the press and the State”.  Its recommendations include:

• ·      A professional title for journalists modelled on some European examples
• ·      Reserving government press releases for media organizations that hire accredited professional journalists
• ·      Stricter enforcement of rules against conflict of interest
• ·      Unions and a set minimum wage for freelance journalists (YIPPEEEE!! Exposing my conflict of interest to cheer vociferously for this one!!)

Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications, Christine Saint-Pierre, commissioned the study a year ago to address worsening crises in the profession.  Journalists at the daily Le Journal de Montréal, which is owned by the  Québecor conglomerate (which also owns the Sun chain in Ontario), have been locked out for two years.  Dailies across the province face mounting political and economic pressures that jeopardize their impartiality.  Freelancers work under unstable and untenable conditions.

What do you think?  Are these recommendations elitist?  Will they save journalism?  Do other provinces need an overhaul of the contract between the press and the state?