What do you make of the idea of freelancers hiring interns to do their leg-work?
These two job ads, one for an intern to help a real life journalist source, compile and sell her features, and another for an intern on a blog, have caused a good deal of chatter on Twitter this morning. I’m really not sure what to make of it.
Back in the day, when I worked as a features editor on a technology magazine, I was contacted by a very experienced freelance journo with clips from the Wall St Journal and all the major business magazines.
We met for lunch (this is how things worked back in the 90s, when magazines still had a few pennies to rub together) and chatted about ideas. I needed some meaty corporate profiles for my section of the magazine, and he seemed like the chap to take them on.
A few weeks later, he filed his first feature. As agreed, it was an in-depth analysis of a global company, covering products, executives, future strategy – but the name of the company was spelled wrongly throughout.
Turns out, the freelancer worked with a couple of keen young journalism students. When he got a commission, he’d make a list of people he wanted to speak to, and the students would set up calls. In some cases, he’d provide them with a list of questions and they would conduct, and transcribe the interviews.
As an editor, I’ll admit I felt uneasy about this. I felt part of the (pretty generous) fee we were paying was based on the writer’s experience and contacts. I wouldn’t have agreed the same rate had I known the work was being done by a newbie, even one who was being supervised. I felt we’d been tricked somehow, because the students weren’t mentioned when I’d met the journalist to discuss the commission.
On the other hand, do I think a freelancer offering the opportunity to help her out for six weeks is any more evil or exploitative than the publishing company that advertised on Gorkana last week for an unpaid intern for a MINIMUM commitment of six months?
As a journalism student, I worked at Literary Review magazine for four weeks for free. I got some experience and a few contacts, but I think working with a jobbing freelancer and arranging interviews and setting up calls might actually have taught me more than I learned sitting in an office doing typing for Auberon Waugh.
Just a thought.
These two job ads, one for an intern to help a real life journalist source, compile and sell her features, and another for an intern on a blog, have caused a good deal of chatter on Twitter this morning. I’m really not sure what to make of it.
Back in the day, when I worked as a features editor on a technology magazine, I was contacted by a very experienced freelance journo with clips from the Wall St Journal and all the major business magazines.
We met for lunch (this is how things worked back in the 90s, when magazines still had a few pennies to rub together) and chatted about ideas. I needed some meaty corporate profiles for my section of the magazine, and he seemed like the chap to take them on.
A few weeks later, he filed his first feature. As agreed, it was an in-depth analysis of a global company, covering products, executives, future strategy – but the name of the company was spelled wrongly throughout.
Turns out, the freelancer worked with a couple of keen young journalism students. When he got a commission, he’d make a list of people he wanted to speak to, and the students would set up calls. In some cases, he’d provide them with a list of questions and they would conduct, and transcribe the interviews.
As an editor, I’ll admit I felt uneasy about this. I felt part of the (pretty generous) fee we were paying was based on the writer’s experience and contacts. I wouldn’t have agreed the same rate had I known the work was being done by a newbie, even one who was being supervised. I felt we’d been tricked somehow, because the students weren’t mentioned when I’d met the journalist to discuss the commission.
On the other hand, do I think a freelancer offering the opportunity to help her out for six weeks is any more evil or exploitative than the publishing company that advertised on Gorkana last week for an unpaid intern for a MINIMUM commitment of six months?
As a journalism student, I worked at Literary Review magazine for four weeks for free. I got some experience and a few contacts, but I think working with a jobbing freelancer and arranging interviews and setting up calls might actually have taught me more than I learned sitting in an office doing typing for Auberon Waugh.
Just a thought.
