Publishers should recruit an ample number of freelance writers and photographers in their respective territories to create the content for their publications each month. Finding good writers and photographers through social media posts, house ads, and networking is fairly easy to do. It’s important to set their expectations early and share with them our process of how assignments are done, accepted, submitted, and eventually paid to them.
We recommend hiring those with at least 2 years’ experience, AP style writing expertise, and writers that are responsive to deadlines. Photographers are generally professional photographers, wedding photographers, or former journalism photographers with their own equipment and lighting.
While the pricing you pay for each story and photo shoot is at your discretion, the following is a suggested guideline for payment:
| Story Type | Number of Words | Pay Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Short Blurb – Rewritten press releases, one-page stories, small stories with provided or no photos | < 400-500 | $25 |
| Story – One source, original story with photo provided by writer or source | < 400-500 | $50 |
| Story – One source, original story with multiple photos provided and used by writer | < 400-500 | $75 |
| Feature Story – One source or multiple sources, original story with no photos or photos provided by source | 500-1,200 | $100 |
| Feature Story – Multiple sources, original story with photos by writer | 500-1,200 | $150 |
| Rush Fee - For stories that come in past deadline. | Additional $25-$50 |
Photo shoots are generally fixed rate based on the photographer, $50-$75 each. Responsible photographers are able to take an assignment through Media OS and contact the persons to be photographed, schedule the shoot around their schedule, and upload a good selection of photos to our Flickr.com account for final layout. Writers and photographers can be found through freelance websites such as Upwork.com as well. Many services charge fees in addition to the writer and photographer fees.
This is detailed in their onboarding as well - we collect the payments from you monthly for your assigned stories and photoshoots on the 15th of each month. We pay freelancers via direct deposit on the 20th of each month. If you run a story/photoshoot that ran in another territory, you will pay your share of that total editorial assignment.
<aside> 💡 For example, if a feature story costs $125 (writer $50 and photographer $75) and runs in 5 different magazines, each magazine will pay $25.
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If you are wishing to add a new freelancer to Media OS for assignments, make sure you send them the “Freelancer Onboarding” link outlined below. To add them to Media OS, first create the “New Content” ticket. Once created: