Member-only story
Journalism takes time and money, but the industry is slowly dying
There is a (mistaken) perception that journalistic work is, in general, something simple to do. Well, anyone can talk to 2–3 people and write something, right? Wrong.
I published last week, with Study Hall, an article that I started researching and pitching back in…. 2019! It took me over a year between having the idea, researching, convincing an editor to pay for the story, interviewing over a dozen people (to end up using only part of what I collected), writing, and going through several rounds of editing.
By the end of 2020, finally, all done.
But at the end of the year everything stops. More than a month and the draft was still in the queue. January begins and one of the publishers asks me for even more work (they paid for it, so no complaints here), 3 new rounds of editing, I had to talk again with a source, collect more information… And finally, it was published.
Of course, not every story takes so long or is so laborious, but many are. And in many cases, the payment is virtually the same whether we work for a year or a week on a draft. Few are the media that pay according to work, time, and effort. And most of them pay poorly (this draft in particular even yielded something above the average, but not nearly enough considering all the work and effort…
