Journalism in the 21st Century

Whether you are 25 or 55, as I am, transitioning from pajamas to pin-stripe suits can be a daunting experience. Once day you're eating PB&Js and working from 10 to 4 or 11 to 10 and the next you're expected to be in a cubicle by 9 and play nice with strangers. Having recently taken a staff reporting position - after 10 years of freelancing - I can attest that there are growing pains. I take responsibility for my independent skin, one that got tougher as I aged, and so learning to be in a team is sometimes tricky. Mom put it this way: "You're like Luzie (her elder cat); you don't like people to get too close." Now, Luzie and I happen to have a lovely, warm relationship. She'd wait in the doorway of "her" room alongside Mom during the four months I spent at Mom's in South Texas. She'd "meeew!" and I'd "meew!" and know just how to pet her before she bit me. So yeah, perhaps that's me, at least on days when I...

It always amuses me that freelancers are usually the last to be paid. After all, we buy our own (very expensive) health insurance policies, manage our own books, fix our own computers and forego vacations. Also, many of us have been forced into freelancing due to the economy. Some of us have applied for several hundred journalism jobs, only to find said jobs are now non-existant. We are then "happy" to sell an article here and there. Why then do editors and publishers so often pay us late or play games with our payments? I am not sure why, say, a carpenter is paid one half upfront for his fine woodworking but a freelance journalist must wait up to eight weeks for a payment. I once asked for a deposit upfront, and the prospective client acted like I'd swallowed marbles and was asking him to fish them out. I therefore appeal to all publishers and editors to pay us quickly. That means under 30 days, which is often too long for hungry writers to wait. Don't assume we'...