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Topic: Recession
| Author | Message |
| Collier | Posted – 1/16/2008 10:51:23 AM | show profile Being pretty young and new to journalism, I've actually never worked in the field during a recession. I'm curious how it's expected to impact the profession, particularly freelance writing. I'm guessing there will be fewer ad dollars and more competition to fill the pages with shorter stories. I am planning for 20 percent fewer revenues during the next year. What are you expecting? Have you even thought about it? |
| WritingEd | Posted – 1/16/2008 11:00:27 AM | show profile At the pub where I'm an assigning editor, we have less stories to dole out to freelancers and slightly shorter word counts (1,800- 2,200 rather than 2,200-3,000). I haven't yet gotten an FYI from my two major freelance clients about expecting less work, so maybe they're ok for now. After 9/11 the shelter mags were doing quite well, with people generally wanting to spend more time close to home. Not that there has to be an area of media coverage that does well during a depression, but certainly some will survive better than others. |
| fourfold | Posted – 1/16/2008 11:08:47 AM | show profile | email poster My experience has been that a recession can be good for a freelancer. Many media companies lay off full-timers and dole the work out to freelancers. It's cheaper for the companies because they don't have to pay benefits. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 1/16/2008 11:49:00 AM | show profile The one thing you need to be ready for in any recession, but particularly this one in the face of the current media upheaval, is that you'll have additional competition from laid-off journalists. I started freelancing six years ago during the last recession, and it was tough going for a couple of years, even with a long professional history and lots of contacts. Since then I've seen no less than half a dozen people in my niche of the profession lose long standing jobs, which tends to thin the freelance broth. I saw one associate go from being a well-paid newspaper staffer to freelancing his job for the same paper for $50 an article. Now one of the local newspapers has announced it's laying off a gaggle of newsroom staffers. If you have steady clients, this is the time to make sure you stay in their good graces. (I hope you sent nice gifts to the major ones this past Xmas.) If you're looking for clients, make sure to differentiate yourself from those just being cast into the market. If you're new to this, realize it may take a considerable amount of time to catch on and make a living. |
| rozwrite55 | Posted – 1/16/2008 11:58:58 AM | show profile This is also a good time to diversify your skills. A working freelancer will be the one who can write, blog, edit, fact check and research for various types of clients, not just print media. |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 1/16/2008 3:19:26 PM | show profile I am sorry that I cannot offer any hope. For my publications, we've slashed our freelance budget for 2008 to 0, so ALL articles are now written in house. It's a bummer for the staff. Prior to 2008, we were about 35-40% freelance written. One thing that I did for my freelancers was to connect them with other publications that needed work done. If you have a good relationship with any of your editors, I would approach them and ask the same thing. Surely they have friends who work at other publications who need some freelance help, even if it's outside your comfort zone. It never hurts to ask. Good luck! |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/16/2008 4:13:08 PM | show profile We're not in a recession yet! |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 1/16/2008 4:22:34 PM | show profile Actually, this is marketing 101. In good times and bad, you should reach out to your client list and ask for recommendations. --If you have a good relationship with any of your editors, I would approach them and ask the same thing. Surely they have friends who work at other publications who need some freelance help, even if it's outside your comfort zone. It never hurts to ask.-- |
| WritingEd | Posted – 1/16/2008 5:49:47 PM | show profile I feel for you, HyancinthGirl. While our freelance budgets haven't been slashed entirely, they are very, very low this year. It's hard to keep staff morale up when there's all this writing, in addition to our regular editing, to be done! |
| Cyrus | Posted – 1/16/2008 6:13:19 PM | show profile As Pam said, it's important to note that we're not technically in a recession yet. The issue is that the industries represented on MB tend to pull back out of fear of a recession, even if one isn't technically upon us. That said, by the time a recession has been declared -- and there is a technical definition, which is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth -- we're almost always in the midst of it or on the verge of coming out. The ad situation really is independent of a recession, as all the major companies are trying to figure out how to realign their strategies at a time when the media landscape keeps changing. That's a long-winded way of saying the people who want to minimize the impact will find a way of diversifying their business so that they specialize and compete with fewer people. NYC and the industries in it tend to be more affected by a downturn than the rest of the country. Even following the 9/11 attacks, the rest of the country wasn't doing anywhere near as bad as we were. The last time the entire country was getting hit hard was in the early 1990s under Bush I. Honestly, the best way to avoid being impacted is to move to a more stable market and take full-time employment. Not trying to be flip here, only pointing out that small town dailies/weeklies tend not to lay off as much as big-market outlets do. You won't make as much, but your costs will also be vastly lower. My number 1 advice to new grads is always to go somewhere besides NYC where your money will go a lot farther, build up experience and come back when your experience will earn you a decent living. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| HyancinthGirl | Posted – 1/16/2008 7:12:28 PM | show profile Pam and Cyrus make good points about the recession, but for my monthlies, we're in a different situation. We've been in a slump since 9/11, plus our ties to Detroit are significantly strained (we're in transportation). Perhaps the MS glossies are managing better than our trades. Our ads have gone down considerably, and the 30/70 ratio we maintained for editorial to ads is looking closer to 50/50 lately. All written in house. With a smaller book. Anyway, that's my two cents. We're luxury transportation, so people are definitely not buying what they don't need in today's economy, at least from my vantage point. |
| beenthere | Posted – 1/16/2008 7:47:40 PM | show profile Be direct. Ask your editors if there have been any changes in the freelance budget. It's helpful to be proactive than just wondering why the assignments aren't coming in. My major client two years ago gave me a heads up that freelance work was being slashed, and it allowed me to prepare by seeking work elsewhere. |
| candylilacs | Posted – 1/16/2008 10:47:04 PM | show profile It's always good to diversify! And if you want to be truly evil-bad, try Googling other freelancers who have worked with a publication you have worked on and see where they're selling. It's worth a shot! ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| UGoGirl | Posted – 1/16/2008 11:13:17 PM | show profile Who says we're not in a recession yet? They typically only call it after it's been going on for months, the rearview mirror view. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 1/17/2008 12:37:19 AM | show profile What I've noticed with one client is this: 1) Initial layoff of staff was good for freelancers -- more stories available. 2) Between former staff freelancing and reductions in territory covered as publication seeks to stay profitable in light of mediocre/falling revenues, work is reduced for freelancers. Aak. |
| basenji | Posted – 1/17/2008 2:03:11 AM | show profile Just curious ... are most people on this thread talking about freelance writing? Or do people feel that other types of work such as copyediting and proofreading might also be affected? |
| writesonwater | Posted – 1/17/2008 3:39:30 AM | show profile My recent experience is in freelancing. I do freelance copyediting as well, and I have noticed one client tightening their belt by one layer of editing, which means that more is expected out of what I do for that piece. However, I saw serious belt-tightening in full-time gigs within the last 10 years -- which included inane ideas like "Mitzi is quitting to have a baby. Let's just see how long we can go before we tear our hair out and HAVE to fill her position." This and a collection of other twitty ideas from a publisher prouder of his ability to squeeze blood from a turnip than anything else. You'd go in his office and he'd be wringing his hands with glee as he looked at cost-cutting spreadsheets. That paper has yet to recover from his bare-bones ideas, because subsequent publisher doesn't want to be the one who plumped up the budget. |
| beenthere | Posted – 1/17/2008 1:13:05 PM | show profile basenji, my experience was with editing assignments, not writing. |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/17/2008 1:17:21 PM | show profile to UGOGIRL We're not in a recession. There's concern that one may be coming, but still it's not definite by any stretch. All reports still show earnings are up and expected to be up for the next 6-12 months. And companies are still hiring like crazy. I haven't seen it at this level since the internet boom it's that crazy. |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/17/2008 1:24:13 PM | show profile How to prepare for a recession For the original poster, the way you can plan ahead so that you are not as impacted by a downturn in business is to take advantage now, in the busier times of taking on as many additional freelance projects as you can handle. Make a steady effort to develop new contacts and strengthen those relationships that you have and to be as diversified as you can be, rather than putting all of your eggs into one basket, for instance by only doing financial writing. If you are somewhat diversified if one vertical dries up as business slows, you'll still have business streaming in from other verticals and can expand there. Plus, as a former boss once advised me very wisely, "The economy is cyclical, so plan accordingly. If you bust your butt and work as hard as you can in the boom times, you won't feel the cut as much when business slows. In other words, you'll make extra now, but the cut will bring you down to an amount that many are settling for now. Which in a recession will be a blessing." |
| UGoGirl | Posted – 1/17/2008 2:00:13 PM | show profile foodlit, I know... you've got your hands over your ears, eyes looking anywhere but straight ahead, and saying "la la la... I can't HEAR you..." |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/17/2008 2:17:22 PM | show profile What a pessimist attitude UGOGIRL, I feel sorry for you. You can choose to let a recession run you over, which you apparently prefer, or you step out of the way and prepare for it. I'd rather be prepared personally. But if you prefer to dwell in misery, go for it. |
| Cyrus | Posted – 1/17/2008 4:15:10 PM | show profile hiring Foodlit, I'm curious what industries these companies that are hiring like crazy are in? Personally, I don't experience that happening from an economic/statistical standpoint anywhere in the NYC metro area. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| foodlit | Posted – 1/17/2008 4:59:56 PM | show profile Sure, e-commerce companies are hot, technology in general, biotech, financial services and advertising/search engine marketing agencies. Within that space, I see marketing and content/media related roles, but I do recognize that it's a different market than magazines/newspapers. |
| catlondon | Posted – 1/17/2008 5:49:25 PM | show profile Foodlit: Financial services are hiring? Perhaps they're hiring the thousands laid off or about to be laid off from Countrywide, Citigroup (where an MBA friend of mine who was a first year associate just lost her job--estimates are they will lay off 45,000), Capital One, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley---I mean there's virtually no good news out of financial services right now as they all take their massive write-downs of the subprime mortgage losses and the fact that less risky borrowers are also defaulting. American Express just warned for 2008. So you seem to be at odds with news coming out daily from the 4th quarter earnings of financial services companies. |
