| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: traveling...or, not? |
Topic: traveling...or, not?
| Author | Message |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/12/2008 2:27:21 PM | show profile So, I have this one magazine I write for that is willing to send me all over for stories. I love it because I love to travel. In fact, I have been living in fear of them suddenly saying "Oops, no budget for travel anymore." But the exec ed keeps encouraging it. I come to learn that there are writers for them who absolutely *dont* like to travel. I was shocked. Who doesn't like to travel? At any rate, it makes me think I'm adding real value with my willingness to travel. I'm just curious, is it rare for a writer to be willing to travel for a story? I was thinking it was rare for a magazine to send a writer off somewhere, but maybe not? Bear in mind this is a national magazine published by one of the big houses. |
| Sam Waynewright | Posted – 5/12/2008 3:05:24 PM | show profile traveling or not Traveling is a bit like pancakes. It least for me. If you only do it several times a year, both seem quite yummy. But if you get to the point where you are traveling every month, especially on long haul 8-18 hour flights, the gloss tends to fade pretty fast. Also if you have a heavy work schedule on the ground, you often get to see very little of a place except for airports, taxi interiors and hotel lobbies. Of course, much of the charm depends on the destination. Bali, Honolulu or Hong Kong tend to trump St Louis, Newark or Baltimore. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/12/2008 3:22:05 PM | show profile Well, yes, I do all that. I travel on average twice a month (almost always to places I want to go). It can be wearing but I still love it. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/12/2008 3:31:37 PM | show profile Traveling for business is a lot different than traveling for pleasure. It's not always fun. You don't always go to interesting places. Even if you do go to interesting players, sometimes you have family obligations that don't allow you to add any sightseeing to the trip. I've had trips which were just flying into a city, taking a taxi to someone's office for an interview and flying right out. I would have preferred doing it over the phone, but the magazine insisted. I was paid no extra money for traveling. And so really all I got out of traveling was having to work on my laptop in an uncomfortable airport and cramped plane, rather than in my office. Being willing to travel isn't all that big a deal. Lots of writers will do it, and your willingness to travel is unlikely to be a big selling point for you. |
| taetae | Posted – 5/12/2008 5:37:48 PM | show profile | email poster Can you share with me off the board maybe what magazine you write for. My boyfriend works for one of the airlines, so I travel for free. I'm always going away and would love to write about but can't seem to find an in. Can you give me a contact name? Thanks! |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/12/2008 5:48:58 PM | show profile good to know... That's kind of what I thought, that it's not a big thing. I'm not a travel newbie, I'm hip to the quick hits and the out-and-backs and the airline delays, family obligations, lonely hotel rooms. All that. Still, I like to travel. |
| seeattleme2 | Posted – 5/12/2008 9:05:42 PM | show profile some writers who don't like to travel are actually more afraid of flying than anything else, and they can't get to places as quickly on trains and buses and autos, etc. so they discourage assignments that involve travel. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 5/13/2008 5:16:36 PM | show profile In my heyday -- pre spouse and kids -- I would go on at least two or three editorial trips a month, most months, covering new-car launches, always to nice places and, at least back then, always a good time. Fast forward 10 years, two kids and two promotions, and the travel began to wear me down (not to mention the added stress on the family). After 911 and a move to freelancing it became genuinely tedious when I'd get the odd invite. With fewer and fuller flights in the air these days, it's downright annoying, especially in that time spent is essentially lost revenue for me (I don't do my best work on a laptop, if I have the room or the time to try it). This is not to knock travel--I remember when I was young and office-bound the idea of even getting out of the office to go to a trade show seemed exciting. But, yes, it's not for everyone, and those of us who've logged hundreds of thousands of miles in our lives can easily cop a "been there, done that" attitude and pass the trips along to someone who can appreciate them. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/14/2008 3:37:31 AM | show profile It's partly that. But it's also partly money. As a freelancer, I generally get a project fee. I get the same amount whether I spend an hour interviewing someone on the phone or spend eight hours traveling to them to do the interview. The busier you get, and the more you make per hour, the more you appreciate the real cost to you of traveling. If I can fgure out ways to avoid travel, it's literally making me more money, because I can spend the time I would be traveling doing stuff that generates income. --This is not to knock travel--I remember when I was young and office-bound the idea of even getting out of the office to go to a trade show seemed exciting. But, yes, it's not for everyone, and those of us who've logged hundreds of thousands of miles in our lives can easily cop a "been there, done that" attitude and pass the trips along to someone who can appreciate them.-- |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/14/2008 10:26:37 AM | show profile Well, that's a good point about maximizing profitability on each job. The travel I'm doing is only places I want to go - either I have friends and/or family there so the job is paying for a trip to see them, or I have other interests there I'm pursuing, or it's a place I've always wanted to go. Unless there's a secondary reason for making the trip I don't make it. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/14/2008 11:49:33 AM | show profile That's entirely different then. Basically, you aren't traveling for business then. You are getting a free trip from the magazine. --Well, that's a good point about maximizing profitability on each job. The travel I'm doing is only places I want to go - either I have friends and/or family there so the job is paying for a trip to see them, or I have other interests there I'm pursuing, or it's a place I've always wanted to go. Unless there's a secondary reason for making the trip I don't make it.-- |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/14/2008 12:48:50 PM | show profile Not exactly a "free trip" that's non business, because I am reporting and working hard while I'm there. But then I tack on an extra day or two for sightseeing, or plan to stay with friends and visit with them in the evenings. Sometimes I take the family (I pay for their expenses, of course). Yeah, if I weren't doing that I can see that travel would lose its luster fairly quickly. |
| RockinRonD | Posted – 5/14/2008 1:04:30 PM | show profile | email poster Given the state of affairs in the airline industry these days, why would anyone in their right mind want to travel for a story if they could use the phone or the internet? There isn't a magazine out there that could pay me enough for all the hassle involved in flying anywhere these days. In my younger days I took all kinds of trips for stories, travel pieces and others, but that seems like a century ago. Unless they're flying me first class, I don't wanna go. |
| df | Posted – 5/14/2008 2:21:13 PM | show profile I charge for travel time, a flat day rate. If it involves one overnight stay, its a day extra flat. two nights, I charge two travel days. thats stays the same if the trip is longer then two overnight stays. I consider it very common, and I am quite frankly shocked no one here mentions it. no wonder they send you all over the place, you are most lil;ey saving them a fortune. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/14/2008 2:44:09 PM | show profile I know that consultants do that but I have never heard of a journalist charging "travel fee." It's part of what I work into the story fee -- I charge more if it involves travel. |
| df | Posted – 5/14/2008 6:53:53 PM | show profile well as long as you charge for it. It really upsets me if people offer to put up freebies (see the post here.. I travel all the time, how can I give that away for free?) that kind of thinking is the end of making money for many and part of the reason for the bad pay some freelancer get. I did that as a journalist also, - matter of fact, i just continued to do so as a consultant, many consultants don't charge because they have aflat fee... - because if you are paid by the word, how do you charge more for travel? If you are a fast worker, per word is the best way to work. If you travel, it doesn't work that way any more. so I would charge the media outlet a day rate for the days I couldn't work on anything else because they were sending me to wherever. only fair. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/15/2008 8:33:55 AM | show profile I just charge a higher per-word rate if it's going to take me more time to do the story. But when I travel it's not like I'm spending every moment on that story, sometimes I'm reporting another story, or visiting friends, or whatever. I can't imagine charging a travel fee. I think my editors would laugh at me. |
| yourstruly | Posted – 5/15/2008 9:43:08 PM | show profile Travel is fun, but there is a price to pay. I'd often regret missing out on social engagements when I was out of town (once or twice a month), and also I couldn't keep a dog because I live alone and I wouldn't want to leave her in the kennel every time I had to go somewhere. I used to go mainly to conventions, which were often held in the same cities. It was fun, but you can only go to Las Vegas or San Diego so many times before it begins to get old. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/16/2008 2:33:16 AM | show profile | email poster There's all sorts of things that are amusing until you have a family -- I cite business travel among them. Flying is nowhere near as fun as it used to be, as other posters have pointed out. I had a preliminary interview with a trade mag looking for a writer to do profiles and he mentioned, with genuine shock, that other writers he'd talked to had told him the pieces could be done from a distance. I had to agree with him, that, for his purposes, that was the case. Now Rolling Stone writer's got to interview Mick in person, and I wouldn't miss that for the world. Given the chance ;) BOttom line, if it's not purely fun travel (and many writing flights seem to be either fly-in-fly-out or tread the conference floor) it really eats into what you make per hour, as Dribble wisely maintains. That said, give me a crisis to fly into and report on, and I'm there. I wanted to go to New Orleans to cover it for several mags I was doing related pieces for in the aftermath, and none could justify the expense. I would have driven it (just 8 hours away) for the experience, but between public health/safety issues and not finding a hotel within an hour's drive at the time plus having a book to finish, I decided not to. |
| writesonwater | Posted – 5/17/2008 9:55:41 AM | show profile hj |
