Mad Monbiot

September 29, 2011
George Monbiot

Geroge Monbiot, hosted on The Guardian

Guardian ecology columnist George Monbiot has listed his earnings and savings and said all journalists should do the same. I am not sure if he is just showing off about how much he earns – more than £60,000 from the Guardian – but he cannot be serious.

Journalists should feel no more compunction to reveal their earnings and savings than anyone else. And it would be a mountain of work for the many of us who are freelance and such scrambled data would prove meaningless. I’ll have a go at explaining why. Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in blogging, Chris, ethics, Journalism, Kate, Other freelances, Payment | Tagged , , , | Comments (23)

More please, Sir

January 14, 2011

Article in teh Journalist called Freelance: the musicalAn email discussion with freelances today about stagnant rates prompted me to dig out an article I wrote more than a decade ago on how to get a rate rise – based on the musical Oliver. It appeared in The Journalist in December 1999. I have reproduced it below.

I was on the way to speak at the London Freelance Branch when I learned that Humphrey Evans was speaking on the same subject. I knew Humphrey would say the same as me, so I needed to say it differently A call to my musical-mad friend resulted in this presentation hastily written on the train. Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in challenges, Chris, Journalism, NUJ, Payment, problems | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comment (1)

Late pay gripes

February 12, 2010

This week, instead of being a journalist and trainer, I spent at least a day dealing with late paying clients. It was mainly AOL, which, until today, had not paid a single freelance contributor, despite us working since December.

My company has now been paid more than £10,000 by some clients and we have remittance advices in from others so will be paid by Tuesday. But as of today we have more than £21,000 of invoices outstanding, of which nearly £2,400 is already overdue. That is me lending companies money. Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in accounts, challenges, Other freelances, Payment, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Banking on me

February 4, 2010

Banks may not be lending much money right now but I certainly am. I reckon by the end of this week I will have about £28,500 of invoices outstanding. That is my business lending money to other businesses. And interest free. Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in accounts, challenges, Chris, Journalism, Payment, problems, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (5)

Blog or bog off

December 31, 2009

In the past few days I have worked from my Macbook using mobile internet connections from:

  • The top and bottom decks of double decker buses
  • standing up on a London commuter train
  • Seated on a Virgin train
  • On the overground section on a London tube
  • In a Starbucks and a Pret
  • Standing on Oxenholme and Lewisham stations

I have used a mix of my Vodafone dongle and my BT Openworld account. And that is in addition to several other people’s home wireless broadband networks. Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in blogging, challenges, Chris, Journalism, Other freelances, Payment, problems, Software, Technical problems, web, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Late payers

October 14, 2009

Yesterday my business had £15,344.22 of invoices outstanding, of which £2,449.50 was over 30 days old. We had an overdraft of £911.31.

Today we have £9,525.22 of invoices outstanding of which £1,529.50 is overdue. And we have money in the bank.

Read More »

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By whealie | Posted in accounts, challenges, Payment, problems, Work | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)