Digest 1/03/2022

We're entering 2022 sharing your media & freelancing resolutions plus some of our own - including letting RTO go.

Given that last week was a haze of OOO messages, all-day pajamas, and scouring your nearest pharmacy for BinaxNOW, I thank God not many of us were doing anything that could constitute “media news.” So instead, I called on fellow Study Hallers to share the freelancing resolutions they’re hoping to achieve this new year, and drew up some of my own for the industry as a whole in 2022. If you don’t leave feeling inspired to write the next great Bad Art Friend, then I hope you’re at least inspired to get through the rest of your inbox.

 

SOME NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS, FROM FELLOW STUDY HALLERS

— “I want to ask for more money for over half the articles that are accepted. Worst they can say is no, right?”

— “I want to spend more time on developing pitches (including doing initial research and reporting), with the goal of being able to pitch multiple stories to various publications simultaneously.”

— “I’m hoping to diversify my income, preferably by getting into speaking gigs.”

— “25 literary rejections! I’ve found if I go for rejections I submit more and the inevitable rejections sting less.”

— “I hesitate to set a freelance goal/resolution because as usual I worry I won’t achieve it, but if I had to choose, my vague 2022 goal would be to write more and for more reputable publications. To have someone I admire share my work.”

— “I’m aiming to find a solid anchor gig on the copywriting or branded content writing side of things so that I can focus my pitches on the stories that matter most to me.”

— “I’ve been trying to set some resolutions about work-life balance, because I’ve realized in the past that my goal-setting about placing pieces in certain pubs or selling X number of stories left me feeling either disappointed for not achieving the goal, or having an arrival fallacy moment if I did. So this year I’m reaching for the stars and trying to take one real walk a day.”

 

SOME RESOLUTIONS FOR MEDIA, FROM ME

— Let people pay to read a single story. One time I rented the criminally underrated movie 2015 Spy starring Melissa McCarthy to watch when my sister was visiting. The next time she visited, we rented it again. Then on a lonely night some months later, I thought to myself: You know what movie I’d like to watch? Spy! At that point, my Apple TV presented me with a message, pointing out that I had rented this movie multiple times before, and that if I wanted to, I could just buy it. So I did. I see no reason why this extremely personal anecdote should not apply broadly to paywalled content  — if I’ve paid for an individual article from your outlet enough times, I bet I’ll finally subscribe.

— Lay people off like they’re humans. While I know most layoff decisions come down to names and numbers on a spreadsheet, we’re still talking about real people’s financial and healthcare situations, so do them the courtesy of not letting hours go by between the company-wide email announcing layoffs and the calendar invites. Or locking them out of Slack before they even know what’s happening. Or mentioning TikTok, in any way, for any reason, in the same email as the news that a swath of lower-level company employees have lost their jobs (while the people high up who keep making the poor business decisions that lead to layoffs continue to rake in a salary).

— Imagine a post-aggregation future. Did you know Britney Spears unfollowed her sister on Instagram? It would be hard not to, because Elle, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast, E! Online, Page Six, The Daily Mail, and The Independent have so far all written the story, which consists entirely of the ten words in the prior sentence. I spent four years writing these stories, which is why I can’t believe we’re all still writing these stories. But this coverage is representative of how companies realized they could pay people less to write more by significantly decreasing the quality of the content. A page view on a 300-word story carries the same weight as a page view on a 2000-word feature — at least, to the sales team. As the industry (hopefully) shifts away from the advertising model, we can (hopefully) start leaving this low-hanging fruit unplucked, and focus more on the most thoughtful and interesting thing to say rather than what’s easiest.

— Put the pay in the job description. This is something Writers of Color has been doing the work to make transparent for years, and something New York City just began requiring. Every job I’ve ever had only disclosed the salary once the job was being offered, meaning I (and anyone else in this position) was missing some of the most pertinent information about the position while being expected to perform multiple interviews and edit tests.

— Stop trying to make mandatory RTO happen. I say this as someone who very much misses going to an office — but I also say this as someone who spent the past six-plus months covering the stops and starts of an industry failing to resume “normal” during a pandemic. If you’re not watching the RTO date continue to get pushed back, you’re fighting with your employer about the fact that they won’t budge theirs. It’s clear the future of journalism isn’t 9-5 offices, so why not drop the return mandates and convoluted rotating schedules and embrace media’s flexible, hybrid future? If you want to go to the office, go to the office. If you don’t, don’t — and don’t force your employees to. End of plan. Pay me six figures.