出版与作家生涯2019newrepublic.com
新闻业对兼职自由撰稿人的依赖
Journalism's dependence on part-time freelancers
导读
这篇文章讨论新闻业对兼职自由撰稿人的依赖：稿酬低、按篇结算，使写作变成只有少数有经济后盾的人才能坚持的“零工”。对写作者来说，它值得一读，因为它直接回答了“靠写作能不能活”这个现实问题，也提醒我们：写作机会的分配其实取决于时间、金钱和人脉，而不只取决于才华。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先算清楚“写一篇能拿多少、花多久”，再决定要不要把写作当主业，不要只凭热情入场。
- 02
自由撰稿的真正门槛往往是人脉和现金流，并非文笔；如果没有经济后盾，就要提前设计好靠什么收入养写作。
- 03
免费写稿换“作品集”之前，先判断它能带来什么具体回报，比如稳定约稿、署名位置或行业入口。
- 04
把写作当成长期能力来经营：即使主业不是写作，持续每天写也能积累可迁移的表达能力，再择机变现。
HN 评论精选
自由写作很难养活自己；更可行的路径是先用别的收入养活自己，再反过来资助写作。
我本科学创意写作，但看到 MFA 的出路像金字塔骗局，就转去做网页开发。几年后我负责一个本地泄密平台的技术部分，后来更多参与调查和写作，因为发现新闻业真正缺的不是技术，而是做调查的时间和钱。之后我转成全职自由调查记者，个人层面很有成就感，也确实改善了别人的生活，但经济上是一场灾难，到现在还在还债；快到三十岁、准备结婚时，我没法再说服自己继续。后来我回去写代码，现在做区块链的全职工作，挺喜欢。我怀念调查报道，空闲时还会帮活动人士朋友做点研究。我的打算是：等技术工作攒够钱，自己办一个小型调查媒体，付钱请别人做研究和写作——在新闻业经济状况这么糟的情况下，用科技行业的收入补贴一份刊物，比自己穷着硬扛更有影响力。
pemulis查看英文原文
I majored in creative writing, but the MFA career path looked like a pyramid scheme, so I switched to web development. After working in the field for several years, I started running the technical side of a local leaks platform called BayLeaks. (It's defunct now, but was cutting edge at the time, basically the third SecureDrop instance after The New Yorker and Wired.) I got more involved in the research and writing side, since it turned out the big problem in journalism wasn't a lack of technology, it was a lack of time and money to do research. Eventually, I made the switch to full-time freelance investigative reporting. It was hugely rewarding at a personal level and made a positive impact on people's lives, but it was also a financial catastrophe that I'm still paying for. I could no longer justify as I was approaching my 30s and planning to get married. I switched back to programming, eventually landed my current full-time job doing blockchain stuff, and really enjoy it. I miss investigative reporting, but still do a bit of research for activist friends in my free time. Eventually I'd like to make enough from my technology work to become the publisher of a small investigative outlet where I could pay other people to research and write. Given the dire economics of journalism, making a bunch of tech money to subsidize a publication would be more impactful than slogging away in poverty on my own. There's a lot of evidence that the costs of government go up as local journalism recedes, because there is no one to objectively report on waste, corruption, and inefficiency. I think that tax dollars should be set aside to fund journalism, since journalism ultimately saves money for everyone. I don't see any other big solutions that would solve this systemic problem. We're moving to a state where only the rich can afford good information and everyone else is in the dark.
低稿酬的真正代价是人才流失：有能力的写作者被挤走，公共讨论的质量随之下降。
自由撰稿人被低薪压榨当然可惜，但我更担心这件事对文化的伤害。报酬这么低，很多有潜力的记者就会去做别的；而最有潜力的人往往最有能力找到更赚钱的工作。结果就是新闻业只剩下业余爱好者或能力较弱的人。理想状态下，新闻应该承担文化上的协调功能：传播重要事实、开启重要讨论。如果这件事由能力较弱、或被贫困分散注意力的人来做，问题就很大，好比发现自己的大脑营养不足、只能低效运转。至于作者本人，我首先想到的是：如果他能稳定给这些刊物带来价值二十万美元的流量，那他应该也能给自己网站带来相当一部分，并留下更高比例的收入。但反过来说，如果这只是一篇随便发在别人博客上的文章，我会读吗？大概会，只要它上了 Hacker News 首页——可它能上首页吗？很难说。消息令人困惑又沉重，这个早上开局不容易。
ALittleLight查看英文原文
While it's certainly a shame that freelancers struggle with being underpaid - I'm more concerned with how this impoverishes the culture. If these jobs pay so poorly, it follows that many potential journalists will do something else instead. The best potential journalists will likely have the best chance of finding more lucrative careers. What this means is that we will be left with hobbyists or less capable people doing journalism. Ideally, journalism would serve a coordination function for the culture - spreading important facts and starting important discussions. If this task is being done by the less capable, or by those who are distracted by poverty, that seems problematic - like finding out your brain isn't getting enough nutrients and so will be operating at a deficit. For the author in particular, my first thoughts were that, if he could bring in two hundred thousand dollars worth of traffic consistently for the publications he writes for, then he should be able to bring in a sizable portion of that to his own website surely, and keep a higher percentage for himself. On the other hand, if this were a random article on someone's blog, would I have read it? Well, yes, probably so if it were on the front page of hackernews - but would it have got there? Hard to say. Confusing but grim news. Tough way to start the morning...
自由撰稿实质上要求社会资源和经济缓冲，工薪阶层、内向的写作者很难靠它立足。
如果你出身工薪阶层，又太内向、不擅长经营人脉，就别去做自由撰稿。我 2012 年毕业，正好赶上报纸大批倒闭。我的人脉很少，因为学校不是名校，他们都建议我趁年轻、能跑动去做自由撰稿。但在一个竞争极其激烈的行业里做自由记者，加上性格内向，加上人在德州，加上没有本州新闻名校（德州大学奥斯汀分校）的文凭，我等于是在打一场硬仗。和大多数想做记者的人不同，我没有有钱的父母在我当记者的那些年供我生活费。于是在“免费写稿、这是充实作品集的好机会”这类邀约之间，我最后去做了低技能的蓝领工作。后来一家小镇报纸雇了我，那比蓝领工作还糟，我只撑了大约三个月。五年过去，我现在写商业新闻：收入是我历来最高的，内容是真实且有影响力的，工作地点在大都市。如今自由撰稿是给作者那样有信托基金兜底的人准备的；工薪阶层、又不擅长玩人脉游戏的写作者，在这里没有位置。
newswriter99查看英文原文
If you're from the working class and too introverted to network properly, don't try freelancing. I got out of school in 2012 at the peak of newspapers bleeding to death. All my contacts (a small pool given my non-flagship university) suggested I freelance for a living because I was young and mobile. But trying to be a freelance reporter in a hyper-competitive industry PLUS being an introvert PLUS being based in Texas PLUS not having credentials from the state's major journalism school (University of Texas in Austin) meant I was in an uphill battle. Unlike most would-be journalists I didn't have rich parents to send me money while I played newspaper reporter. So between getting offers to write for free "a great chance to pad my clips" I ended up doing low-skill blue collar jobs. Eventually I got hired by a small-town newspaper in a city you never heard of. It was worse than the blue collar jobs. Lasted about three months. Fast forward five years and I write business news. It's more money than I've ever made, it's real, impactful content, and it's in a major metropolis. Freelancing these days is for trust-fund kiddos like the author of the story. There's no place for working-class writers who are too socially introverted to play the network game.
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