Jump to content
 

Magazine article payment rates


2ManySpams
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

One for the editorial team... Has BRM recently significantly reduced what they pay for articles? I ask because having just received payment for the April article, the equivalent £/page (or even the total for the whole article) is now well below what the other mags have previously paid.

 

If it's a club or society magazine you obviously expect nothing in return but Warners use our writing purely to generate a profit. Whilst gaining cash isn't the main driver for writing for magazines, it's great to see your work in print, every little helps to fund the hobby.

 

I can understand payments varying depending upon the state of the article being handed over. A reduced rate would be valid IMO if the article needed to be completely re-written or very heavily edited. I'd also expect the payment to be higher if good quality photos were provided by the writer which saves BRM the cost of sending Mr York out.

 

If BRM have taken the decision to reduce payments I can't help but think this may backfire. It's certainly making me think if it's worth the time and effort to write for BRM again, especially as other mags are now more financially attractive (why go to the lowest bidder?).

 

It will be interesting to hear what others think about magazine rates and perhaps identify the current comparative rates. Is this just penny pinching by BRM or an industry wide move?

 

To start the ball rolling the last article for BRM worked out at around £10 per page. Very little editing on the article was carried out and Mr York took the photos. I will have to check records but other publications have previously generated in excess of £25 per page.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Why don't you contact Warners direct ?

I will be writing to them (a conversation has already been had with a representative) but also wanted to see what the wider picture was.

 

I think it's also worth letting others who may be contemplating writing know what to expect.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I will be writing to them (a conversation has already been had with a representative) but also wanted to see what the wider picture was.

 

I think it's also worth letting others who may be contemplating writing know what to expect.

 

 

I don't, I think it's up to the individual to decide between themselves and the magazine what their recompense is.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I don't, I think it's up to the individual to decide between themselves and the magazine what their recompense is.

 

From discussions with others, the practice seems to be that BRM just make a payment. Knowing upfront would certainly be better and in future I'll definitely be asking for confirmation in advance. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

RM pays £40 per page, for Layout Articles or Weathering type articles, and that is with or without Steve Flint coming up from Devon to do the pics.

 

I think Hornby Mag and Model Rail have set article rates.

Edited by Andrew P
Link to post
Share on other sites

I would expect all magazines to be similar. If BRM have reduced their rate then they will soon find they are getting less quality articles. Must confess I have never agreed a rate in advance or written for BRM. RM and Hornby mag seem to be fine and I am always happy with the remuneration which helps towards expenses. BRM’s £10per page (if it is correct) seems to be something of an insult and zero pounds per page might cause less offence. I’m sure staff written pages cost a lot more.

Edited by Chris M
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

If I'm being paid for anything I find out in advance what it is, if it's not what I was expecting or think is the 'going rate' then I don't do it.

 

Based on recent experience I would strongly advocate this approach to others thinking of writing for a magazine.

 

I've written for all the main railway modelling mags in the past and the 'industry' very much ran on a gentlemen's agreement that there were set rates per page that were paid depending upon if you supplied photos or not. I've just looked through previous payment records and for an article needing a mag photographer (typically a Railway of the Month type) the rate was at least £25/page. On articles where I provided photos this was up to £50/page. Not something you'll ever make a living off but the cash was very welcome and went towards the next layout purchase. In all previous cases it seemed 'fair'. The current BRM rate seems to be heading more towards a cynical 'how little can we get away with paying' type approach. 

 

As I said in the opening post, if this is a new approach then I suspect it could backfire. Judging from a bit of off-thread research with others who have had articles published recently (edit: and the figures that Andy P stated), those shopping around for a better rate will certainly find it elsewhere. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

RM pays £40 per page, for Layout Articles or Weathering type articles, and that is with or without Steve Flint coming up from Devon to do the pics.

 

I think Hornby Mag and Model Rail have set article rates.

 

I think that's what we got for the Treneglos article in Railway Modeller back in 2008 Andy and that was with Steve Flint taking photos.

For comparison, the 2017 Black Country Blues article in MRJ came in at £50/pg and we provided the photos. 

 

A significant difference to the 2018 BRM rate! 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Not all magazines pay for articles especially if they arrange for the taking of photographs and have an in house writer that creates the article on the basis of for example of a telephone interview. It is of course different if you write the article itself and or provide photographs.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Not all magazines pay for articles especially if they arrange for the taking of photographs and have an in house writer that creates the article on the basis of for example of a telephone interview. It is of course different if you write the article itself and or provide photographs.

 

 

We open the garden for charity and over the years have been in about a dozen garden magazines with large features (average 6+ pages in full colour, largest was 12 pages) we've never received a penny.

Bauer (? -  used to be Emap) did send a photographer who took some lovely pictures, and we were sent copies of those not used in the feature to use in our advertising.  In most cases we provided either notes or several telephone calls and the feature was written by a staff writer. 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Of course, all this magazine article income is declared to the relevant authorities isn't it?

 

Mike.

Of course Mike, after being offset against expenditure (in which case I think you'd actually be on a negative balance)! Certainly wouldn't make any sort of living out of it. ;-p

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

We open the garden for charity and over the years have been in about a dozen garden magazines with large features (average 6+ pages in full colour, largest was 12 pages) we've never received a penny.

Bauer (? -  used to be Emap) did send a photographer who took some lovely pictures, and we were sent copies of those not used in the feature to use in our advertising.  In most cases we provided either notes or several telephone calls and the feature was written by a staff writer. 

 

Considering what you're doing was for charity it's a pity Bauer couldn't have been persuaded to make a donation to the cause but it sounds like you went in fully eyes open knowing you'd receive nothing. At the very least you got copies of the photos for your use which was obviously a benefit to you. 

 

The difference though is that model railway magazines have historically operated on a different basis. perhaps this was unique to our little world but nether the less that's how it is/was.   

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Considering what you're doing was for charity it's a pity Bauer couldn't have been persuaded to make a donation to the cause but it sounds like you went in fully eyes open knowing you'd receive nothing. At the very least you got copies of the photos for your use which was obviously a benefit to you. 

 

The difference though is that model railway magazines have historically operated on a different basis. perhaps this was unique to our little world but nether the less that's how it is/was.   

 

I should have clarified a bit more.

 

We wouldn't accept the article until they included the opening times and dates for the opening as well as details of the covering charity (NGS) and most would already be giving free advertising space to the NGS.

Bauer went a bit further by giving us the photographs to use (all superb quality) with a letter of authority that released the copyright to us.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I should have clarified a bit more.

 

We wouldn't accept the article until they included the opening times and dates for the opening as well as details of the covering charity (NGS) and most would already be giving free advertising space to the NGS.

Bauer went a bit further by giving us the photographs to use (all superb quality) with a letter of authority that released the copyright to us.

So free advertising and material to use in future publicity was a sort of payment in lieu. At the end of the day you were presumably happy with the deal.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

If a business generating around £100k a month in revenue pays out somewhere around £3k for its entire core product it would appear at first sight that someone is getting a very good deal.

 

£3000 a month.

 

That's a bargain for Articles, photographs, Premises, IT infrastructure, Staff, energy expenses, pensions, printing, materials, tax and the myriad of other things that get paid out. I think if you doubled it and stuck a zero on the end you might be approaching the monthly costs of producing a magazine.  Not forgetting that Warners don't get the cover price but a % of it after the marketing and wholesalers and distributors have had their cut.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Not all magazines pay for articles especially if they arrange for the taking of photographs and have an in house writer that creates the article on the basis of for example of a telephone interview. It is of course different if you write the article itself and or provide photographs.

I've heard from others that (Model Rail?) now operates a model where they employ a staff writer to 'interview' the layout owner, send a photographer round, and therefore pays nothing.

 

I've spent a big chunk of the last 15 years having technical writing and bid writing as part / all of my job. Being on that side of the fence, and receiving text from a multitude of staff, I'm fully aware that not everybody has the experience and capability to prepare good written text. In the roles I've had you quickly work out who you can depend on to write a very good first draft, which requires very little tweaking, and whose work will require a complete redraft or in some cases revert to getting the info by undertaking an 'interview'.

 

On this experience I can only imagine that some of the articles submitted for consideration to magazines are fairly poor and require a lot of re-work. I can understand therefore why a magazine may choose to use a staff writer to draft the article from a telephone 'interview'.

 

I think there's definitely a place for this approach as it gives consistency of content and tone of voice but the downsides are that every article starts to sound the same and you can loose the personality of the layout builder in the article.

 

It is an open market though and, if some mags pay nothing or very little and others are more generous, then I think there will be a drift of content towards the mags that pay. Of course if you want your layout in a mag but want to put little effort in (writing and photos) then the telephone 'interview' and somebody else drafting the article will suit you very nicely.

 

It will be interesting to see how this approach (which is very much the one eMap use for their technical publications) goes down in a hobby environment. They are definitely off my list of people I'd be happy to do an article for.

 

It's an interesting area of discussion and it certainly looks like the age old model of £xx/page is changing in some publications. The hobby is certainty becoming more commercial but in doing so, and failing to adequately appreciate the value of peoples' time, is it starting to loose goodwill and potential article contributors?

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

£3000 a month.

 

That's a bargain for Articles, photographs, Premises, IT infrastructure, Staff, energy expenses, pensions, printing, materials, tax and the myriad of other things that get paid out. I think if you doubled it and stuck a zero on the end you might be approaching the monthly costs of producing a magazine.  Not forgetting that Warners don't get the cover price but a % of it after the marketing and wholesalers and distributors have had their cut.

 

But, as you well know, all those costs listed are overheads - The procurement of material to form the main product is not.

 

You defeat your own argument by claiming the amount paid to contributors is even less of a percentage of the total cost of the production, and I was not referring specifically to Warners - at the payment rates quoted BRM would have to be like the Yellow Pages!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the main reasons I like RM is that most of the content is written by enthusiastic amateurs rather than staff writers. This gives many different styles and provides different slants on things. In reality I expect most of us would be happy to receive no payment in return for publication, after all we (including me) happily help some of these companies to make a profit by running our layouts for free at exhibitions run by magazines. Rather like taking a layout to an exhibition where exhibitors get expenses which cover some of the costs of the weekend, I consider any payment for an item in a magazine is a nominal contribution towards the costs of preparing the layout or other work to a standard where it can be published rather than a fee for writing an article.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Some years ago, I had a couple of articles published in BRM and was very pleasantly surprised at the cheques which arrived. It was probably as good a rate per hour for the time I put into it as I have ever had.

 

I have had a couple of articles published recently and reckoned that the rate per page was around 30% of what I received previously.

 

As I am one of those people who think they can earn a living from the hobby, it was a bit of a let down as I had hoped for quite a bit more. I should have asked the question first but based on previous experience, I didn't feel the need.

 

It still represented a reasonable hourly rate based on the time spent but if other magazines are paying more, it will certainly influence me for any future submissions of articles.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...