How to get the best from your freelancers - includes related articles

As editors examine their 1992 budgets, the consequences of the industry's recessionary mood are all too evident. More and more editors are facing reduced freelance budgets and, at the same time, staff cuts and hiring freezes--even when ad pages are not down signficantly.

When Jan Bresnick joined the 92,000-circulation New Jersey Monthly two years ago as editor, she faced precisely that situation: three fewer editorial staffers and a 30 percent cut in her freelance budget. How did she cope? "I have economized by having my staff work on research-intensive service pieces that I was paying freelancers dearly for," says Bresnick. "When I assign these stories to freelancers, I make sure that the staff, which includes interns, helps keep costs down by producing sidebars or doing preliminary factfinding."

There are also other solutions to the problems posed by lean-and- mean budgets. Here are some of the strategies savvy editors have devised to help them cope with financial restrictions while still producing a quality magazine.

Compare staff against freelance

If you have never taken the time to figure out whether it costs you more to have a particular type of article done in-house or by a freelancer, get out your calculator. If a staff writer is producing 10 feature stories a year and you're paying a salary of $30,000 plus 40 percent more in benefits and taxes, each story is costing you $4,200. If you are confident that you can get the same quality of work from freelancers at half the cost, you may want to cut back in-house staff and reallocate the money to the freelance budget.

Or it may work the other way around. AutoWeek editor Matt De-Lorenzo was able to justify the cost of adding a staff copy editor by bringing in-house a magazine annual that had traditionally been assembled by freelancers. "Once I realized that the cost of paying freelancers equaled a salary plus benefits, I hired a new person who doubles as a copy editor on our weekly magazine," says De-Lorenzo, whose magazine, a Crain Communications publication, reaches 270,000 auto enthusiasts. That, in turn, freed up other staff members to write.

Use subject-expert writers

Editors whose magazines feature technical or highly specialized subjects need writers who know the field inside out. "Sure you can save money by using neophyte writers who are not knowledgeable about the subject but the rewrite costs you in the end," says Peter Ogle, editor of Diagnostic Imaging, a Miller Freeman publication whose 30,000 readers are primarily radiologists.

Ogle's philosophy is to try to convert his freelancers (all of whom have a medical or health-care writing background) into contributing editors and ultimately into staff members. "Writing for our magazine requires subject expertise, and as our freelancers become more proficient, they become more valuable, so it's in my best interest to cultivate them and develop their loyalty," he says.

Longevity's editor in chief Rona Cherry also believes in dealing with experienced health and medical writers. "We need writers who are sensitive to the thinking of the medical establishment and who can turn in sophisticated, well-reported pieces," she explains.

Cherry launched Longevity for General Media two-and-a-half years ago; its circulation has since climbed to 350,000. Cherry, however, does not have the luxury of a large staff. Her salaried staff numbers eight (including herself). Nine part-time, freelance editors assist in producing the monthly issues that average a total of 100 pages. Using experienced writters saves time and money, she says. "We have fewer kills and there is less back and forth needed between writers and editors."

Negotiate long-term agreements

When you find good wrters who understand your audience, consider putting them under contract or on retainer. It will make your life easier because you are more likely to get quality work without heavy supervision. You may even save money, since you can often negotiate a lower per-article fee if you can guarantee a writer a set amount of work.

Pay by the story

The poster magazines that are a staple of Whittle Communications require a keen understanding of the readership and an ability to write clever, pithy copy. Whittle Educational Network editor in chief Bill Gubbins has found that establishing long-term commitments with some of the writers who work on Big Picture (delivered to 12,000 elementary schools) and Connections (in 5,000 high schools) is just plain good business sense.

"With specialized publications like our school poster magazines, you cannot just call a freelancer and expect to have him or her get it right the first or even the second time around," says Gubbins.

Paying writers on a per-word basis is probably the most common form of compensation, but not necessarily the smartest for the magazine. "Writers have become much tougher negotiators and want to be paid for anything they perceive as extra work or extra words," says Longevity's Cherry. She recalls, for example, one freelancer who sent an invoice for $27 above the agreed-upon fee because the published story ran 27 words longer than the word length specified in the contract.

A per-story fee tends to obviate this type of dispute. PJ (Personnel Journal) editor Allan Halcrow has found that a two-tier payment system--one price for shorter stories that do not require a lot of research and a second for longer, more complicated feature stories--works well. "It saves time and energy by preventing arguments over word count and allows me to forecast how many stories I can afford with my budget," says Halcrow, whose magazine, owned by ACC Communications, reaches 30,000 human-resource professionals.

Increase your freelance rates

It may run counter to your instincts, but paying a little more is an enlightened approach when you need strong, attention-getting features.

Bresnick at New Jersey Monthly increased the word rate paid to freelancers from 50 cents to as much as $1. "I'm willing to pay to get at least one 'gem' piece per issue, like the feature on the Miss America contest by Julie Johnson that ran in our September 1991 issue," says Bresnick.

To balance the extra cost, Bresnick runs more staff-written pieces and has also cut the length of features from 5,000 to 3,500 words.

Diagnostic Imaging's Ogle boosted his retainer rates after losing a key freelance contributor. "Like most editors, my inclination is to be frugal, but I did some soul-searching and decided that it was in my long-term best interests to pay people better," he says.

It's not just a matter of altruism to let your freelancers know they're valued; it's smart management, say magazine editors who have been in the business long enough to observe that writers who don't feel appreciated don't stick around.

"I treat freelancers as an extension of my staff, and the benefit to me is that they develop a more personal stake in the magazine," says PJ editor Halcrow. He invites freelancers to attend conferences and also brings them to the magazine's Costa Mesa, California, offices to attend a company-sponsored awards program.

When Dan Okrent was editor of New England Monthly, he would on occasion invite some of his best freelancers to story meetins to make them feel closer to the magazine and more part of the team. "It also generated some good story ideas that in all likelihood wouldn't have made their way to the magazine otherwise," he says.

If assigning has been cut back because the editorial page budget has shrunk, it's critical to let your favorite freelancers know you have not forgotten them. Paul Scanlon, the assistant managing editor at GQ, says, "I'm making an effort to maintain relationships with my freelancers because I want them to be there for me when our editorial pages pick up."

In addition to letting writers know what's happening at the magazine, Scanlon keeps in touch by phone and encurages freelancers to call him to stay in touch even if they're not at work on a story for him.

The magazine business is built on relationships, and the more effort you put into building those relationships with your freelancers, the more smoothly--and economically--your own efforts will go. To maintain quality in an era of tight budgets, the development of a loyal coterie of freelance writers is one of the best investments you can make.

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