How to get the best from your freelancers - includes related article - Editorial

It's always smart to reward competence and a writer's depth of knowledge.

As editors cope with recession-conscious budgets, they are often still dealing with reduced freelance allotments. Here are some of the strategies savvy editors have devised to help them use freelancers wisely while still producing a quality magazine.

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 your in-house staff and reallocate the money to the freelance budget.

Or it may work the other way around. AutoWeek editor Matt DeLorenzo 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 DeLorenzo, whose magazine, a Crain Communications publication, reaches 270,000 auto enthusiasts. That, in turn, freed up other staff members, giving them time 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.

When you find good writers 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 for the story.

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.

Jan Bresnick, editor 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.

Treat freelancers as staff

"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 meetings 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 remembers.

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 encourages 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.

Five Ways to Save on Editorial

Even when you have to cut corners, you can still produce good copy. Here are some strategies that save money while keeping quality high:

* Use interns. Interns can be invaluable in assisting with fact-checking and research. Hundreds of would-be journalists are eager for experience. It pays to pay, though. Although experience is the best teacher, a paycheck helps cement the deal and win interns' loyalty.

* Hire contract editors. There is a lot of talent available on a per diem basis these days. But, as with interns, you need to work at building freelancers' loyalty and commitment so they are willing to put in extra hours when needed -- something that is easier to accomplish if you are not overly frugal.

* Have readers create copy. Well-designed reader surveys can make great reading. Pay for help in developing questions if the subject you are tackling demands expertise. Another possibility: Develop an interesting take on a seasonal or current-affairs phenomena and ask readers for their views or stories. When New Jersey Monthly ran a story called "True Romance," featuring stories of how readers met their lovers, it was so successful that it was optioned for TV.

* Reduce travel expenses. You can reduce staff travel expenses by developing good relationships with freelancers around the country. Another option: Ask meeting and conference organizers to send you papers, synopses of panel presentations, and a schedule of events rather than sending a staff member to attend and report back.

* Assign judiciously; kill less. There's no way to ensure an assignment's success, but if you provide a comprehensive assignment letter (with background materials and sources' names, when possible) and then ask the writer to check in with you or submit an outline before he or she begins writing, you can avert most first-draft disasters. With kill fees averaging 25 to 35 percent of the total article price, it's expensive to miss the mark.

Peggy Schmidt is a freelance writer located in New York City.

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