Blurred Keys

Freelancing and the art of pitching

Journalism is often described as a trade, but freelancing is more like an art. Or at least the process of pitching to editors is an art form.

Adam Maguire talks about the it here, following up on the boards.ie News & Media thread on the same subject here. While below are letters from the NUJ's magazine,  the Journalist, shows a few different views on the issue...

NUJ's 'Journalist' magazine goes online

The National Union of Journalists’ magazine, Journalist, has gone online, with at least the April edition only being distributed in digital form.

While the publication was previously only posted to NUJ members, it can now be viewed at thejournalist.org.uk.

A PDF version is also downloadable, and is designed for printing in A4.

NUJ to run media convergence in Ireland forum after Irish Delegate Conference

NUJ focus on media convergence in Ireland at their IEC forum in October, it's open to all union members.

The forum will follow the NUJ's Irish Delegate Conference.

Its speakers will include Len Mulholland MoC Guardian Newspapers Chapel; Eanna O Caoilli, FoC, ireland.com chapel; and Eamon Ward, photographer, Clare People, the chair is Patrick Kinsella from the communications section of Dublin City University.

It is set to start at 2.30pm on Saturday, October 20, in the Tullamore Court Hotel. For further information on the event, or for booking inquires, email info@nuj.ie.

Members' books exhibition

Also at the Irish Biennial Delegate Conference on October 19 to 20, to mark the union's centenary, the NUJ with Midland Books are set to display an exhibition of books by Irish NUJ members.

If you wish to be included send one non-returnable to Seamus Dooley, NUJ, Spencer House, Spencer Row, Dublin 1.

NUJ release Irish conference agenda

The NUJ have released the preliminary agenda for the Irish Biennial Delegate Conference, which takes place in October.

Issues highlighted in the current agenda include pay and working conditions, the use of freelance journalists as “bogus self-employed contributors”, reporting guidelines, threats to journalism, the Freedom of Information Act, and the merging of the roles of photographer and reporter.

Irish NUJ branches have until Friday September 14 to submit amendments to motions. The preliminary agenda can be viewed in full here (Word).

Green light for controversial Drogheda deal

The NUJ has given the green light to a deal that will see improved standards for reporters at the Drogheda Independent, but freelance photographers say it is likely to lead to less work for professional photographers.

Drogheda photographers are “furious” at NUJ, Drogheda Independent deal

Drogheda photographers are “furious” at an agreement put forward between the NUJ and the IN&M owned Drogheda Independent, according to EPUK.org.

The NUJ’s Irish Executive Council are due to decide today to accept or reject the deal.

According to the Editorial Photographers site, the agreement will see that all staff journalists at the paper must be union members and will also include pay rises, in return the newspaper gets the clause that photography will be a part of a reporter’s job.

Freelance NUJ photographers are worried that the result will be that they will get less or no work from the Drogheda Independent, which currently pays less then the NUJ’s recommended minimum rates.

“Everybody supports the Drogheda Independent Chapel in their negotiations but the agreement, as it is written, will undermine journalists and should not be endorsed by a Union that purports to represent freelancers” EPUK.org quotes Alan Murphy, Dublin-based freelance photographer and NUJ member.

Murphy goes on to question if the union wants to continue to represent freelance photographers.

“The agreement contains provisions allowing selected, trained reporters to use digital photographic equipment. Implementation of this clause will be monitored by a joint union/management Working Party,” said Seamus Dooley NUJ Irish Secretary.

The union says that not carrying out the agreement see the new work practices going thought without benefits gained in negotiations.

EPUK points out that what is striking here is not the action by the newspaper but the endorsement by the NUJ. The new NUJ Code of Conduct removes previous mention of reporters not doing photographers’ jobs.

The newspaper says that it will not simply be handing out digital cameras to all staff, and refers to improvements to in cameras on mobile phones.

Although, to the best of Blurred Keys’ reasonably tech and photographic knowledge, the newspaper’s claim that cameras on phones are “comparable” professional equipment a few years ago is a vast overstatement at best. And the vast majority of camera phones are of poor quality.

Photographers are said to have found out about the current deal, not from the Dublin branch of the NUJ, but from irishphotographers.ie. (Vie Greenslade)