Copyright

• With fewer opportunities for steady employment in this undeniably bleak landscape, freelancing is becoming the new normal for prospective journalists.
• Squarely in the remit of the digital gig economy, freelancers can expect to “rise and grind” in this new reality.
• This was the main question driving our recent survey into the earnings, contracts and copyright of UK-based freelance journalists.

Funding and income

• Our respondents confirmed that they would hesitate to encourage a young person to become a freelancer nowadays given the limited prospects offered in the profession.
• Low levels of income for freelancers have been attributed to a range of complex factors surrounding new technologies and business models – particularly the move from physical print to digital media distribution.
• But our research suggests that big tech’s use of news content is just one (relatively small) factor among many affecting freelancers’ income.
• As a result, freelancers lose the capacity for future earnings through royalties or licensing fees for republications or adaptations of their work.

Who can be a journalist today?

• Inevitably, the result of an unlivable baseline income and tenuous working conditions is that there are limitations on who actually gets to be a freelance journalist.
• Our findings indicate that freelancers need to rely on other sources of income, either from another job or from a partner to support their career.
• This has created an expectation in the industry that everyone has an additional income, resulting in the “crowding out” of marginalised demographic groups.

This survey was commissioned by the UK Authors' Licensing and Collection Society in collaboration with the National Union of Journalists. The commissioners do not control the analysis of the findings.

• Broadcasters Greg James and Chris Smith were announced as the winners at the ALCS Annual Awards ceremony, held at the Goldsmiths' Centre in London on 22 February.
• On winning the prize, Greg and Chris said: "We're absolutely delighted and actually really rather shocked to receive this award, considering the other amazing nominees.
• National Literacy Trust Chief Executive Jonathan Douglas said: "I am thrilled to celebrate Chris Smith and Greg James as the winners of the Ruth Rendell Award this year.
• The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity that empowers children, young people, and adults with the literacy skills they need to succeed.

• The prize, worth £1,000, is an annual award for unpublished short stories between 2,000 to 4,000 words in length.
• Tom was presented with the prize at the ALCS Annual Awards ceremony in London on 22 February.
• The RSL is grateful to the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) for supporting this Prize for over a decade.
• Pritchett Short Story Prize was founded by the RSL in 1999 to commemorate the centenary of an author widely regarded as the finest English short story writer of the 20th century.

• The award was launched in 2016 by ALCS and the National Literacy Trust in honour of the best-selling crime author literacy advocate Ruth Rendell, who passed away in 2015.
• The winner of the 2024 Ruth Rendell Award will be announced at a reception at Goldsmiths' Centre in London on 22 February 2024.
• Greg is the host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, the loosely cricket-based podcast Tailenders and Radio 4's Rewinder.
• Chris has worked as a newsreader and presenter on radio stations including BBC Radio 1, where he met Greg.