CONFRONTING AUSTERITY · for freelancers (like accounting, taxation, etc.) 18 ☐ technical skills...

CONFRONTING AUSTERITY

(BETA-Version for Internal Distribution)

SURVEY

Financial and Employment Models in Journalism [in Times of Finance and Media

Crisis]

March, 20 2014 #EFJVienna © 2014 Andreas K. Bittner

Is there a way out of the crisis?

How to confront austerity, manage digital journalism, find new models of financing journalism and best practices.

What is the way forward?

.

Two versions: English / French

Two formats : / Online questionnaire

14 questions

Almost 50 items (in sub-questions)

2 open questions

2 questions for structural / statistical info

1 Ranking!

*Latest survey came in on March 17, latest addition on March 19

Please return the complete survey to [email protected] before 20 February*

March, 20 2014 © 2014 Andreas K. Bittner #EFJVienna

Overwhelming response*

Answers from 42 affiliates (from 61 organisations) ≈ 70% 13 Online questionnaires

27 Word documents (via e-mail)

2 PDF (1 handwritten and scanned!)

9 female colleagues filled in the questionnaire ≈ 21%

On methodology – snapshot, not representative (for a union / the EFJ)

indicating trends, common challenges (less best practice)

* Managing Change 2010/11: 25 responses, mainly handwritten

Georgien

Färöer

2

2 2 2

3

2

2

2

Thank you / Merci / Danke

Thanks to – virtual work*

* New challenge to EFJ, affiliates, unions, networks ....

THE SURVEY

Financial and Employment Models in

Journalism [in Times of Finance and Media Crisis]


1. Does your organisation negotiate and implement collective bargaining?

☐ yes (please select in which sector collective bargaining/agreement exists)

☐ Newspapers 31

☐ Magazines 28

☐ Broadcasting 28

☐ Online 16

☐ Freelances journalists (Please specify) 15

Please provide examples of specific clauses in the contracts relating to the online sector, as this is a focus of the project. 25


1. Does your organisation negotiate and implement collective bargaining?

☐ yes (please select in which sector collective bargaining/agreement exists)

☐ Online 16

Please provide examples of specific clauses 25

• linked to “traditional” media agreements (same:same)

• linked to certain agreement (magazine-agreement)

• trying to link it to “traditional” media agreements

• rédaction en ligne ou pure player

• different collective agreements with: non-media enterprises, telcos, outsourecd company, technical company

• in the process of defining “what is online media”

• tried, not successful

• agreement signed in 1991 (freelance, online not included)

• 80 different contracts with media house (included)

• linked to unionised media organisations


1. ✗ If no … What are your strategies?

12 No collective bargaining

Associations: Luxemburg, Spain (FAPE), Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia

Political Environment /other reasons:

Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Macedonia Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia,



“The present-day political situation in Belarus prevents BAJ from acting as a

fully-fledged trade union organization. The majority of social and political media in Belarus are owned, funded, and controlled by the state vertical of power. Independent media work in unequal economic conditions. Freelance journalists and on-line reporters/media are not mentioned and regulated by the Belarusian law nowadays.

-- BELARUS, BAJ „



“Actually we have tried several times in the past to engage media owners in

collective bargaining but they flatly refuse. They are not required by our national legislation to do so.

The publishers are also split in two conflicting organisations which is an additional obstacle to any efforts to negotiate on a national scale. There are collective agreement only in the three public media - The National TV, the National radio and the state news agency. But even these give very weak protection to journalists and tackle only minor problems.

-- BULGARIA, BJU „



“ There is the little understanding of trade unions in Georgia, since the

country has no such culture. Trade unions in soviet period was more governmental control then solidarity. Right now, our organisation is promoting ethics and free speech. Many employers try to distance their workers from trade unions and movements like this. Our aim is to negotiate with employers, in order to assist journalists to join IAGJ.

-- GEORGIA, IAGJ „


2. What are the challenges for conducting (new forms of) social dialogue,

particularly in a converging media landscape?

Please list: 7 affiliates without comment to this important open question

1. Very broad, almost philosophical … ethics …

2. Very advanced: common platforms for employer and employees, paternity leave, mid carre training ..,

3. Defend the traditional achievements

4. Very concrete / detailed: one sector, one media enterprise

5. Very basic: establish ways to start to establish social dialogue, anyrecariousd Most basic: safety, precarity, daily survival


Hierachy of Challenges / Needs?

Hierarchy of challenges and needs: Some similarities to this old simple model?

3. In times of crisis, does your organisation develop contingent services for

the following groups of journalists? Specify the type of services or actions.

☐ previous staff journalists forced to become freelances 31

☐ journalists becoming redundant due to restructuring 31

☐ old age/early retirement 27




☐ previous staff journalists forced to become freelances 31

• legal advice, freelance handbook, monthly freelance newsletter

• legal, financial and business advice

• part-time consultant

• solidarity fund

• interest free credit (from trade union)

• special training on entrepreneurship

• (in some cases) food parcels for colleagues

• Christmas and Easter money allowances

• possible transition to online journalism

• networking, round table




☐ journalists becoming redundant due to restructuring 31

• social plans (special foundations)

• special agreement “on transition”

• legal advice, solidarity funds

• support negotiations

• support possible court actions

• calculation of pensions

• (in one case) establish a cooperative

• information on (potential) unemploymnet benefits

• “job exchange”

• possible transition to online journalism




☐ old age/early retirement 27


4. Do you develop specific services targeted at the following groups?

Please select (it can be more than one):

☐ young (age until 30) 18

☐ women 15

☐ retired journalists (including early retirement) 11

☐ journalists of minority ethnic or cultural backgrounds 8

Several replies: Our union does not make a difference. We do the same, everything for every member. (Targeted services / promotion etc?)


5. What NEW services does your organisation provide in times of changes

and austerity? Please select (the selection can be more than one):

☐ marketing portal 11

☐ networking opportunities(e.g. online communities, social events) 20

☐ mentoring/coaching 17

☐ freelancers‘ agency 9

☐ training (please specify in question 6) 30

☐ other (4)

Please provide more details or hyperlinks to specific services (7)

9 offer at least four new services

19 offer only one new service (mainly training)


6. Does your organisation provide training programmes for members?

☐ Yes - please select the types of training 32

☐ practical business/entrepreneurial skills for freelancers (like accounting, taxation, etc.) 18

☐ technical skills (Internet, multimedia, software etc.) 20

☐ professional training (on journalistic skills, etc.) 23

☐ marketing / self-marketing (e.g. branding) 14

☐ social media 21

☐ personal development (e.g. coping with stress, harassment, etc.) 17

☐ other (8), safety

☐ No 10


7. Who provides the training (if answer is yes in question 6)

8. How does this training take place? (if answer is yes in question 6)

☐ journalists‘ union/association 30

☐ own subsidiary firm 14

☐ journalism schools 13

☐ government institution , e.g. Skill Councils 5

☐ employers‘ organisations 7

☐ other (10)

☐ workshop 32

☐ webinar 6

☐ other (specify) 13 (lectures, non-intercative online courses, legal )


9. What are the biggest challenges your organisation is facing now?

Please rank the following items from 1 – (biggest) to 9 (least).


RANK Challenge Average VALUE

6 shrinking membership 4,94

8 aging membership 6,47

3 financial difficulty 4,43

2 collective agreements 4,39

5 national legislation, e.g. labour rights 4,79

1 job cuts 2,61

7 journalists‘ status (competition non professionals) 5,63

9 Intell. property rights in the digital environment 6,21

4 increasing precarity of freelancers 4,63

9. What are the biggest challenges your organisation is facing now?

Please rank the following items from 1 – (biggest) to 9 (least).

10. According to your national context, which of the following new

financial model is preferable/successful

☐ crowdfunding 17

☐ concrete projects / web-site 18

☐ (non-profit) foundations 10

☐ sponsorship / patronage 5

☐ state grants for media / press subsidies 29 (no state funds 13)

☐ indirect, for ex. reduced VAT, tax reductions 20

☐ direct financial support for individual media and/or journalists 17

☐ donations (voluntary payments, flattr etc.) 5

☐ self-publishing, paid content online 17

☐ other (2)

Please provide specific details and hyperlink (if any). (6)


e.g. Crowdfunding, hyped?

krautreporter

• Prominent journalistic crowdfundig platform in Germany; interesting projects, many of the financed on a very small scale (500-15.000 €)

https://krautreporter.de/

Kickstarter

• Prominent crowdfunding / prominent people or brands; large scale

• Example: Amanda Palmer (1,2 Mio. US$) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-new-record-art-book-and-tour

• Example: Neil Young (4,4 Mio. US$, 26 days before closing the funding) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music

https://krautreporter.de/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-new-record-art-book-and-tour

















https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music











11. Do your members use the following channels to publish their

works?

☐ blogs 38

☐ self-publishing 24

☐ social media 35


13. Structural data (for 2013, estimations accepted if no existing data)

Total number of members ≈ 300.000 in survey

from 150 (Luxemburg/ Georgia) to 58.000 (Russia)

Estimated breakdown (in %)

Staff journalists 2 <25% 6 <50% 12 <75% 15 >75% 7 k.A.

Freelances 8 <10% 21 <30% 6 <60% 7 k.A.

Young journalists (below 30) wide range 3% to 45%

Female wide range 14% to 70%

Definition of members / total number of members / updated statistics ?


On membership

“Physically we have about 1700 members. But we have only about 400 really

full time employed members, who pay the full fee - one percent of their

salaries (the average fee is 80 EUR per year). The others are on pension,

unemployed, precarious workers, self-employing, freelances, students etc.

– they pay a small minimum fee of 200 HUF per month. The whole fee of

pensioners goes directly to their organization. Four years ago 1 Euro was

about 260 HUF, now it is about 320. We get the income in HUF and have to

pay the EFJ fee in EUR.

-- László M. Lengyel (AHJ, Hungary)”


Estimated breakdown / number of affiliates


Staff Journ < 25% < 50% < 75% > 75% n.A.

2 6 12 15 7

Freelance < 10% < 30% < 60%

8 21 6 -- 7

Female < 50% ≈ 50% > 50% -- n.A.

21 8 7 -- 6


Fun Facts

Most Employed: Serbia (Sino) 100 %

Most Freelanced: Poland 70%Germany (dju) 60%

Youngest (below 30): Belarus 60%, Spain (FAPE) 45%

Oldest: Slowenia (assoc), Greece (JADN), Hungary (HPU)

Most Female (over 50%): Spain (FAPE), Sweden, Georgia, Finland …

Most Male: Hungary (HPU), Cyprus (both), Luxemburg


14. Examples of best practices that are relevant to the questions

asked in this survey. (e.g. innovative training programmes, collective agreement for online journalists, initiatives to attract new members, etc. )


☐ answers 13

Suggestion of a follow up of this question.

Please name 3 THINGS that worked well, that you know were doing good to colleagues or could be helpful – in the contagious spirit of optimism – to others.

OBSERVATIONS (Study follows in Summer 2014)

SURVEY Financial and Employment Models in Journalism [in Times of Finance and

Media Crisis]


Georgien

Färöer

2

2 2 2

3

2

2

2

Aserbeidschan

Armenia

Observations

• Participation in survey and seminar (value in itsself), best message

• Very constructive, less lamentations („Managing Change“ 2010/11)

• Re-thinking of journalism and the role of the journalist in the Digital Era

• Re-thinking of organisations (union/ association), modus operandi and relation to like-minded organisations, EFJ (and the state?)

• Blogs, Social Media (New Media, Web 2.0) … mainstream in daily work

Further avenues for research …


Observations

• Usual oberservation of variety, culture, background etc.

• More (comparable) facts … structure

• Own perspective (finance, freelance, demography, author‘s rights ...) (Q.9)

• Wide spectrum / approaches „militant“ NO SERVICE …

… Ainsi le statut d’auto-entrepreneur est contraire au statut du journaliste.

• … very entrepreneurial and open to change

• One-stop shopping for all material and non-material support

• What is the core activity for the affiliate / the EFJ ?

• Lack of best practice examples, few communicated

• Challenges: post-industrial, philosophical


Observations

• Non-Participation, information given

• … and exchange (Q. 9, mail, skype …)

• Few comments on Best Practices (Q. 14) – non-existent / unknown


• Regular „Street pulse“ (very brief regular survey)

• The Role of State funding

• Deeper research in funding models

• Better knowledge / information management within (Mediane, ExGroups,

Seminars, …)

• Better knowledge of own organisation (visison, core activities)

En communication, je pense qu'on a beaucoup à faire : à quoi sert un syndicat ? Pourquoi préférer une organisation indépendante ? Comment améliorer la visibilité des syndicats par rapport aux ONG ou aux associations ? Comment dépoussiérer l'image des syndicats ?... (SNJ)

• Q. 14 – Best practice sheet for every affiliate

Observations

EFJ represents over 320.000 journalists in Europe? (PR-Footer, EFJ)

Respresents? Fights for? Is lobbying for? Informs? Activates? Enables? ..... And what about the other journalists in Europe?

Different view.

Member of the EFJ are organisations! EFJ should enable them to enable their members. And affiliates– within their edemocratic structures – define themsevles: Who is a member / who is a journalist.

No comment

Screenshot, Homepage 17.03.2014

EFJ Website

Screenshot, Homepage 17.03.2014

The Challenge. Solidarity vs Biz Models?

The future of journalism can benefit from a new generation of journalists who embrace new technologies and new ways of thinking and undertaking journalism.

…

Last but not least, we must service our freelancers and provide support to help them flourish. Innovation in journalism goes hand in hand with new business models. Freelancers should be the driving force of the new business models that help create more jobs, more flexibility and more security in the future of journalism.

Editorial, EFJ Focus March 2014, Mogens Blicher Bjerregård, EFJ President

We Must Challenge Ourselves

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