SLAVE LABOUR?
Journalists around the world fully understand their professional isn't well paid - certainly at the lower end of the industry. In Thailand the pay is even worse for many.
I've just seen an advert for a Thai national journalist. The requirements are for a Thai language news and features writer, not over 25-years-old, previous newspaper of magazine experience an advantage, hard working with a willingness to learn, ability to network to get stories and a good comment of English. A Bachelor's Degree in journalism is also required.
The reward. A salary of between 8,000 and 13,000 baht per month depending on experience. At current exchange rates 13,000 baht (if you can get it) is US$ 410 or about 205 British pounds. Even in Thailand that's pretty low, and in my eyes it's scandalous. What do you think?
4 comments:
And you wonder why there is plagarism?
David. I don't think pay has anything to do with standards. It's an acquired skill to correctly translate and rewrite an English story in Thai. I have four staff who do that for our magazine (legally, under license) and those skills don't come cheap.
There are perfectly good Thai journalists who write excellent stories and are paid around 8,000 baht. I know because we had some ourselves until recently.
True. But I was thinking more along the lines of the business office. A paper that doesn't value its writers enough to pay them well, will also not value copy, and will not look askance at stealing copy in order to fill space.
All too often, newspapers and journals value advertising above the value of the journalism that sells the paper. This short-term business ethos results in shoddy jounalism, but short-term profits. A long-term view would seek the best journalism, and to foster good journalists, in order to sell premium ad-space. Profits would be less, but would be long term, and would weather economic downturns.
But let's face it, most publications are only interested in the current quarter. So journalists are paid a pittance, and editors let plagarism slide by, because it feeds the bottom line.
David. I am honestly not sure you get better journalists by paying more - certainly as far as Thai journalists are concerned. The fact is that something like 95% of all revenue for newspapers and magazines comes from advertising in one form or another. But like you, I think that is not an excuse to run thinly disguised advertising as genuine news stories.
Your business model wouldn't work in Thailand because I don't think readers would pay the extra to read the better stories - certainly not in the numbers needed to make it work.
It's a fair point though. Keep commenting.
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