What skills can journalists and other media professionals be paid for? Media Career Development Specialist, Lekan Otufodunrin shares his experiences on possible opportunities.
When colleagues ask me how I earn money based on my media skills as someone not in full-time employment, I try hard to explain to them that there are a number of options, but there are various factors that will make it possible to be paid for direct and indirect services one can offer.
While it is not wrong to demand payment for any service you render, sometimes your attitude to anything you are asked to do matters. Your willingness to support a course or project even when it’s not obvious you will be paid, counts. Your reputation and what expertise you are known for are also crucial factors that can earn you money without asking for it.
In this three-part series, I will share some, tiny, small and big, obvious and not-too-obvious opportunities, journalists and media professionals can pay attention to earn payment for their skills. Let me start with a recent instance of an invitation I got to participate in the launch of a training report as a virtual participant which I immediately responded to and confirmed my attendance.
I could have ignored the invitation on the excuse of not wanting to go through the trouble of joining virtually or delay in responding to the invitation until it may be too late for the organisers to gauge my interest in participating. Instead of only getting a letter confirming my virtual participation, I was asked by the organisers to consider joining the physical panel to discuss the report in Abuja from my Lagos base, with flight and accommodation paid for.
Unfortunately, I was unable to travel to Abuja based on the doctor’s advice having just recovered from an illness, but I promised to join online and participate in the programme. Not being a scheduled speaker could have made me be casual in my participation, but I did my best to participate fully and responded to the research findings and comments from other participants.
Like some other online programmes I have participated in, I wasn’t expecting any payment, but I guess my ‘full participation’ was appreciated by the organisers and I was paid N50 as an Online Resources participant.
What if I have not joined the programme as I promised? What If I joined for a while and excused myself or did not make any contributions?
N50k for less than two hours of online participation may not be much, but it’s more than a week’s pay for many journalists.
In another instance when I was not going to ask for payment to be a speaker in a webinar, I eventually got N20k when one of the co-speaker convinced me of the need for us to ask if there is a budget for an honorarium.
” An expert should be paid or else he/she will go hungry. Participating in the webinar will require that I prepare, spare time on the day, use my data, put on the generator if there is no light…”
Not every webinar organiser can pay or should pay speakers, what the above examples show is that one can be paid for speaking in a webinar or seminar as a known expert on the topic of discussion.
Apart from being paid, featuring in seminars gives speakers some visibility which can position them for other professional opportunities they can be paid for. Programme organisers are constantly looking for experts on the topics they are focusing on.
Are you known for any media specialisation? Do you project yourself as such? Do you offer your informed views on any major issue of interest?
In the next post, I will share a thousand-dollar-plus -earning opportunity based on a recommendation by a former mentee. What we do at every stage of our career counts.