Terms of the Unilateral Announcement
Note: We drew on Best Practices for working with freelancers from the National Writers Union’s Freelance Solidarity Project.
For the purposes of this announcement, freelancer is defined as any media worker providing labor and/or services to Bay Area Current, including but not limited to writers, photographers, artists, video and/or audio producers, among others. “The publication” refers to Bay Area Current. A contractor is any media worker contributing to PUBLICATION on a mutually agreed-upon ongoing basis. The negotiated rate is the full fee stated by the assigning or accepting member of the PUBLICATION, as stated in any contracts or email correspondence related to the freelancers’ assignment or submission.
Economic Proposals
Rates
- PUBLICATION will set clear base rates for freelance digital media workers and publicize them.
- All freelance digital media workers can negotiate above the standards stated in this unilateral announcement if desired.
- Freelance digital media workers may forgo payment out of political affinity—however, this decision shall be solely in the hands of the freelancer, by way of electronic form filled out by the freelancer. PUBLICATION will have no input on this decision.
- The existing standard rates are as follows:
- Long-form Articles (1,500 words or more) will be paid a minimum of $200 fee.
- Medium-form Articles (800-1,500 words) will be paid a minimum $100 fee.
- Short-Form Articles (800 words or less) will be paid a $50 fee.
- Comment Articles, commonly known as an “Op-Ed,” (800-1000 words) will be paid a $100 fee.
- PUBLICATION will pay illustrators at minimum a $40 fee per illustration.
- PUBLICATION will pay photographers per photo, at a max rate of $150 for three or more photos.
- PUBLICATION commits to acting in full compliance with California’s “Freelance Isn’t Free” law.
- All freelance contributors will be paid within 30 days of invoicing.
Graduated Fee Schedule
- In the event an assignment of an editorial nature (including but not limited to text, photo, or design—referred to as “work product” below) is accepted or commissioned but cannot run in PUBLICATION as anticipated, PUBLICATION will follow the below stated schedule for kill fees:
- Should PUBLICATION choose not to accept and/or publish the work product through no fault of the freelancer (as determined by PUBLICATION), it will pay the freelancer 33% payment within 30 days of notification.
- For the avoidance of doubt, the freelancer will not be paid the kill fee for the work product if the freelancer has missed one or more deadlines for the work product, as directed by their contact.
- In the event an assignment is accepted or commissioned by an editor, and the freelancer has passed the first round of edits, and PUBLICATION ceases to be operational for any reason and/or under any circumstances: PUBLICATION will pay the freelancer 100% of the negotiated rate.
Reporting Costs & Incidental Expenses
- PUBLICATION will set clear procedures for reimbursements of any/all expenses incurred in the editorial process.
- Upon acceptance of an assignment/submission, the assigning editor will provide the freelancer with those procedures via email.
Intellectual Property
- PUBLICATION agrees that each accepted submission or assignment is the sole property of the freelancer.
- The sale of the submission entitles PUBLICATION to first North American serial rights only.
- If PUBLICATION has the opportunity to sell or lease the submission to another publication (for the purposes of, but not limited to, a medium such as an anthology, retrospective, or similar printed and/or digital collection) PUBLICATION will make their best faith effort to notify the freelancer immediately with at least two notices in writing, preferably by email. Once the freelancer has been reached, a mutual decision to make the sale or approve the leasing rights will be reached between them. If the freelancer does not respond within ten days of the second email or by a deadline clearly stated in the emails, PUBLICATION has the right to make a decision on the freelancer’s behalf.
- The freelancer retains the right to republish the work after 90 days of the date of publication in a book, anthology, collection, or similar product, with original credits and acknowledgements given to PUBLICATION.
- If the freelancer has the opportunity to sell, lease, reissue, or otherwise use the material first published by PUBLICATION in another medium, including but not limited to film, audio, or television production, they retain the right to do so as per their own discretion and with original credits and acknowledgements given to PUBLICATION.
- In the event that an accepted assignment is killed by PUBLICATION at any stage of the editorial process after the freelancer’s first submission, the intellectual property is released back to the freelancer.
Contributors on Contract
- PUBLICATION will publicize clear rates and working procedures for regular contractors and establish a process for contract freelancer raises.
- PUBLICATION commits to following the standard legal definition of “just cause” in the event a contract is terminated before the end of the agreed upon duration.
Editorial Process
Pitching, Assigning, Editing, and Publishing Process:
- All pitching and submissions guidelines will be clearly detailed and made public on the PUBLICATION website.
- Contact information for the editorial collective will be made public, with instructions on where to direct freelancer pitches.
- An assignment from a PUBLICATION editor, or a submission from a freelancer, is considered accepted upon email confirmation from the editor on the story. Freelancers will be issued a contract as soon as possible following email correspondence, and the first installment of payment will be issued as per the stated rate schedule above.
- Editors shall formally notify the freelancer of the acceptance or rejection of subsequent drafts/submissions within 10 days.
- When a freelancer proposes an idea for an article that has not previously come to the attention of PUBLICATION, the editors will not assign a story based on that proposal to someone else without permission from the proposer and payment of a mutually agreed-upon fee between the editor and original proposer. However, this will not apply to ideas that are in PUBLICATION’s general domain — eg. union organizing, tenant struggles, movement issues, etc. Nothing in this announcement shall prevent PUBLICATION from assigning an article based on a similar proposal subsequently (and without prompting from the editors) submitted by another freelancer. PUBLICATION will have a commitment from management and editors that freelance-generated ideas are not given to others in the editorial team.
- When an assignment has originated with PUBLICATION, the PUBLICATION will compensate the freelancer for any preliminary and/or exploratory research and/or work, including but not limited to background reporting and research.
- The PUBLICATION editorial collective will provide the freelancer a final version of their work before publication for final review. The freelancer will have the right to make changes of any nature, within reason, before printing commences and/or publication occurs.
- In the event that the freelancer and the PUBLICATION editorial collective cannot reach an agreement in good faith about a change in the editorial work before publication, the freelancer retains the right to remove their name from said work.
Safety and Legal Protections
- PUBLICATION will set clear safety and legal protections for freelancers, both abroad and at home, and publicize those procedures.
Generative AI Statement
For the purposes of this announcement, we consider "generative AI" systems to refer to a variety of machine learning models and applications that can generate text, images, audio, code, and other types of content. This includes systems like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Microsoft Copilot, Midjourney, Firefly, Stable Diffusion, Lex, Sudowrite, and more. It does not include things like Grammarly, or other grammar and spell-checking systems, automated transcription systems like Trint, or Google Search AI Overviews that publishers and writers cannot control.
All rights to use for ‘artificial intelligence’, construction of large language models, or text and data mining of works created or licensed pursuant to this contract are reserved by FREELANCER, regardless of whether these works are works made for hire. No such use may be made or licensed by PUBLICATION except by separate written agreement between PUBLICATION and CONTRIBUTOR. Any rate previously agreed to for work does not include licensing for AI use. Should PUBLICATION wish to license FREELANCER’s work for the use in AI, both parties must enter into a new agreement covering those licensing rights, and negotiate an additional fee.
PUBLICATION affirms that it will never ask freelancers to use generative AI tools, assign AI generated content to workers to work with or edit, or publish their work alongside AI-generated media elements (including but not limited to text, artwork, translations, and audio readers). FREELANCER certifies that their submitted work is the product of their independent efforts and human skill and was not aided by any generative AI system. If either PUBLICATION or FREELANCER is in doubt over whether an algorithmic system might violate this agreement, the party in question will communicate with the other and the two sides will come to a mutual decision. PUBLICATION will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee who declines to work with AI generated content.
FREELANCER does not consent to inclusion of their work as part of any third-party licensing agreement outside the scope of this agreement, including but not limited to use as training data for generative AI systems, without prior written consent from FREELANCER.
PUBLICATION affirms that it will make all reasonable attempts to ensure that FREELANCER’s work is not used by AI without FREELANCER’s consent and remuneration — including but not limited to: not entering any deals with AI companies; following best practices specified by the TDMREP protocol; and properly encrypting files stored in digital formats or in "the cloud" from being used for training for third parties.
