Orientation to APCNews
APCNews payment scheme
Requests are only made by APC’s designated editors. If you receive a request from anyone else, please check with us.
Payment conditions
We pay according to our writers payment scheme described below.
Payment is made upon submission of invoice/s.
In order to reduce bank charges on your side and APC’s, we suggest you wait until you can charge for at least USD 300.
APC works with bank transfers and cheques (issued in USD by our bank in San Francisco), and with PayPal (recommended for payment of small amounts, under USD 300).
This payment scheme applies to all writers at all times.
APC’s payment scheme recognises the length and depth of an article, as well as the geographical location of the writer.
Important note: Becoming part of the APC writers pool does not guarantee that you will receive requests to write for APC. You may leave the pool at any time on submitting an email notice to the editor. APC reserves the right to stop using writers without notification.
Baseline
The starting point, which is referred to as the "baseline", is USD 30.
It is a simple and short article, which is a factual and straight-to-the point. This includes single-people interviews, single source accounts, light synthesis of reports. Note that this does not include copy-and-paste journalism, which can be used in no other than blogging. A simple and short article is around 500 words (more than 250 and less than 750).
Then, length, depth and geographical location are combined:
Length
APC recognises the length of an article (after editing).
For each 500-word bracket in excess, USD 10 are added.
Example: A 1,200 word article falls into the “up to 1,500 word” bracket. That means USD 30 + 10 + 10 = USD 50
Depth
APC recognises three depth levels:
- Standard (1-2 sources) = no additional payment
All standard articles should cite at least one source and preferably two.
- Intermediate (3-4 sources) = USD 20 added.
Articles that demonstrate some research in terms of document investigation and/or interviews (three to four sources).
- In-depth (5 sources and more) = USD 30 added.
Articles that demonstrate original and extensive research, interviewing and/or analysis based on at least five different sources. This includes book reviews, features and multi-people interviews. The level of complexity is that of a full feature article.
Example: payment for a 1,200-word article that includes 2 interviews and 1 document investigation would would be calculated on the basis of length (USD 50) + Intermediate depth (USD 20) = USD 70.
Geographical location
APC recognises a “post adjustment” (PA) multiplier: depending on the writer’s main country of residence, she/he receives an amount based on monthly updated United Nations post adjustment grids.
Example: A 1,200 word article of intermediate depth from a writer based in Montreal, Canada would be: length + depth (70 USD) x 1.PA multiplier (Montreal Canada’s May 2016 multiplier factor is 42.1). So 70 × 1.438 = USD 99.47
Intellectual property
All documents, materials or concepts developed under this agreement remain the sole property of APC, which will distribute them under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.
Other
Although we are not a news agency and usually don’t take up unsolicited coverage offers, feel free to send a story pitch if you think we may be interested.
We’d be very happy if you’d be interested in blogging on the APC blog from time to time: http://blog.apc.org. Login: Blogger upper case B; password: trusted