Low-Paid Filipino News Writers Need to Be More Creative

I saw this title in the Region section of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s official website: “In Davao, making noise legally.” I say what? When was making noise in Davao became illegal?

Well, the news talks about the creativity of Chinese in celebrating their New Year despite the ban of firecrackers in the city. I know what the writer meant. But I think he just missed out something.

This is one of the troubles in delivering news on the Net. News writers need to write fast to be able to be the first one to publish the story on the Net. So that your news becomes the main source.

This could have not written in newspapers since this is obviously for more frequent news updates on their website. This may have been an issue already and then trying to make the news look like creative enough just to produce a content on their site. News along with the title needs to be published as fast as possible.

I also remember news articles I read from Sun Star Cebu a few years back. I couldn’t really seemed to understand what the writer was trying to tell. The narration was confusing and irresolute. The writing skills wasn’t there at all. I was reading like what the hell happened there? Who says what? And what happened to the person who says this and that?

And the editor perhaps had gone on leave when those articles were published.

Well, perhaps it doesn’t happen all the time. But yah know. This is very crucial in every newspaper publishing company to maintain its reputation. Local or national news reports and articles need to be worthy. They need to be crisp, vigorous and clear.

Moreover, this news title from PDI reminds me of a post in Renegade Writer. Writers in the Philippines are very low-paid. Unlike American writers. According to some bloggers I have interacted on one post from renegadewriter.com, writers in America are paid from $50 to $100 per article in newspapers, magazines, or even for websites–Web contents. Oh yeah! What can you say about that? (See screenshots below.)

You write 4 to 5 articles in a day imagine how much you could earn in a day, in a week and in a month? That’s $250 a day. Or $35,000 a month. Wowowoh! Ahmmmm, maybe American writers don’t write as much as 4 articles a day unlike Filipino content writers in outsourcing companies, since the quality of the articles will be compromised. Filipino writers write 4, 5, 6 or even 7 articles in a day, and they’re paid 6000 to 7000 Pesos a month. hahaha! That’s exploitation.

Not to mention I remember I wrote 3,500 words a day in one SEO company in Cebu. Yah, that was our quota.

Maybe because it still relies on the experience of a writer. But no no no. I know one who writes pretty damn good. I mean he is really articulate, an impeccable writer. He’s very young, 18-years-old. I also know another who has excellent writing skills. He is 38-years-old. And guess what? Both of them studied at University of the Philippines. And yes both are paid 7000 Pesos a month. haha!

This is probably why Filipino writers lack some zest, especially when writing news articles and Web contents.

I don’t know with Philippine Daily Inquirer’s.

Mmmmmm. Pretty clever. I say to the Davao news writer, be more creative Sir.