Sweden: Freelance journalists successfully obtain fee rise
The freelance section of the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJ) obtained a fee rise agreement with several big Swedish newspaper publishers. Agreements were reached thanks to a joint effort of individual freelance journalists, the Swedish Freelance Section of the Swedish Union of Journalists, Frilans Riks, and the local trade union branches at the publishing companies.
The SJ issued its recommended new fees for freelance journalists last November to come into effect in 2019.
- Two Morning papers: Sydsvenska Dagbladet and Helsingborgs Dagblad will be implementing a two percent yearly increase, the first raise since a substential raise in 2015.
- Sweden’s biggest evening paper Aftonbladet recently agreed to raise the fees by 15 percent for freelancers contributing with reviews to the cultural section, but did not raise the fees for other cultural articles, which the freelancers of Aftonbladet are still demanding.
Last November the local trade union branch at Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest Morning paper, agreed to a 13 percent raise for the freelancers in the cultural section on the condition that the newspaper can republish the material in other papers within the company group, something to be monitored by the union in the future. Moreover, Dagens Nyheter also has agreed to pay a group between twenty to thirty freelancers, covering regional news, the recommended new fee, which amounts to 94 euros (SEK 1,014) per hour or 745 euros per day (SEK 8,112).
