New research is set to challenge many of the myths surrounding the image of freelance journalism.

The survey, which covers freelances in the National Union of Journalists, examines many assumptions about the profession, including why people become freelance, their experience and their commitment to freelancing.

It showed that although freelances might like the freedom and flexibility of being their own boss, problems such as isolation, low status and financial insecurity were always in the background.

Despite this, professional fulfillment often remains the spur, offering more immediate gratification than payment.

And while correspondence courses often suggest it is easy to be a freelance, the survey – soon to be published in union magazine The Journalist – tells a different story.

Researcher and report author Jean Leston said: “We didn’t ask people for their income – it was more to do with ‘are people happy being freelances’, their loves, their hates, stereotypical problems.

“Having said that, we found 58 per cent said they had money worries.”

The survey suggests many people are barely scraping a living, with more than one income needed to pay the bills. Only nine per cent of freelances surveyed had a single income and a dependent partner at home.

Jean said: “Even 30 per cent of singles have to share a household to share the bills.”

The union’s freelance membership covers a variety of specialities, from book editors and people in public relations to print and online journalists.

Yet the survey revealed poor working relationships between freelances and the staffers commissioning or buying their work. Most freelancers were older than those staffers, with several years more experience.

Jean said: “The report’s summary comment – ‘we’re poor but happy’ – is a very apt one.

“They enjoy the freedom and the flexibility and they like to be their own boss.

“They don’t have any regrets about making the decision and would not want to go back to being a staffer.”

But she said the problems they encountered were immense, and that successful freelances had to be much more than simply a journalist.

More than 330 people responded to the survey, put together by a working group of four people who spent five months on the project.

The research set out to assess freelance wellbeing and identify work-related pressures, as well as issues for the union to address.

Anyone needing advice or support or more information on freelancing can visit the NUJ’s freelance section’s website at www.londonfreelance.org.

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