Kerrang’s homepage on 12 January 2025.
Rock music brand Kerrang faced a revolt from 16 freelance contributors after it told them 30-day payment terms were being changed to 60 days just before Christmas.
According to the NUJ, the website and quarterly print magazine had left several writers with “significant sums outstanding”.
Following the announcement, 16 staff (including 14 writers and two photographers) refused to submit further material until their terms were met, under the guidance of the NUJ.
Kerrang has been owned by Wasted Talent Media, which also owns music publications Mix Mag and The Face, since 2017.
NUJ member Ian Winwood, who helped co-ordinate the action, said it took Wasted Talent Media “an hour and 19 minutes” to reverse the changes and assure contributors they would be paid in full and on time in future.
He said: “There was a lot of anger about the imposition of new terms… We told the magazine’s management that we would not write another word until they met our terms.
“Freelance journalism is a precarious way to make a living and a change of terms like those proposed can make a dramatic difference to our ability to sustain ourselves. A total victory for collective actions and common sense is something to celebrate.”
[ Read more: Half of UK freelance journalists report being offered less than 10p a word ]
Wasted Talent Media’s Companies House account filings for the year to December 2024 are currently overdue.
In December 2023, the company reported pre-tax losses of £17,705 and turnover for the year of £6.3m, down 8.9% from £6.9m in 2022.
This turnover stems from advertising, events, magazine distribution and subscriptions.
Average headcount of monthly employees also decreased from 52 in 2022 to 43 in 2023.
NUJ freelance organiser Tim Dawson told Press Gazette he believes Kerrang has “fewer than five” full-time editorial staff.
“They are very reliant on freelance contributors doing the important work that the readership loves,” he said, adding that he believes it’s the first coordinated freelance action to take place at Kerrang.
Freelances are outside the “terms of the industrial regulations”, he added, meaning they are not able to officially strike in the same way employees can within law.
“Across legacy media, terms imposed on freelance contributors have got progressively worse over two decades,” he added.
“I hear daily horror stories of people who submit work and then aren’t paid for it for over a year… or people who discover that they are having terms [that a] business imposed upon them that they have no prior knowledge of before submitting work.”
[Read more: Freelance journalists given rare chance to ‘right wrongs’ of unfair payment practices ]
Dawson added freelances are the “most vulnerable parts of [a magazine’s] supply chains” and they are treated as “the greatest risk and inconvenience”.
A government consultation, which was launched in July , provides an opportunity for freelance journalists to obtain the kind of terms that most small businesses consider normal. The outcome has not yet been published.
[Read more: Low pay and ‘no rights’: Survey reveals ‘Wild West’ for UK freelance journalists ]
“I think this situation is more egregious for freelance journalists than any other sector of the economy… No other industry sector says you can be commissioned to do a piece of work. You can do it to quality and on time, and then, because of some changes… you’re either paid a fraction of what you originally agreed or frequently nothing at all.”
Kerrang and Wasted Talent Media did not respond to Press Gazette’s request for comment.
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