Read the opening paragraph of Paul Bradshaw’s latest post Telling Wannabe Journos “Don’t Work For Free” Doesn’t Help and he lays out the biggest threat facing journalism – a lack of socio-economic diversity.
Then read his paragraph explaining why some journalists do work for free.
They work for free because it makes them better musicians, artists and designers. They work for free because they enjoy getting better at what they do. Sometimes they work for free because it makes the world a better place. Journalists (including many of the investigative journalists on the final panel yesterday who do work on their own time) share all of these motivations. But the key difference is this: when they work for free they typically* choose who they work for*.
There is great discussion in the comments as well.