Stringer (journalism)

In journalism, a stringer is a freelance journalist, photographer, or videographer who contributes reports, photos, or videos to a news organization on an ongoing basis but is paid individually for each piece of published or broadcast work.

[2][3] As freelancers, stringers do not receive a regular salary and the amount and type of work is typically at their discretion.

However, stringers often have an ongoing relationship with one or more news organizations, to which they provide content on particular topics or locations when the opportunities arise.

It is said that newspapers once paid such freelancer journalists per inch of printed text they generated, and that they used string to measure and bill their work.

[2] In this capacity, stringers are used heavily by most television news organizations and some print publications for video footage, photos, and interviews.

Getty Images credits this photograph of Bonnie and Clyde to " Hulton Archive /Stringer". [ 1 ] The Library of Congress version comes from the New York World-Telegram & Sun collection , which in turn credits the photo to the Associated Press .