Unpaid Edit Tests: Hindering Journalists from Securing Jobs and the Path to Equitable Hiring
The process of securing a journalism job has evolved significantly over the years. In addition to submitting resumes and reels, aspiring journalists are often required to undergo unpaid edit tests, where they perform tasks like creating social media plans, writing breaking news stories, and editing articles for big-name publications without any compensation. While edit tests provide valuable insights into candidates' skills, they also present challenges that hinder diverse and talented journalists from getting hired.
Edit tests are popular because they show newsrooms a writer and/or editor’s skills in real time, as opposed to a curated portfolio or reel, and are essential in evaluating writers and editors accurately. However, requiring candidates to devote several hours, or even weeks, to unpaid work poses a barrier that is unfair and often infeasible, especially for applicants from more chaotic or less stable financial backgrounds.
Lauren Schneider, a former broadcast journalist now working in communications, suggests that edit tests may be appropriate for entry-level positions, “but once you get higher up in market level, I think they [newsrooms] just need to trust people’s experience. Removing barriers in that way would help, and encourage more people to apply.”
But if an edit test is necessary, newsrooms can still do better around the parameters of the test to make the process more accessible. For example, setting clear expectations: Providing candidates with detailed information about the test's format and requirements can alleviate anxiety and ensure they are adequately prepared. Transparent communication from hiring managers allows candidates to navigate the test with confidence. For example, when Schneider was undergoing an edit test for a potential job, they blindsided her with off-topic questions.
“I had expected to go ahead, as every live shot I’ve ever done, but I didn’t know that they told the anchors to mess with me,” she said. “It went from them asking very specific questions about the news story that I didn’t have answers for to asking me like just random personal questions like, ‘What’s your favorite food that you’ve tried here so far?’ because they wanted to see how the crosstalk was. I was just not prepared for that.”
Time commitments for edit tests have also gotten absolutely out of hand. Edit tests should be designed to be manageable and not excessively time-consuming. Jennifer Chen, a freelance journalist, was put through a two-week-long edit test that proved burdensome and ultimately led to her being ghosted by the company. “I felt really irked about that because I was like, at least send me an email saying, ‘Thanks for your time. We decided to go with somebody else,’” she said. Offering candidates a reasonable timeframe and realistic expectations can encourage their participation, as happened with another job: while undergoing a test for The New York Times’ Wirecutter. Chen took a three-part edit test in order to qualify for the job. She had a week to complete it, but the editor, from the beginning, made sure to note that she shouldn’t take more than one to two hours with it—a combination of transparency and reasonable time commitments.
Also, edit tests are often unpaid while being both unclear and time consuming—which is a very common point of frustration for job applicants. Many media outlets have been called upon by organizations like The Poynter Institute and the Columbia Journalism Review to pay candidates for their time and effort. Compensation demonstrates respect for candidates' skills and time, benefiting both parties. Not only that, compensation motivates journalists to do their best work. “It showed to me that they valued my time and that they wanted me to do the best job possible,” said Alex Benedon, a showrunner and podcaster in the journalism sphere, recounting his experience with a paid edit test at a podcasting studio. “I think it’s just so much more of an incentive to do it when you’re getting paid for it.”
One of the largest barriers for upcoming journalists is the fear that their ideas or intellectual property will be stolen from their unpaid edit tests. Chen herself noticed her own ideas were stolen after an edit test, when the story she pitched showed up as an article with someone else’s byline. In order to assuage this issue, newsrooms should explicitly reassure candidates that the ideas generated during the test will remain confidential unless explicitly permitted by the candidate. This practice promotes trust and professionalism. If the newsroom cannot or will not honor this, candidates should look elsewhere.
If edit tests are necessary, then making edit tests more manageable and relevant can improve the hiring process. This can happen a few ways:
Tailored Assessments: Newsrooms should customize edit tests to assess specific skills relevant to the job, avoiding excessive demands that may be irrelevant. For example, asking candidates to read through an entire story to rewrite a simple headline may not be necessary. Focusing on one tricky paragraph could be sufficient for assessing AP Style skills. There is no need to over-assess or test the depth of knowledge on an industry standard skill set which can also be learned quickly on the job.
Relevant Story Pitches: To evaluate a candidate's story ideas, they can be asked to pitch ideas based on the organization's previous work. This way, candidates are not pressured to come up with new topics, and the ideas can be relevant to the publication's style.
Focused Story Structure: Providing candidates with essential pieces of a story and asking them to write a headline, lead, and paragraph, along with outlining the remaining parts, is a proactive approach that saves time and better aligns with the job's requirements.
Concise SEO Assessment: Assessing SEO headline writing skills can be achieved with a shorter story sample, thus allowing a candidate to demonstrate their understanding of keywords without excessive reading or writing. Additionally, SEO is a new skill set that is not always a single journalist’s job to cover, and testing for a basic understanding is sufficient.
Unpaid edit tests hinder talented journalists, particularly those from underrepresented communities, from obtaining employment opportunities. Investing in a fair and considerate approach reflects positively on a newsroom's culture and fosters trust with applicants, ultimately leading to the recruitment of talented and diverse journalists while fostering trust with communities who may otherwise feel that their pathway to accessible news is marred by a shrinking commitment to allowing more people into the space.
