The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Don't really know whether Newsfield's staff turnover was really any higher than other publishers.

Though wages were crap I don't think it was entirely out of meaness. Don't know for certain but I don't think there were oodles of cash going about. Certainly the directors didn't appear to have lavish lifestyles. Also bear in mind for a lot of the staff it was their first job and they were joining with no publishing history. Some reviewers work was very heavily subbed.

Mine wasn't, and they still paid me shit money!

Does that mean I can expect a lump sum at some stage?

That was going to be my next question ("Did Oli have a secret stash of Rembrandts")
I think it was Barnaby Page who told me that a lot of the CRASH writers work had to be re-written.
Surely the LM writers were given a fair bit of money as an incentive to come to Ludlow (I know there was also a London office, but I believe some still worked in Ludlow)?

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Barnaby, now there was a cracking bloke.

Rented his cottage down by the water after escaping The Boarding House From Hell and felt like a proper creative type!

Looking back, it was a right dump, but no worse than I left Gaz Penn's place.

Never came back to find the front door kicked off its hinges by the Old Bill either, but hey, that's Sarf London for you.

Was it the hairstyle police come to arrest Gaz?

(Apologies to Gaz if you become involved with this forum at any point in the future!)

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Crazy about the C64? - www.lemon64.com
Amiga Anguish? - www.lemonamiga.com

Well, luckily due to the board-hack, the threads and posts revealing 'recent' images of Gaz and comments about his appearance are all gonzo!

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Once again I emerge from beneath a massive pile of paper which makes my desk groan to bring you the world’s most amazing posts.

To be fair, though, Retro Gamer's rates are significantly lower than "typical" freelance rates (although I don't know how they compare to other _gaming_ magazines).

That said, of all the magazines I write for, only one is currently paying me more per word than I was getting three or four years ago, and one is actually paying less.

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http://www.craiggrannell.com | http://www.projectnoise.co.uk

And therein lies the reason why I discovered a decade ago I could never do that gig as a proper fulltime job, and instead contribute freelance in my spare time whilst maintaining a high paying IT position

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Another visitor... stay awhile... stay forever!

I think I got £6,000 p.a., after my trial period (a month?) ended. Before that it was £4,500. When I became editor I negotiated a rise to £16,000 p.a. -- which is possibly one of the reasons I left so quickly. The worst aspect was overtime, because inevitably every issue demanded it, and some issues it was impossible to finish without 3-4 hours a night for at least a couple of weeks.

But either way, it's still unbelievably shit money. At EMAP I got 10p a word, which was a much fairer system.

And then again, we were getting paid to play games, have fun and write, so what's to complain about.

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The Burrow

Hey Gordo! Havn't seen you around these parts for a while, nice to see you're still alive etc.

16K for being an editor wasn't too bad though was it? Considering it was the late 80's when everything was fucked up economy wise.

It was too much, I think. Like I say, I think that's one reason they were glad to get me off the payroll.

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The Burrow

Compared to one or two other magazines I know of, Retro Gamer is in the middle in terms of pay. Of course, if you are paid by word you can get a good deal. And with RG's large introductory page, it's almost like a bonus every time you get an article printed

So one can directly link you and your high wages to the downfall of Newsfield?? Expect to see a lynch mob in Oxford sometime soon looking for you!

Ha! They'll never find me! I disguise myself with a ginger beard and moustache these days.

Oh...

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The Burrow

I suppose it depends what other magazines you write for. To be fair, Retro Gamer never actually offered me any articles (although, to date, almost every single pitch I made has showed up in the magazine in some form, despite Martyn saying that none of my ideas particularly grabbed him...), so I'm only going on what other people were offered. Those figures seemed to be slightly lower than Paragon's rates, and significantly lower than anyone else's.

That said, money wouldn't have been an issue—I'd have been quite happy to write for Retro Gamer for a much reduced rate, but there you go.

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http://www.craiggrannell.com | http://www.projectnoise.co.uk