Forget AI, permalancing might be the real threat to your magazine job

The permalancer has become central to how fashion media operates. Who is gaining the most from this?

“I sometimes feel like calling myself a freelancer is just a fancy way of saying I'm a precariously employed person,” Marissa, a freelance journalist and translator, tells me over the phone. She’s not wrong. The term ‘freelance’ has essentially become shorthand for being almost always unemployed – or for living in the ambient fear of potential unemployment at any given time. There is, however, a relatively new kid on the block that formalises this precarious way of working: the permalancing role. These are ‘permanent’ freelancers who work regularly at a certain job, often with an official title and role, but are not formally employed.

Permalance became common parlance for the terminally self-employed in the USA around five years ago, with a smattering of coverage about the trials and tribulations of this new form of work. Vox highlighted the way in which many employers mislabel roles that should be for formalised employees as permalance positions, while Vice, who I personally permalanced for just a few years ago, attempted to break down the pros and cons of both ways of working.