Actually, the last post is incorrect. At most U.S. papers, a flat rate is paid for freelance work. For example, most high-school sports stories are paid between $65 and $75 for the story, with other types of work differing, such as contributing reviewers of books or movies being paid less, or travel features being paid more. When I was doing freelance covering NCAA Division I football, I was paid more than $100 a story -- and I was still in college.
I know of no major publication that pays by the word -- that is generally done at magazines, not newspapers -- and I say that knowing A LOT of freelancers (including, at times, both my husband and myself).
Honestly, the chances of a freelancer getting a story on the front page of a paper like The Daily Planet are slim to nil. If something was submitted, the Metro editors would likely assign it to a staff reporter and they would treat it as a news tip -- but may give a contributing tagline to the freelancer at the end of the story, such as "Additional reporting by Lois Lane."
But, for the sake of fiction, let's suspend fact and say that in 1986, I'd say that they'd probably pay about $75 for a non-lead story on the front page -- and, when you consider Lois' lack of experience (I assume she is who you are talking about), that is a very generous amount of pay. Like I said, pay depends on what type of story it is, and the assigning editor would make the determination on how much to pay for it, and it would be figured out in advance (pre-publication) and the freelancer would be aware of how much they were being paid for their work. Therefore, I could see Perry determining that she should be paid $75 for the story and having the final word.
Hope that helps.
Jenn
