New Matilda - one of Australia's most popular independent media sites - survives on the sniff of an oily rag. Most of our regular columnists and cartoonists - like Ben Eltham, Fiona Katauskas, Lindsay Foyle and Michael Brull - receive an absolute pittance for their work.

Others, like Amy McQuire, Ian McAuley, Dr Lissa Johnson, Dr Liz Conor, Geoff Russell, Jordan Sosnowski and Jordan Rivkin - provide their work for nothing. They write regularly for NM for the love of independent media. And that list doesn't include, of course, the hundreds of other writers who have contributed to New Matilda over the years, and continue to contribute today.

We hate not paying writers, and under-paying others for their work (our editor Chris Graham and contributing editor Wendy Bacon, plus our 'in house lawyer' Geoff Holland for example, receive no wage for their work), but that's one of the unfortunate realities of small independent media.

This fundraiser is about improving that situation slightly for some of our contributors.

This fundraiser is 'round 3' for New Matilda. Early this year, we put the call out for a contributor's budget for the first quarter of 2016, to give some of our regular writers and contributors some sense of security that they can rely on a set fee for their work each week.

That quarter is up, and we’re having another crack, to keep what we think are some of the best young writers in the country busy.

This fundraiser is for one month, and we’re aiming to raise $9,000 to pay the following writers for twice weekly columns.

AMY McQUIRE

Amy – a Darumbul and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton - was, until last year, NM's full-time senior journo. 'Smiles' moved back to her home state of Queensland to start a family, and still files regularly for NM. Until early this year, she wrote for no money – that’s how passionate Amy is about independent media. We want to be able to continue to guarantee Amy a small but consistent fee for her contributions... which of course, will centre around Aboriginal affairs, but also weigh into a myriad of women's and social justice issues. You can view what the last Pozible campaign paid for here – this piece tearing apart the spin surrounding the Recognise campaign comes particularly highly recommended.

MICHAEL BRULL

Michael has been slaving away at NM for almost two years. We want to be able to pay Michael a consistent (albeit modest) fee for two columns per week. Michael writes on a wide area of topics, but in particular on the Middle East, Aboriginal affairs and media. Michael completed his law degree late last year, and in our humble opinion is one of the nation’s most informed and authoritative commentator on Middle Eastern affairs in Australia.

You can view Michael’s work from the past three months here – this piece on the media’s love affair with former Jihadis was one of the most popular from the last Pozible campaign.

LIAM McLOUGHLIN

Liam filed occasionally for New Matilda during 2015. His special area of interest is around social justice issues. Liam is an exceptionally talented young writer (and researcher), and is trying to break into a full-time career in journalism. We're hoping to be able to raise enough to continue paying Liam a modest fee for two columns a week. Liam’s work from the last Pozible fundraiser can be viewed here – this piece on Malcolm Turnbull’s Top 10 slogans was one of his most popular.