The Wages Are a Scandal: When Sex Work Pays for Journalism

2026-08-20

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What happens when sex work pays better than journalism? After being made redundant from his job in the media, investigative journalist Bension Siebert began working as a sex worker — and discovered he could earn in five hours what he made in his best-paid week as a journalist. But rather than leaving journalism behind, Siebert is now using sex work to fund his own investigative reporting. This week on Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with Siebert about journalism’s increasingly precarious eco...

What happens when sex work pays better than journalism?

After being made redundant from his job in the media, investigative journalist Bension Siebert began working as a sex worker — and discovered he could earn in five hours what he made in his best-paid week as a journalist.

But rather than leaving journalism behind, Siebert is now using sex work to fund his own investigative reporting.

This week on Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn speaks with Siebert about journalism’s increasingly precarious economics, the investigations mainstream media organisations decide are too risky to publish, and why he believes the gap between what Australian newsrooms know and what they’re prepared to report is growing.

Click here to read Bension Siebert's essay: How sex work saved my investigative journalism career.

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