Archive for April, 2010

New Media Publishersas Scum

April 29, 2010

The publisher-writer relationship has always been loaded with antagonism.  Publishers think writers are greedy, flaky, unable to understand assignments (or deadlines) and above all, lazy.  Writers think publishers are exploitative.  As my father-in-law (a publisher of what were called &;pennysavers&;) used to say, &;Writers are a dime a dozen.&;  Or as the publisher of a marijuana publication put it, &;You&;re just a writer.&; Unfortunately, in the world of the Internet and new media, the rapacious nature of publishers is more true now than ever.  Now even once-respected news organizations are SYSTEMATICALLY devaluing the worth of a writer&;s work.  &;More major media companies are looking for ways to find cheap content&;Thomson Reuters, Cox Newspapers and Hachette Filipacchi have run articles supplied by Associated Content, one of several companies, such as Demand Media and AOL&;s SEED, that mines reporting from masses of freelancers for as little as $5 a story,&; notes AdAge.  Five dollars a story!  As a writer I&;ve been paid a dollar a word, sometimes more.  Even at 50 cents a word, writers weren&;t getting rich.  I used to say that if you wrote two 500 word stories a week, at 50 cents a word, at the end of the year you&;d have made $26,000.  These shameful &;partnerships&; in devaluing the contribution of the writer (content creator) can be blamed on exploitative new media &;publishers&; like Associated Content&;s Patrick Keane.  And indeed, note this loathesome comment, &;The evolution of the content cycle has cheapened,&; said Associated&;s CEO Keane. But just as much blame attaches to editors who should (and do) know better, as in Reuters publishing Associated stories on the economy or  &;USA Today&;s recent deal with Demand Media, which is using its network of freelancers to supply pieces for a new Travel Tips section on USA Today&;s website.&; Particularly craven is Keith McAllister, global online editor for Thomson Reuters. &;This was not a business decision, but entirely an editorial one,&; said McAllister. &;We want to fill out the online offering as much as possible. We&;re building Thomson Reuters to be a content candy store.&;  He should have said &;We&;re building Thomson Reuters on the backs of less-than-minimum-wage-paid-freelancers to be a content candy story.&; The AdAge &;trend&; story notes, &;Associated Content boasts more than 350,000 freelance contributors who have supplied more than 2 million articles. Associated pays its contributors anywhere from $5 to $30 per article, sometimes upfront &; and in some cases pays a performance fee of up to $2 for every 1,000 impressions the story generates within Associated Content&;s site. ..anywhere from $75 to $120 per article. Full-time staffers or even traditional freelancers working directly with publishers cost considerably more.&; Yes, perhaps even a living wage. 

Patrick Keane 

Tags:AdAge, AOL-SEED, Associated-Content, exploitation-of-writers, freelancers-devalued Posted in death-of-journalism, death-of-magazines, death-of-newspapers, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;

Enquirer LosesPulitzer

April 12, 2010

Stop the presses! Despite scooping the mainstream media on John Edwards and his (I always want to say &;space alien&;) lovechild, the National Enquirer loses in Pulitzer race. I&;m sure the winners were worthy, but it&;s clear the fix was in&;

Tags:John-Edwards, National-Enquirer, Pulitzer, shrinking-mainstream-media Posted in Journalism, National-Enquirer | Leave a Comment &;