HuffPo, Writers OUT?
“The Newspaper Guild is calling on unpaid writers of the Huffington Post to withhold their work in support of a strike launched by Visual Art Source in response to the company’s practice of using unpaid labor. In addition, we are asking that our members and all supporters of fair and equitable compensation for journalists join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company.
Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line.” From The Newspaper Guild website.
Arianna Huffington does not pay a good number of her writers. AOL purchased the Huffington Post earlier this year for $315 Million.
The Guild has asked for a meeting but at this time it is unknown if they will get one. The purpose of the strike is to set guidelines for the writers to receive payment for articles.
Will there be a settlement? Will the Guild be successful with an electric strike? Will Huffington’s writers start their own site? This will be interesting to watch, to say the least, as left goes after left.
Go to hell!!!
Who? That was an astute command.
Most newspapers (which effectively is what HuffPo is) print unpaid columns, and in fact that’s exactly how a lot of paid writers get their start: just writing both for the love of it, and for the exposure. (And no, I don’t work for HuffPo or any of their affiliates, nor have any connection to anyone in their company/ies.) It’s also true that the great majority of hits on HuffPo’s articles are on the ones produced by their paid staff (which is what ultimately translates into making money for the site).
Of course I agree that people should be paid for their work! But as far as I can tell, HuffPo does not amount to some sort of vast, cyber-slave galley, powered by the unrewarded labor of hordes of minions. Should there be maybe some equitable pay scale, depending on a writer’s experience, maybe plus actual number of hits an article gets? Sure, and it’s not like the company couldn’t afford that, especially since the AOL merger. But the reality is just that, though there are a lot of unpaid writers there, they aren’t what powers the site; so any negotiations about pay have to start with that in mind. If you aren’t reasonable in your approach, you can’t expect them to take you very seriously.