Comments

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  Nancy M. Dickinson October 8, 2011 at 6:29pm

  I really don't have a huge problem with writing the occasional "free" article.  I have written for some larger publications for more than enough money (but is it ever REALLY enough?) and that allows me to spread out a bit, giving away articles I would normally charge for.

  Start-up magazines need advertising to pay their freelancers and to do that they need good content.  It's a catch-22.

  I've been known to pick up some nice travel perks on a "free" article and, for me, it's more for the travel than the byline.

  Travel writers are some of the lowest paid writers (unless it's Conde Nast or National Geographic Traveler) and the perks are really what makes it worth it.

  Besides, NYC is a HUGE audience and would look good on a resume.  No one knows if it's a paid gig or not, just that an article in an upscale NYC magazine has the potential to reach millions of readers.  THAT'S what the destinations care about.

  I'll help them get the advertising...  I don't mind helping out a new magazine that could, in a year's time, be as big as Time or Cosmo...  

  While I have mouths to feed as much as the next person, it's all about good will.
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  Judy Wells October 8, 2011 at 5:10pm

  If they don't have enough startup money to pay writers, whose work is the only reason to pick up the publication, they surely don't have enough money to get them through the first year. Don't plan on this pub being around long enough to get you those letters of assignment. To paraphrase SATW rules for membership points, if they don't pay, it doesn't count.
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  Candice Sabatini October 8, 2011 at 5:08pm

  Excellent points Allan.

  I too have never seen the no-pay model move out of that mode and switch to pay the writers even as I watched more and more ads appear; although I have seen low pay for start-ups move into decent pay when the revenue starts coming in. 

  As per your question if it's only travel writers who are asked to work for free, I can sadly tell you it's not. I'm a beauty and travel editor/writer (& some fashion as well) and too often the notion that online beauty editors....errrr, curators.....will write for free is because we're "product whores"  (yes, that's their term) who will work for a jar of cream or a spa treatment. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do & love the products, but when the shopping bags of products show up at my door, they're not gifts, but rather, obligations. Obligations to test (often at the expense of skin irritation), then make observations & notes and then finally spend hours writing them up if they deserve an editorial review.  Additionally, when writing for an online publication you often must be your own editor, fact checker and graphic "dept" unless it's for the mega online mags who do pay.

  Also, if you're an online beauty/fashion editor/writer some of the brands treat you with less respect than the print editors/writers. I can remember going to an "Editor's Day" at a dermatologist's office where I was invited to review the doctor's new skin treatment for an online article and realized that the print editors got car service  to & from while I had to pay for my own taxi or take the subway. (Note: I didn't write up this doctor & found another who offered the same skin treatmenr, & also treated me with more respect).  I have even been to media events where the Media Bag or Gift Bag for the print editors was twice the size as the one for the online editors. Can you imagine such blatent rudeness?  I've never experienced anything like this in the travel world and have to say that all the travel media events I"ve been to, and all the press trips I've been on, all editors/writers were treated equally by the vendor.

   

  Sorry to go so off-topic here, but you brought up a question Allan and thought I"d answer it.

   

   
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  Thomas R. Fletcher October 8, 2011 at 5:04pm

  Gotta love it, don't you; an "upscale" magazine with no money to pay writers for content? 

  What a freaking joke...Have to wonder if it wasn't a troll post, but we all know better.
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  Allan Lynch October 8, 2011 at 3:42pm

  Moving from the specifics of this magazine to a disturbing trend. I have launched several new papers in my career. To do that my partners and I had to invest our money - sometimes borrowed money - in our business. That's always been the way with businesses. If you want to open a restaurant, a clothing store, a car rental agency, a B&B, you had to put your money at risk.

   

  However, it seems since the arrival of on-line "publishing" it's become the norm to expect others to invest their time and talent in your business. These legal strangers seem to take on more risk than the owners. That doesn't seem a practical economic model. I don't even think it works best for the 'owners' because without your own assets at risk you don't have the same commitment and work ethic. I wrote my first book about entrepreneurship and wrote about how if you were in start-up stage and you weren't in a relationship not to expect to date because you won't have the time, energy or money to do it, everything goes to the business.

   

  And people like Huffington who made several fortunes off others (there was that successful divorce, the money made from running the Post and then the sale of the Post) have made it a harder playing field for those people who want to launch a business relying on good-will contributions of others. When I look around the landscape of start ups which promised to pay when they could afford to, I can't think of any which ever managed to achieve that goal. I stand to be corrected, but thinking of the last 35 on-line start ups I watched over the last five years, none have moved to a pay model. 

   

  The publishing world is littered with great ideas that didn't survive because of a lack of launch and operational funds. When a writer contributes to a non-paying model they hurt themselves, they risk their reputation because suddenly your clips are based on deceased titles and in a macro sense they hurt their colleagues because there is impetus for any new on-line or print start up to factor in the need for an editorial budget. As I write that, I wonder if it's just travel writers who are asked to work for free? Are food and fashion and political and investigative reporters and writers asked to write for free? Or is it our reputation as people who like to take free holidays the impetus for this?

   

  As I say this is not directed at any specific titles, this is merely an opportunity to discuss a larger trend which has developed over the last five-seven years. The US economy is in trouble for many reasons, but perhaps what would strengthen it would be to go back to some old-fashioned business standards and models.

   

  I always remember the words of a long-time friend, who is also a very successful newspaper publisher. When I told him I was switching from newspaper management to freelancing he said, "Remember, there's no money in spec."
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  Candice Sabatini October 8, 2011 at 3:12pm

  Shari, so Downtown NYC is a print magazine?  If so, then am I correct in assuming you're paying for the paper, the printer, the office rent, the person that drives the truck to distribute the mag to stores, or are they all working for free?  I have to say how offensive it is when a print magazine has "no budget" to pay anything to the talented and educated people that create the content that your readers will read and will make your potential advertisers want to buy space.  I'm not insensitive to low budget start-ups that can't afford to pay a decent rate, but geez, you can't squeeze out even a measly 100 bucks as a token of thanks for someone's work until some revenue comes in?

  The online world is different. Thieves like Arianna Huffington and Tyra Banks should, in my opinion, be arrested for larceny for not paying writers while they play with millions. However, there are some online sites that truly don't have any money whatsoever, and I give them a pass for asking for a freebie until they get some ad/sponsorship revenue.

  But if you're a print magazine, there's got to be some money somewhere. 

   

  Susan Frost,  I hear ya' and have been on that boat too with the "guarantee" issue.  And not a bad suggestion to take the "free" out of freelance. What shall the new word be?  Have you noticed that editors are now referred to as curators?  Seems to have only taken about 15 minutes for that change to happen. 
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  Shari Hartford October 8, 2011 at 7:26am

  Susan (and others)...it pains me as a writer and editor to try to find free editorial. Believe me, this is not a deliberate ploy on the part of the magazine to pull something over on freelancers. Rather, we simply don't have the money as a start-up to pay. Pure and simple. But we will one day and as soon as we can we will be establishing a professional fee schedule for freelance submissions. Until then we hope there are writers who need print clips from a beautiful magazine or who want to travel and need assignment letters. Shari Hartford
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  Susan Frost October 8, 2011 at 5:23am

  Downtown Magazine NYC!! Another new publication that doesn't pay writers! Is there any end to this trend? How many doctors, lawyers and accountants offer their services for free? Maybe we should remove the word "free" from freelance and this would remove the tendency for new publications to expect free writing and free photography for publications. The real problem is that the publications can get enough writers and photographers to submit articles without pay. I'm as guilty as the next person. I swore I would never submit articles and photos without payment. Now, I find that if I need a "guarantee" of publication for the destination that I am covering, I need to pitch to the online magazines. I'll get off my soapbox now.
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  Sally Hammond October 8, 2011 at 3:10am

  Almost!

   
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  Judy Wells October 8, 2011 at 3:00am

  No hangers on but no money either which is why I'd like someone wealthy too. Being a writer has its benefits but they don't pay the mortgage and as a pal declares, "I don't want to be a nurse or a purse."