Posted on 03/18/2011 5:34:05 PM PDT by topher
The national Newspaper Guild has upped the ante in a strike against the Huffington Post, calling on all unpaid writers to stop contributions to the website.
The 26,000-member union of media workers asked all unpaid contributors on Wednesday to withhold their work in support of a strike launched earlier this year by the art publication Visual Arts Source, whose writers had previously contributed free content to the Post.
"Join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company," the Guild wrote in a press release. "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."
The call comes in response to the Huffington Post's "refusal to compensate its thousands of writers in the wake of its $315 million merger with AOL," the Guild wrote, and its refusal to acknowledge requests to meet with Guild officials "to discuss ways the Huffington Post might demonstrate its commitment to quality journalism.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Liberals eating liberals and their babies.
If JimRob got $300 million I would be HAPPY for him~!!
In fact I wish he WOULD accept money and adnvertising for this site
it is too important to go begging every quarter
which reminds me, i need to send in another donation
I might as well just put it on auto pay on my credit card
AOL lays off 900 jobs as it Purchases the Huffington Post
http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/12/14-arianna-port-280.jpg
900 people! Yet they’ve spent weeks slamming Scot Walker over union negotiations. I bet these 900 people wish they could have negotiated for their jobs!
LOL! They’re carrying on like what they write is worth paying for!
But but but does she really need that much? If she would just take a fair cut -- say $10,000 -- and divide the rest among the oppressed bloggers doesn't she realize how much suffering she would end??? Doesn't she understand social justice??? Didn't she support Obama??
I'm sure she will do the right thing in the end!!
Remember, as those courage defenders of the poor at Google say: Do no evil!!!
Huffington Post Revenue and Valuation & Investors
Then Why Arent Rachel Maddows Guests Going On Strike?
Huffington said she found the idea of unpaid bloggers going on strike as ridiculous as celebrities and personalities boycotting self-promotional (unpaid) television appearances. Go ahead! Go on strike! What does it matter? she said. [N]o one really notices!
I guess all that strawberry blond hair dye and botox adds up.
The unpaid writers are actually correct here.
There is a case study on this, when Times Co. bought/acquired About.com .
Times Co. paid some ridiculous sum of about $400k PER columnist... then went and replaced 25% of them within the first year, increased columnist headcount by 25% in the first year, and that in turn boosted ad revenues by 50%.
The columnists at About.com saw NO money from the acquisition. They were basically treated as slave labor and forced to sign non-compete clauses so they couldn’t branch out and start their own websites.
Of course, About.com sorta went bust soon after,
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4262
“In March 2005, the Times Co. purchased About.com for $410 million, its largest acquisition since it bought the Boston Globe from the Taylor family for $1.1 billion in 1993. “
Everyone in the business is now looking back at the About.com acquisition and trying to carve out their piece of the inflated pie while the going is good.
I guess the newspaper guild is just echoing Obama, in wanting the HuffPo to ‘spread the wealth around’.
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