{"id":5302,"date":"2013-03-07T11:46:14","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5302"},"modified":"2013-03-07T11:53:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:53:50","slug":"freelancers-versus-editors-in-the-digitalprint-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5302","title":{"rendered":"Freelancers versus Editors in the Digital\/Print Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freelance journalist Nate Thayer’s blog post about his experience with The Atlantic <\/em>has made some waves. <\/a><\/p>\n

In short, Thayer was pretty annoyed when Olga Khazan, an Atlantic <\/em>editor, asked him to re-write a piece published elsewhere for The Atlantic \u2014\u00a0<\/em>for free. Thayer reproduced their email exchange, which included him reminding her that “exposure” does not pay any bills:<\/p>\n

I am a professional journalist who has made my living by writing for 25 years and am not in the habit of giving my services for free to for profit media outlets so they can make money by using my work and efforts by removing my ability to pay my bills and feed my children. I know several people who write for the Atlantic who of course get paid. I appreciate your interest, but, while I respect the Atlantic, and have several friends who write for it, I have bills to pay and cannot expect to do so by giving my work away for free to a for profit company so they can make money off of my efforts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then a more senior editor, Alexis Madrigal, got involved, feeling Thayer’s pain but explaining how, gosh, publishing is in a tough spot and he just doesn’t have any budget for freelancers, even as he wanders the halls and ponders the magazine’s past glories<\/a><\/p>\n

If I open up one of our musty tomes at the office, I can get sucked in for an hour just looking at the ads, or marveling at the eloquence of W.E.B. DuBois. When I look back at old Ta-Nehisi posts or see Fallows in the halls, I can get emotional. I was watching Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary, and he notes, offhandedly, how stories that ran in our magazine helped preserve Yosemite for future generations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Commenters saw it differently:<\/p>\n

I just love reading lengthy self-justifications from people who have full-time jobs taking other people’s work for free.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And<\/p>\n

Congratulations: you’ve made your magazine’s arrogant, sorry-not-sorry half-apology and made it into a full out non-apology. The amazing thing is that you think you’re articulating a defense of the profound self-worship of The Atlantic, when actually, you’re engaging in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot of the comments does engage the money issue in intelligent ways, so if you are trying to write for money, it’s worth reading them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freelance journalist Nate Thayer’s blog post about his experience with The Atlantic has made some waves. In short, Thayer was pretty annoyed when Olga Khazan, an Atlantic editor, asked him to re-write a piece published elsewhere for The Atlantic \u2014\u00a0for free. Thayer reproduced their email exchange, which included him reminding her that “exposure” does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,12],"class_list":["post-5302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-publishing","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1nw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4659,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4659","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":0},"title":"Rhetoric: It’s “Classical” Because It Works","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Back to the basics\" works if you chose the right basics. (We could debate that.) \"The Writing Revolution,\" an article in The Atlantic, argues that attention to basic rhetorical principles \u2014 as opposed to expressing your feelings or writing in order to become a better person\u2014 helps disadvantaged high school\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"education\"","block_context":{"text":"education","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=education"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4842,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4842","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":1},"title":"A Rant About the Hyphen","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Wilton links to a fine rant in The Atlantic about hyphens. (Yes, we care.)\u00a0 And that link will get you to this one in\u00a0Mental Floss about the difference between the em-dash and the en-dash. Now I am careful to use the en-dash when separating ranges of numbers, such as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":611,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=611","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":2},"title":"Beer and VinlandI sat down\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Beer and VinlandI sat down last night with a plate of bread, King Oscar sardines and Rosenborg cheese, a couple of bottles of Carlsberg beer (Support Denmark!), and a copy of the Smithsonian's illustrated anthology Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.It's all for inspiration: I am working up to a series\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1170,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1170","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":3},"title":"Priestess Honored by Cherry Hill Seminary","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Judy Harrow, Wiccan priestess and teacher, has been honored by having Cherry Hill Seminary's online library named for her.Don't go looking for the libary yet--it is under construction. And it will be entirely digital, since Cherry Hill offers primarily online classes.CHS blurbs thusly:A Wiccan priestess since 1977, Harrow founded Proteus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1550225197","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1460,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1460","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":4},"title":"Thinking Magically about Corporations\u2014and Plants","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Writer Dale Pendell muses about the idea of a corporation as a magical creation. Pendell is the author of the three best-ever books on psychoactive and entheogenic plants: Pharmako\/Gnostis, Pharmako\/Dynamis, and Pharmako\/Poeia. New editions are forthcoming from North Atlantic Books. Here is his Web site.","rel":"","context":"In \"entheogens\"","block_context":{"text":"entheogens","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=entheogens"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10228,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10228","url_meta":{"origin":5302,"position":5},"title":"Megaliths Started in France, Say Archaeologists","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I read this article, and all I could think about was the potential for historical-fantasy novels on the line of Jean Auel or Michael and Kathleen Gear: The Megalith Mission. Or something like that! The earliest megaliths were built in what\u2019s now northwestern France as early as around 6,800 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/021119_BB_megalith_feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/021119_BB_megalith_feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/021119_BB_megalith_feat.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/021119_BB_megalith_feat.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5302"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5307,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5302\/revisions\/5307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}