Freelance journalist Nate Thayer touched off a spirited discussion on the ethics and economics of paying (or not paying) freelancers with a post criticizing The Atlantic for asking him to rewrite for them an article he’d published elsewhere, and to do it for free. He ranted some more to New York’s Daily Intel , and The Atlantic’s James Bennet issued a somewhat apologetic, somewhat explanatory statement. (In a later twist, author Jeremy Duns raised some plagiarism questions about his original piece, which the Columbia Journalism Review followed up on.)For the deepest discussion of the issues at work in paying freelancers online, check out this conversation started by The Awl’s Choire Sicha and joined by dozens of online writers and editors.
We’ll look at this from the freelancer’s perspective first: Several writers took issue with Thayer’s implication that freelancers should never write for free. Slate’s Matthew Yglesias said that with a few exceptions, most anybody who’s writing should write for free. Freelancer Stephanie Lucianovic (in a piece originally written before Thayer’s was published) and TechCrunch’s Gregory Ferenstein explained why they’re glad they write (or wrote) for free. Former WSJ.com writer Jason Fry offered some criteria for considering when to write to free, but cautioned: “Be ruthless in asking yourself if the trade-off’s really worth it. Is the platform really that prestigious? Is the give and take with readers really that attractive? Is the relationship with the editor really going to be that hands-on?” Kelly McBride of Poynter noted, though, that it can be very difficult to keep hard rules about how little pay to accept.
Others looked at pay dilemma from the angle of the editor, or the industry as a whole. Atlantic tech editor Alexis Madrigal (who wasn’t involved in Thayer’s situation) laid out the case from the editor’s perspective, explaining why traffic and low freelance budgets lead some editors to pay freelancers little or nothing, even when they’d rather not. Reuters’ Felix Salmon explained things more dispassionately, reasoning that the lack of division of labor in online publishing makes it much easier to produce content in-house than to incorporate freelancing. Likewise, Om Malik of GigaOM explained why he hasn’t used many freelancers, but believes they should always be paid.
At PandoDaily, Paul Carr asserted that sites like The Atlantic need to decide between the cheap, aggregative model of online publishing, and the expensive, journalistic one. Mathew Ingram of paidContent argued that the fact that so many on the web are willing to create content for free will always make it difficult for freelancers, but there are still alternative ways for freelancers to make money. (Patrick Thornton suggested a few creative ideas.) Virginia Quarterly Review web editor Jane Friedman argued that there’s nothing to be gained by ripping sites who are trying to get things right and make money.
Likewise, Forbes’ Timothy B. Lee said that people who think bad pay for writers is unacceptable should work to change the system, rather than personalize things. And Pocket’s Mark Armstrong posited that we’re all contributing to the problem whenever we casually give our writing away for free even on social media, or to sites that give it away themselves.