What do the unpaid contributors and their commenting audience get from the AOL deal? Apparently permission to keep on doing what they do, still unpaid. As true serfs, they will thank the Manor Born for that permission. Better to get some publicity — they think — than toil in some ‘not part of the conversation’ twilight.
All of us probably know someone or perhaps some have posted items/comments on that site. What we’ve found talking to acquaintances is a weird passive resentment being used mixed with pride that their item is posted. Like a sweating serf beaming after receiving a nod from the carriage as it enters the gates.
Hats off to Arianna for using all those people so ruthlessly and profiting off them so blatantly. With a few minor exceptions, the people we know who post items there deserve that unseemly existential resignation. Some deserve more. We can’t wait to see how the circus will set up shop under AOL. So many serfs wanting to be found.
Tara Kline says
I signed up to this site because of this thread and had a similar question in mind, I unfortunately have had negative contact with the spirit, and i join the vampire family to get to where i am today and been a vampire i have been able to do what i can’t do before, i can run faster and hear from a far distance and been a member is the greatest gift of my life if you chose to become a vampire then let the Great lord know what you need worldofvampir@hotmail.com
DrLeoStrauss says
Arianna’s volunteers lose legal fight for share of the $300 MM AOL purchase.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/01/huffington-post-bloggers-aol-millions?CMP=twt_fd
Dr Leo Strauss says
Moviefone Editor Fired by AOL Over ‘Unpaid’ Freelancer Memo One Day Later
http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/moviefone-editor-fired-over-unpaid-freelancer-memo-26215
_____________
The first rule of showbiz: show, don’t tell.
DrLeoStrauss says
Dear Moviefone/Cinematical Writers,
I know there’s been a lot of uncertainty regarding the future of freelancers and your status as a writer for the site. I personally apologize for the lack of communication, but I’ll tell you what I can…
Sometime soon–this week, I believe–many of you will be receiving an email informing you that your services as a freelancer will no longer be required. You will be invited to contribute as part of our non-paid blogger system . . .
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/04/05/aol-to-movie-writers-youre-fired-but-wed-love-it-if-you-write-for-free/
DrLeoStrauss says
Sign ‘o the times – Arianna gives students lecture on ‘journalism’. If Dante were with us, one can only wonder what level he would assign that.
Dr Leo Strauss says
AOL closes Huff Po deal; its stock hits all-time low.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/03/aol-stock-huffington-post.html
Dr Leo Strauss says
Arianna and AOL claim their first victim, Engadget Editor in Chief quits over content farming serfdom.
http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/02/19/the-aol-way-claims-its-first-victim-engadget-editor-paul-miller-resigns/
RedPhillip says
@Dr Leo Strauss
“Hard to see how this ends well.”
It doesn’t. It doesn’t end well at all.
Tbilisi says
@anxiousmodernman
Good summary, especially re the CV. As you describe, the value of the end product is less and less based on some external criteria (such as quality, originality, or even in many cases popularity) and more and more based on how well product can be used as a tool of social / professional positioning. i.e. from intrinsic value to purely functional (and thus ephemeral) value. Like fucking your own pimp. Necessary from time to time, but if you do it at the expense of actual value creation, relative social positioning won’t save your ass for a minute.
@Dr Leo Strauss Well said to include academia in this. Most non-ethnographic, non-historical, non-theory building social science scholarship today really amounts to not much more than ephemeral relative positioning strategies, and that which is not is lost in the deluge.
Dr Leo Strauss says
@anxiousmodernman
Good points. There certainly are a few examples of people who hit the lotto following that model and landed visible perches.
Going back to your original observation that this model is a race to the bottom one wonders how realistic it is to keep on hoping for that elusive jackpot. There’s an opportunity cost involved and hope over experience can take one only so far.
Your wider point also applies to almost everyone involved in communications, whether it be journalism, academics, pundits or simple bloggers. Everyone competing for self-branding/self-promotion differentiation. Hard to see how this ends well.
anxiousmodernman says
Doc,
It just doesn’t seem weird to me that anyone toils over a blog post for free. It is because my generation is more web-saavy that they are willing to do it. We know there are not that many ways to differentiate yourself in general news writing. We have to continue to build our resumes.
The alternative, not submitting to the Arianna model, is akin to total silence in the web sphere. There’s no web 2.0 platform that doesn’t exploit user input in some way, be it Twitter, Facebook, Google, or whatever. In comparison to these examples, HuffPo looks like a small fry.
Now, we can say that there’s a difference between a coherent piece of writing on HuffPo and your average status update, and there is. But when TV anchors are reading chat room feeds on live TV, the signal to anyone who might be a journalist is this: work harder, for free, to differentiate yourself. Maybe it’ll pay off someday.
RedPhillip says
@Comment
Commentary friend, Obama has a remarkable facility to sound like he’s saying one thing — usually what his audience most wishes to hear — which on closer hearing, an examination of the record and his subsequent actions makes clear his oratory is the political equivalent of trompe l’oeil.
Comment says
The plan to take down “the left” sounds like the plan to discredit Dan Rather’s investigation into Dubya’s military records.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/10/lobbyists-chamberleaks/
Cheney and Rumsfeld – out of power, unloved by all, hated by many – the clock tics and they will be on the defense for a long time.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Professional Republican/Movement social climbers rue the day CPAC encouraged students to attend. Much like Mubarak they despise insolent youth/students. Even if some of the professional social climbers secretly wished they had the guts to shout down Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Comment says
We had mute on – but just saw Rumsfeld flash his tradmark grin – filled with malice and all sorts of emotions at cpac.
Btw – new media wars just beginning – Take note of msnbc pretty aggressive tone.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41465455/ns/technology_and_science-security/
Comment says
We knew Frum slipped when he posted 2 indignation filled posts about W crimes investigations – demanding Obama nip it in the bud – Now he is being hounded by Greenwald – Greenwald always wins these exchanges.
http://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/35780598744219648
Comment says
Obama came out with some artful babble re Egypt – To listen or watch , Obama sounds like he is endorsing the revolution. But if you read the text – there is none of that.
Tweety – a week ago he was being praised by wingers in Tucker’s caaller blog for expressing anger at Obama for being cold to “our great ally” Mubarak. Now, he has switched – claiming that he just learned about Mubarak’s billions.
Comment says
Major Clapper gaffe – called the M. Brotherhood secular – IMHO, he is nervous and he is trying to will something by saying it.
Comment says
Thanks Anon & Leo – bad long links are (along with American social media sites) the primary reason Egypt is revolting.
Btw – just saw Scheuer on tv opining about the Egypt – though we doubt he knows any more about Egypt than ordinary person. But he probably hopes Suleiman never has to testify to an international tribunal.
Anon says
@Comment
Easily done
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_go_ot/us_cia_accountability
Dr Leo Strauss says
@Comment
re link, done.
Comment says
In that case -Leo, can you delete that broken link and we’ll repost the corrected one.
Comment says
The link doesn’t work?
Anon says
@Comment
always clean the yahoo links by removing anything from “;_ylt=” and after. It gives up your yahoo session id.
Comment says
IMHO #posthuff makes more sense and would gain better traction than the somewhat unctuous #huffpuff. But what do we know. But ideally ex Huffpo writers should try to dispense with any name derivative of Arianna’s – Otherwise, media will disregard
Anon says
#huffpuff
I never wrote or commented there. Now I know there was a reason for my eerie feelings about her site
Dr Leo Strauss says
Tbilisi and Comment – should anyone toss 50 cents this way everyone here would be co-venturers, naturally!
Anxious – nice break down, yeah all reports say 3-4 x revenues tops. It is a grim race to the bottom as you observed. It’s just so weird to see cable talking head types spending hours toiling over a free blog post and somehow feeling grateful for their exploitation. Younger people seem more able to detect the bogus scam.
Not all are blind. The recent ad buster’s email says it all:
Comment says
Like The Jeffersons – They are movin’ on up.
[link deleted at request of poster, new new forthcoming]
Comment says
All us who comment at Leo’s blog are fellow philosophe-aristocrats who scoff at the Mere Commerce of Princess Arianna and her unhappy band of serfs and celebrities.
Btw – just saw some new cheeseball direct mail from Newt. Newt is a vulture.
anxiousmodernman says
I have to note that I know a lot of 20 something writers in DC, but the only one I ever knew who wrote for the old AOL News got paid, at least.
anxiousmodernman says
My opinion? This was a steal for AOL. I recently got into online ad sales (accidental), and given the sums involved they paid 3-4x revenue, tops. An overvaluation, but we’ve seen worse.
The Arianna model has plenty of legs. Journalism (cough) is undergoing a wholesale de-professionalization, and we have not yet reached the floor on either standards or wages. It’s very unclear what economic sectors will be able to absorb the humanities majors of my generation (ad sales here!). But we’re all still young and we don’t mind living in group houses in Columbia Heights for…too much longer. Do we?
Think of the Arianna model as functionally similar to the extended period of unpaid or low-paid internships we endure in many professional fields (although in DC it’s an epidemic). The social cost is that these internships naturally select for 1) the already well-off and trust-funded or 2) the especially servile.
I repeat. We haven’t seen the bottom.
But or the shareholders HuffPost was a steal.
Tbilisi says
There is no bounds with what I can do with other people’s ideas.
-James Joyce (paraphrase)
Good Doctor, I sincerely hope someone is funneling large sums to the Stiftung in exchange for our writings here.