They're afraid of saying "blog" but not afraid of saying "podcast"?

If that's not a blog, I don't know what is.

You think Mark Baumgarten helped out by penning the "we wanna help you spread it" line before he ran away to Letchland, Minneapolis?

It's a faux blog- a fog

I think "flog" might be the better word mashup, Jim. (:

Technically, yes. But I prefer the symbolization of their web content being found in a fog.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the rigor.

It *does* mean what I think it means, doesn't it?

I write for a living, so the first thing I noticed is that they're not paying the writers. Is that a common practice for sites like the one WW is launching?

The most galling part is those cheery promises of free tickets to see stuff and "help" in spreading your gossip. WW will be selling ad-space on this "non-blog," just like The Mercury does. Which means if you give them your writing free, then their profit comes out of your pocket.

So, does The Mercury pay you for your Blogtown items? It looks like Blotgtown is mostly Mercury staff, not freelancers, so is it just part of your salaried work? If it is, did your salaries go up when Blogtown came on line? And if not, are frelancers paid for their Blogtown items?

The online sites I write for pay, but they're not a daily blog-like arm of a print journal. I can't imagine agreeing to give my work away to an established for-profit business, especially one that used to pay when it printed on paper.

These are crucial issues, I think. Blogtown, or Slog at The Stranger, or what WW seems to be launching now, are the future of "alternative journalism" (meaning the kind of journalism that began in the "alterantive" weeklies of the 1970s and 1980s and is no longer viable in weekly print editions). If we make the transition to this new form of journalism by deciding that writers are volunteers, then its goodbye to jobs for writers.

Hello Matthew Stadler-

I think I can answer your question. I'm a drug dealer, mostly cocain but I've got pot, shrooms, you name it no meth though, I leave that to the dealers on 5th & NW Everett.
Recently, well about 5 months ago my cocain supplies dried up. Why you ask? Mercury editorial staff have been buying it all up. They say they need the extra pep for all the blogging they do. One even told me they are allowed to expense it. Which, I think is a pretty damn good perk.
Does WW offer freelancers the same benefit? If so, please have them email me. I have a new shipment to unload. jk.dealer20078@gmail.com
Thank you kindly,
John

Matthew, I'm so glad you brought up the lack of payment issue. I find it abhorrent and unethical that a publication such as Wweek would resort to the, "but it's a great way to get your writing out there" excuse. Furthermore, these are just a slap in the face of journalism standards – Free Tickets! Free Stuff! Just be Sure to Write NICE THINGS kids, so we can get even more advertising money for our free blog: “Just the promise that when WW gets you free tix to an amazing arts event, you consider posting a short live review later that night or the next morning.” Do they even realize how much they are opening themselves up to unscrupulous reporting and unethical behavior? Do they even care?

For anyone that has written for Willy Weak – their freelance payments are already so low as to be laughable, and frankly their editing practices are questionable at best, and now they advertise that they aren’t paying at all. Shame on them.

I don’t care what kind of spin Wweek is trying to place on this; it is still a blog.

Flogger: A well-established ad revenue generating publication that doesn’t pay to blog
Sucker: Someone willing to blog for Willamette Week for free.

Willamette Week – take a little constructive feedback, ok? Your Arts and entertainment section has taken a dive (especially your food writing), and you keep losing good (professional) writers and reporters because you treat your writers like crap.

Get a clue. Want to have a professional blog, that isn’t a blog, or whatever you chose to call it? Then start acting professionally and ethically. Pay your writers.

Blogtown is staff written, and it's part of our salaried work. Nope, our salaries didn't go up automatically when Blogtown launched.

is calling it a "not-blog" any dumber than opening a message forum and calling it "Blogtown USA"?

(I'm referring to the previous, sucky incarnation)

Do bloggers at Oregon Live get paid?

Hey, I just blogged here. Do I get some drugs or a movie pass?

This is a project from Willamette Week's "World Headquarters." I'm so excited I must now go back to sleep. Who cares for Christ's sake!

Another question, this one for Rob Crocker, Mercury publisher. I know The Mercury and The Stranger have been stellar supporters of professional writers. (I know this because I worked for The Stranger, and still do occasionally.) What is your strategy for developing the professional norms of a service like Blogtown? Are you shaping a set of standards and practices for this new approach to publishing, or are you just winging it?


The Stranger and The Mercury are sufficiently ahead of the curve on developing these new approaches that they have a chance to set professional standards, and I think you should do so aggressively and publicly. Don't let WW's (or anyone else's) solicitation of volunteer "freelancers" pass without prominent notice and, for God's sake, don't take up the practice yourselves.


On a far more interesting level, maybe you and Tim Keck (publisher of The Stranger) could organize a group of your peers to set and commit to professional standards and practices for contributors to for-profit, blog-like journalism. Leadership on this is sorely needed, right now, and you guys are in a position to do it.

I think this is a fantastic idea.
it's so good I'm gonna steal it:
CALLING ALL WRITERS
JOB OPENING
WRITE 500-700 WORD ARTICLES FOR MY WEB SITE.
GET A CHANCE TO TALK TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, FEDERAL AGENTS AND SPEND TIME IN THE SONORAN DESERT IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY.
COVER THE HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT, NARCO-TRAFFICKING CARTELS AND THE GENERAL CHAOS THAT MAKES UP THE BORDER.
JOB DOES NOT PAY BUT HEY, NEXT TIME A MARIJUANA TRAFFICKER BLOWS THROUGH TOWN, MAYBE HE'LL DROP OFF A LITTLE FOR YOU.
ME? I'M GOING TO SELL YOUR WORK ON MY SITE AND RAKE IN SOME BADLY NEEDED DOUGH!

Seriously though, this isn't the first time I've heard of one of these silly deals. Where the hell do editors get the nerve?

Michael, as long as writers are stupid enough to do it, publishers will be happy to allow them to work for free.

I would love to get paid for two print pieces I did for the Merc back in 01. If anyone besides Phil would like to tell me the check is in the mail I would be happy to provide contact info. Unfortunately, I had to write it off as a loss a while ago, but since you all brought it up, I thought I might as well ask.

MR

Maybe the writers' landlords will let them live in their apartments free -- you know, just for the glory of having them there.

Good blogging is a labor of love--but it doesn't hurt to get paid either.

Lynn is right, incidentally. As long as they're willing, publishers won't pay.

Does it qualify as irony that the Everday Music ad I'm seeing right now says "Sell your soul, we pay cash?"

MR

The comment from MR aside, here at the Mercury we pay for everything written for our paper and/or our web site. I hadn’t thought of asking people to write for our publication for free, it is just such a foreign concept it hadn’t crossed my mind. I think it’s just another example of how the WW just doesn’t get this web thing. They know all the kids are using it, but they haven’t the faintest idea what it is all about. It appears they don’t value the medium and are thus reluctant to pay for web exclusive content.

As for Mathew’s query about how we deal with blogging and the web in general, I think of the web as just another part of the paper so all the rules governing it’s publication are the same. We pay for content. Our staff is paid to write; some of what they write appears in the paper, some on the web, and some in both. Same with freelancers and the content they produce.

Thanks Rob. I'm glad to hear the old rules still apply. I'm curious if the rates have changed. What do you pay freelancers per-word for print journalism and what per-word for blogtown? If that's private info, maybe you could just tell us if the rate for blogtown is lower and if it is, by what factor. Also, given Amy's note that staff writing salaries did not change when blogtown came on line, how do you calculate the compensation for the staff writers? Was there are a concurrent reduction in their print responsibilities, or is that all in flux right now?

I admire what you're doing, especially the commitment to professional writing. But I think you and Tim (Keck, publisher of The Stranger) should publicly and aggressively rally your peers to set professional standards for paying blog contributors. Will you do this, and how?

Mr Stadler,

Speaking of getting screwed by your sponsor, what are you doing these days, besides advocating for bloggers, since the restaurant has been killed?

Sincerely,
MR

Hi MR,

I'm writing a lot. And some of the events that got started at ripe continue. But let's not chat in the deep bowels of this thread. I'm always reachable at editor@clearcutpress.com