As ever, this post has brewed in my mind for a while now and events today have finally pushed it out into the ether.
Let me explain.
You’ve heard of the Huffington Post? Surely you have – it’s a massive news and opinion site, owned by AOL. It’s essentially a beast of a blog, with hundreds of writers, and thousands of posts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad site – the content is generally good, but the problem is – Huffington Post, (generally) don’t pay their writers. It’s something Stephen Hull, the editor-in-chief of Huff Po UK is proud of –
“If I was paying someone to write something because I want it to get advertising, that’s not a real authentic way of presenting copy. When somebody writes something for us, we know it’s real, we know they want to write it. It’s not been forced or paid for. I think that’s something to be proud of.”
These words fell out of his mouth in February this year (source).
Whilst I get the sentiment, and understand it’s good to be authentic in your writing – people have to earn money for working. It’s not like Huff Po is a charity – it’s a fucking MASSIVE media company, owned by people who have made a living from creating content. I don’t imagine he rocks up at work, happy to do a day’s work just for the authenticity alone.
Many Bloggers aspire to, and some do, write for the Huffington Post – your writing gets massive exposure. This means your reach becomes larger, but financially, at the very core of it all – they make money off your work. I’ve tried, several times to get some of my stuff on there, without success – but reflecting on it now, I’m glad. I’d rather not earn money by throwing my thoughts up here, than let a media giant grow with more content, more advert revenue and greater diversity.
Things came to a head today when I was invited by the Huffington Post to appear in a video interview next week for a section called ‘Thriving Families’. They wanted my thoughts on becoming a father for the first time. It sounded pretty exciting. I became a Dad when I still felt like a child myself – so the impact on me was massive. I quickly found myself musing about the points I could make, and things that I could mention. Then in struck me. It was the Huffington Post asking me for this – they’ll want it all for free.
I was right.
“We don’t have any budget for these videos” – The producer admitted.
I do wonder how they would film, and edit video content on goodwill alone. Apparently, they can! I guess they get “authentic” recording equipment, camera and sound operators and editors for free somewhere.
I wasn’t after a massive fee like some bloggers, heck a bit of travel money to get me and child to London and maybe lunch somewhere would have been fine. Even that was too much of a stretch.
“We don’t really pay for travel, I can ask….” – Her voice trailed off, like it was going to be a hurdle even getting that. I wasn’t asking for a trailer full of prostitutes and some midgets to throw.
I often go to events and blog things under my own steam, and expense because I know I might be able to get some decent content out of it. With this though, they’d be getting decent content out of me, and I’d get – well perhaps a story to tell down the pub?
For a piece about ‘Thriving Families’ it’s a bit funny that they are unwilling to pay parental participants, it’s hard to thrive when working for free.
Here’s a bit of free, authentic writing for you.
Fuck you Huffington Post.
Should’ve asked for the prostitutes and midgets 😉 Love your rants, keep up the good work!
Every time someone writes for the HuffPo for free, they’re legitimising not paying writers for their endeavours and that’s wrong, especially when some write for a livelihood.
Pahahaha.. Maybe they only pay in midgets and hookers and you missed the boat. No travel expenses? WOW.
Nice follow link you’ve given them there….