Plenty of people blog for free, but when you are blogging for a multi-billion-dollar media conglomerate like AOL (a unit of Time Warner) at least you can expect a steady paycheck. Or not. Recent belt-tightening at AOL is hitting its network of bloggers, many of whom are being asked to curtail their posts or stop altogether. Others are being asked to post for free, and are actually doing so in the hopes that they might save their jobs come August. As one AOL blogger told us last week:
. . . our two biggest sites are cleared, but the rest of the sites are working on a 5 posts/day deal, so long as those aren’t written by international bloggers, but only US writers. Anything above and beyond that is unpaid and will be written under a staff account. Nearly everyone has agreed to post for free, including columnists, in the hopes that we will all still have jobs come August 1, when they’re telling us we’ll be back — just on a smaller budget.
Now it looks like some of those bloggers are going unpaid, and are writing under those staff accounts. On The Unoffical Apple Weblog (TUAW), for instance, some posts such as this one (screen shot at left) show an odd double byline, with the linked byline being attributed to a “TUAW Blogger” and the actual blogger’s name in text at the bottom. Apparently, the way AOL’s accounting system works, bloggers only get paid if their name is in the linked byline.
It may be hard to prove that such “off-the-clock” work is illegal, especially in an environment where many people write for free, but there’s no question that it crosses an ethical boundary. AOL has no business asking bloggers to participate in what amounts to slave labor in return for a chance at keeping their jobs come Friday.
Update: We spoke with Victor Agreda, Jr., Programming Manager of AOL-owned Weblogs Inc. (which owns TUAW) about the situation. He says that all Weblogs authors are going to be paid, and that Erica Sadun (the author of the post mentioned) likely chose to use the generic TUAW Blogger alias for personal reasons. He says that other authors writing under the same alias are being paid their normal flat fee.
Mr. Agreda was unable to comment on the payment status of other blogs owned by AOL that don’t fall under the Weblogs brand.
Update 2: Peter Kafka at Silicon Alley Insider confirms that some AOL bloggers indeed are working for free (on their own accord). But what choice do they have, really? Stop blogging and their traffic will die.
(Screen capture courtesy of Jason Calacanis).
frist psot!
Nobody is being asked to post for free, only not post at all. Some people have chosen to post regardless in respect to their readers and traffic.
That may be true, but AOL knows that the bloggers will have an incentive to continue posting. If they don’t, then their pocketbooks will get hurt by a downward trend in readers and traffic.
It’s a bad situation, and one AOL shouldn’t be putting them in.
It is a bad situation, yes. But fortunately there’s no direct link between the blogger’s pocketbooks and the number of readers or amount of pageviews, so there goes that theory.
Readers leave, the blog goes away, and the writers are out of a job.
A very long time ago they created a solution to low CPM ROI digital publications. It was called a newspaper.
Professional writers will cease to exist in a hundred years.
But the writer have options. They can go to Calacanis’ Mahalo - which according to him get paid 10 dollars an hour to work in the “Greenhouse”.
Cheesy.
Maybe these bloggers should do what others do during a corporate downsizing, go on their own and become entrepreneurs.
Additional evidence twards proving the trite old saying “The more things change the more they remain the same.” Low tech or high tech distribution, the work of writers is frequently undervalued and usually underpaid.
I can’t help but think back to when AOL decided to stop charging - weren’t they moving to rely on content-driven advertising? Why didn’t someone thing of how to pay the staff then? Of course even if all the bloggers walk at once, someone will still write for free just for the exposure.
So while it’s clearly a messed up situation, and completely wrong of AOL, it’s also genius in that “tinged with evil” way. I hope AOL implodes.
Makes perfect sense…bloggers are very rich people who only blog in their spare time…
What’s a few dollars between a media conglomerate and a blogger anyway?
Erick,
Good post. This is a pattern at AOL. They were infamous for exploitation of free workers (chat room hosts, etc.) back in the 1.0 days. People would work for hours a day, getting only AOL dial up service as compensation. Here’s a forbes piece I did a while back:
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/0219/070.html
It’s neither a good nor an accurate post.
I need a European writer, so if any international people want to work at TL, drop me a line now.
http://offur.com/BetterTechNews
Erick,
Thanks for writing this post, I saw the news on FF when Jason Calacanis put out the word, and I’m glad to see other bloggers making sure everyone knows about this. Its sad for these folks to get put in this position, as it is well known how hard it is to build up a loyal following, made even harder by the fact that they now have to post for free or risk losing the audience they have worked so hard to build. At this point AOL couldn’t pay me enough to blog for them, and I hope all of the affected bloggers find better work with a company that values their contributions more than to put them in a situation like this. Shame on AOL.
Sorry, the story is 100% off base. See the feedback below the story.
“He says that… Erica Sadun (the author of the post mentioned) likely chose to use the generic TUAW Blogger alias for personal reasons…”
And then include his real name at the bottom of the post? That doesn’t make sense in any relm of possibility
Looks like Jason’s got an ax to grind…
I honestly didn’t know that AOL still existed.
a huge ditto
“in the hopes that we will all still have jobs come August 1, when they’re telling us we’ll be back — just on a smaller budget.”
They pulled that one on us too when I worked for their Action Sports division. AOL is a sinking ship, and just like many other major corporations, They don’t give a crap about you.
Which is why the bloggers should just bail now and find work elsewhere.
That’s strange… other folks from Weblogs, inc. including Brad said the bloggers took it on themselves and blogged without pay with AOL’s blessing.
I guess AOL has changed their mind… which is the right thing to do.
If they are good writers why can’t they just take the audience with them and move to their own public blog based on advertising revenue.
Erica responds on TwitteR:
“My Posting, My Choice. (Seriously, it’s simply a mark of esteem and support for our blog leads, producer and readers.)”
http://twitter.com/ericasadun/statuses/871037426
So… non-story? Would be nice to have the update at the top of the post (and in the title so that things that have been completely refuted don’t just sit there ad infinitum.
Agree - this is a total non-story
I reached out to a few weblogs blogger friends and they confirmed they are getting paid.
Are they employees of AOL or freelancers (I’m assuming the latter)? Obviously a very big difference when you start throwing around words like “illegal.”
If any of the possibly now unpaid bloggers write about marketing / internet marketing, let me know. We actually pay our bloggers at HubSpot and are always looking for more.
I’ll repost what I said on flickr:
I love the title of this article. Even if it’s a little on the “spin” side, AOL deserves it.
I buy that roundup posts should be posted under a generic account, but why is TV Squad now mostly written by their generic account? Why does Gadling see an increase in the use of their generic account? It would seem that if you’re not Engadget or Joystiq, you can only have so many bylines that are actual people.
If they’re doing work for free and this is condoned, it’s not right. No worker should ever have the option to choose not to get paid as this will result in abuse.
Let’s also remember that Ryan Block is leaving Engadget “late next month.” I wonder if this is the reason?
aye - they want to map a model like Helium’s on where they share ad revenues with the bloggers. incentivises the bloggers to write more and better stuff.
1. Number of blog posts in question here: 50 to 500.
2. Average cost of a blog post: $10-15
3. Total dollar amount: $500 to $7,500
4. Value of AOL as a business: $20B
5. Salary of a SVP or EVP at a major internet company, per week: $10-15,000
6. One hour of jet fuel: $20,000
For the record, this would not have happened on my watch.
Note to the folks in middle management (who used to work for me): when you become more concerned with supporting the folks upstairs than supporting the folks “below” you than you’ve really lost touch.
Jason
Working for you was quite an experience. This may not have happened on your watch as you were not an effective manager and did not have your hands on the steering wheel of the business.
You are clearly very intelligent and creative, but a leader and manager of people and an organization, you were not. You are a visionary - stick to that. And try not to re-write history. You are a yeller and an ineffective manager of any team of people who possess a point of view that may at times be different then your own. It is healthy to have a high self-esteem but I have to be honest, we are treated much better by Brad then when you were calling the shots at Weblogs. Believe it or not, Brad is empowered and calling the shots, and we like it. Why not support him and root for us and Weblogs and AOL. you made it and are successful (or at least made mad money) in part because of Weblogs and AOL. root for us and don’t bash weblogs or AOL.
Cameron
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AOL has a place in internet history, but when I grew up and realized you didn’t need AOL to get on the internet (many years ago), I was sent into billing hell! I went for months trying to cancel my service, being told it was canceled, then seeing it on my statement again. You remember this…right AOL? I mean, it made national news.
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delonadenis
SEO
That’s really not fair. Seems like you should have to pay a fair wage no matter what.