If you’re looking for a reason not to write for the Village Voice, might we point you to the latest offer from management to staff? In addition to the traditional benefit cuts (which we’re sure somebody is going to fix — you want your crisis? Try health care, and not just for artists), there’s a cute little item that should raise hackles everywhere:
…and insisted that terms for work on the Voice’s website be determined in one-on-one deals between individual writers and the corporation, not through the collective bargaining that is required in a union shop.
In a way, accessing stories on websites, even those locked behind virtual walls until set free (and there are rumors of new technology that will make the micropayment concept a reality), are like additional windows in the distribution stream. Content providers will garner benefits in terms of advertising revenue; surely writers should share in the love? Sort of like residuals — something you get as a matter of course (after all, without the actual content, there wouldn’t be pages for advertisers to rest their marketing pitches on).
