Expose of CEO Shane Smith of Vice Magazine cheating, scamming & not paying reporters

[asahi]

@Miller

The guy talks about getting $75 for a story, which was 15% of the agreed price. So, he should have gotten $500. What’s the most he could make on a breach of contract suit for that much money? Meanwhile, Vice tells him, “Sure, go ahead and sue. It’s pocket change to us. But we’re never going to buy another story from you again. You got enough stories in other outlets to cover your rent this month? And next month? Or you can just take the $75 and roll over, and hope next time we don’t screw you quite as hard.”

True, but being stiffed like that, I’m guessing freelancers probably assume that Vice is just a crappy client and they’ve written them off. Freelancers don’t have to write for Vice. Maybe the writer is trying to make a point and hoping that others follow suit. If the allegations are true, it’s disappointing because Vice occasionally has interesting stuff.

[Banquet_Bear]

@asahi

True, but being stiffed like that, I’m guessing freelancers probably assume that Vice is just a crappy client and they’ve written them off. Freelancers don’t have to write for Vice. Maybe the writer is trying to make a point and hoping that others follow suit. If the allegations are true, it’s disappointing because Vice occasionally has interesting stuff.

…you read the response from VICE I posted, didn’t you?

Vice Exec Admits ‘Weak Spots’ in Paying Freelancers in Response to Report

While many of the complaints highlighted in the CJR piece date back to 2014 and 2015, before we mandated best practices and overhauled our accounts payable department, they do point out weak spots that do need fixing, which we’re currently addressing.

The only defense VICE presents towards the allegations in the CJR article are that some of the allegations may have happened a year or two ago. So the CJR made some allegations: VICE acknowledged them, accepted that they happened and are now working to fix the problems. At this stage how is anyone questioning the veracity of the original story?

[mhendo]

@Banquet_Bear

So the Atlantic: which in 2015 set records and achieved “Unprecedented Revenue Growth” in 2013 paid only $100.00 for original stories and ran out of budget to pay their freelancers. And they had the cheek to post this editorial in rebuttal.

That’s pretty depressing. It’s perhaps even more disappointing that the person writing the response was Ta-Nehisi Coates, someone whose writing is incredible, and someone for whom i have a great deal of respect. I sympathize with some of his points, but as someone who’s been an Atlantic subscriber for quite a few years now, i subscribe partly because i want to support good writing, and i hoped and assumed that the magazine had not gone down the same “Work for exposure” route as the Huffington Post and so many other “new media” outlets.

[astro]

@mhendo

That’s pretty depressing. It’s perhaps even more disappointing that the person writing the response was Ta-Nehisi Coates, someone whose writing is incredible, and someone for whom i have a great deal of respect. I sympathize with some of his points, but as someone who’s been an Atlantic subscriber for quite a few years now, i subscribe partly because i want to support good writing, and i hoped and assumed that the magazine had not gone down the same “Work for exposure” route as the Huffington Post and so many other “new media” outlets.

Thanks for that link I did not realize things had gone that far down the rabbit hole with respect to the institutional devaluation of content creators.