Cocktails & New Media Dreams
Good on Rachelle Hruska of the Guest of a Guest blog for a fun NYT Styles writeup. However, the lesson here is not the obvious one the article espouses– “You, too, can move to NYC and start your own successful blog and blog for a living,” providing you find the right niche (according to Lockhart Steele, the go-to guy for any Internet-themed Times trend piece)–but rather, if you have the right hubris, you, too, can convince many coddled twentysomethings to work for your blog for free! [continued at ASSME…]
A repeated point that I seem to keep bringing up (simltaneously with Homer Simpson-esque beer belches) is that the “obvious” lesson mentioned above is a lie of the tallest order. Which doesn’t make me bitter against anyone who’s been talented, worked hard, and found success. (Those people are not the ones doing most of the lying, either. For Christ’s sake, Denton keeps going on the record telling everyone it’s a lie!) A big big point intentionally skipped in these articles - both in the tech press coverage and the lifestyle press coverage - is that in almost every case of success, there is some sort of unnatural force that keeps the business surging. In this case, it’s the irrational persistence of creative professionals who think it’s okay that they work without pay for commercial ventures while a set of investors and paid executives are making money off that work (or, more frequently, staunching the cash bleed and keeping the patient vital until the next round of lifeblood venture capital arrives).
Try crashing parties for your schmoozing opportunities, and you can freeblog for fun but don’t spend too much time on it–real adults get paid. Jesus, I sound like a Dad, but seriously–do you want to be popular, or do you want to make money?
Disclosure - I do some photo work for Guest of a Guest when it suits me in some manner superior to mere “placement”. I have zero obligation to them, though; It may be the case that I do or do not work for them again, and consider my work scheduling with them to be extremely flexible but polite arrangements. I think it’s irrational to take on substantial responsibilities at a startup company for zero compensation. And I think it’s inequitable (and unethical) to accept or encourage such arrangements, both for participants and observers. Particularly, I have a huge problem with people who actually feel working for free suits them (the arrangement doesn’t exist without someone coming forward with that offer), and an even bigger problem with commentators advancing the concept that exploitative labor is “status quo”.
As an example, there’s a definite feeling of agita I get when I see the (potential) pairing of income-deprived laborers with “non-guilty shopping and cocktail” parties. (Yes, I picked the most heinous example on their front page. And how ironically titled in 2009.) A fair suggestion: if everyone in that gallery of party pics coughed up a $2 cover charge, you could have paid the photographer at least $120. (For a commercial event? With recordable profits? You better believe that someone SHOULD have forked over that money.)
And now it’s a good time to note: some promoters do pay Guest of a Guest photographers for their services. That party above may have been a paid-gig for the photographer after all. It is a worthy goal to push for such arrangements. (I do.) They are much closer to the ethical side of this argument than you think. But GofaG also sends out a lot of people to parties where the only real tradeoff is admission-for-photos. It’s easy but unpaid work. There are limited reasons to find that sort of arrangement appealing, and they expire pretty quickly. I know from experience. (Disclosure: I did that sort of thing for Mediabistro.com until I was actually fed up with myself for doing it. And sometimes I send photos of events into Gawker for no pay because I fucking love it when they print my name.)
On a note of sympathetic concern, the ever-bubbly and appealing Rachelle is taking a big risk by being the public face of a venture that relies heavily on unpaid freelance labor, particularly in the middle of an economic crisis. There will be exploitation questions and they may have uneasy answers. And all those questions are going to go to the person out front-and-center, even though she is far from the singular source of the problem. This risk persists despite the fact that she is very good at her job. It could actually interfere with her doing her job if the backlash gets bad enough. Nothing I’d wish on anyone.
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She is in good company, though, with virtually every other media outlet in town. Why, recently I heard someone (not to be named) bitch out one of my other contacts (also unnamed) about following up a successful unpaid blog gig with an offer for a different unpaid blog gig - both for very well established commercial ventures. What’s sad about that? There is virtually no danger in anyone making the identity of anyone in that exchange because that is all too common.
For all the crowing about unpaid workers, it is hardly the only way to be inequitable with a workforce or a nation. More disclosure: I worked for Lehman AND AIG. And I once worked for Morgan Stanely as an independent contractor, while being friends with a lawyer who helped bring a civil suit against them for fucking over their contractors. (I’m such a winner.) You might have a stroke if you realize that, right now, some companies are recording record profits while slashing headcount “due to the harsh economic conditions”. And then you might go batshit and start quoting “Fight Club.”
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The thing about such problems is that they eventually sort themselves out in the marketplace. I will not architect a downfall for you here in this post. Let’s just wrap up by agreeing that, going back to the medical analogy, the patient is at its most vital when the blood is flowing to all organs. For all the employers and employees using the “status quo” excuse, it is a concept to strongly consider. And a good discussion to continue another day.
