What about the Writers?

I added another link to the fund in the top of the right sidebar, so it's easily accessible. I hate to sound like a pledge drive (I guess being interviewed on public radio today rubbed off) but this really is the BEST way to help.

And I met this dude who said he was a freelancer who has contributed to a lot of local community newspapers and other local publications...like Punk Planet.

And he said he never got paid!! So, yeah, this makes sense, then.

I'll try to kick in a few bucks come payday, to make up for some of my youthful indiscretions. I always paid the full quarter for my copies of HeartAttack and they died too, so I'm not shouldering the full blame for the fall of the independent/punk print medium.

Hope it helps Dan.

Getting paid is quickly becoming the exception to the rule. PP is, and has been for a long time, rather unique in that it has endeavored to pay its writers (try finding one of the comparable online music/culture sites that are ever going to make that commitment.)

Unless you're writing for a corporate-affiliated publication, or an independent one that sells luxury items to an affluent "liberal" audience, you're probably not going to see any money. Which is fine in certain circumstances--if you believe strongly in the mission of the publication, and have other income to offset it--but the fact of the matter is that real in-depth reporting costs money and time. You can't totally DIY it unless you're sitting on a ton of trust fund money or are a student or have some other situation that allows you more free time than most people have. Many great writers and reporters don't have those sort of resources, and as the larger zines that have attempted to compensate their writers continue to go under, not only are the outlets for those voices diminishing, but also the sustainability of those voices--hour-long cross-country phone interviews are far from free, no matter if you're doing them for Punk Planet, Pitchfork or Knight-Ridder.

This is a big problem, and blogs "supported" by Google Adsense are not the answer. Until Google Adsense can pay us to devote 40-80 hours a week to report of stories that the mainstream media ignores, then the future of thorough independent journalism is in profound danger. Until Technorati can verify posts for accuracy and thoroughness rather than how quickly a blog post initiates others' immediate emotional reactions, we need editors reading this shit and pushing their writers and making their work better. And if the future of independent journalism is unverified rumors and hearsay and opinion posting during highly emotional states, then this democracy is even more fucked than it already is. And if you tell me that Perez Hilton is the future of journalism, I'm going to stick my head in a goddamn toilet.

Rant done. Thanks for coming.

But I guess I was more commenting on the coincidence. Because this happened really not too long ago.

Of course this could be a rumor, but I heard that the Reader makes freelancers pitch stories, but it's not until the piece is actually written that they will determine whether they will publish it (aka pay you for it).

So, you know, there goes all that time and money spent only to receive the big goose egg. I would intially think that this type of process would hurt their content overall, but I suppose there's enough starving freelancers with ideas to keep that from happening.

You work(ed)at PP, right? How were new writers/stories chosen? Were they independent entities like: "here's a writer whose past work we like, and here's an interesting story. We will assign them this story." Or was it that freelancers just pitched stories and then submitted shit. Not that I'm implying that the content was shit, that was just slang.

That wasn't really directed at your comment, so much as it was directed at a lot of crap I've been reading online and off about the future of media and journalism--in which the fate of the writers/freelancers is rarely discussed. Also, a certain amount of PP defensiveness, because I owe a lot to Anne and Dan and the magazine.

I've heard the same about what you said about the Reader regarding a number of publications--luckily, the alt-weeklies I write for out in California have been incredibly fair as far as telling me straight-up whether they are going to run, and therefore compensate me for, something I have written. As far as I can tell, this is not necessarily the case, though generally any introductory essay about getting into freelancing or journalistic writing tells you not to write on spec--as in, pitch the piece, but don't write until you confirm it's running. From what I hear, that's not necessarily the rule.

As for there being enough starving freelancers, the fact is that there are. It's incredibly competitive, but the thing is, if you're willing to do the work, there are opportunities. That is one of the things I love about Chicago--people are somewhat receptive and will give an outsider an opportunity if they are willing to get engaged and do the work (I moved here a year and a half ago.) That is simply not the case in California, where I grew up.

And as for PP, yes I did work there (here), but not in the editorial end of things (though I did have the honor of editing the DVD reviews in the final two issues.) I can't speak for how editorial choices were made about the articles, but I can tell you about my experience. Basically, I was a long-time reader of the mag who had a friend who wrote for it years back (George Sanchez, who did the amazing heroin/Afghanistan article back in '02 if memory serves me correctly.) I was moving from Chicago to California, George encouraged me to submit a pitch, which I did, Anne responded to it (this is the DRM piece I wrote for 74) and I wrote the article. I can't really speak to their editorial process, but I know first-hand they were very accessible to pitches from new or untested writers...and hard but excellent editors who made me a much better writer and thinker.

It sucks that, now that I've actually discovered Punk Planet (Borders, Scottsdale, three days ago!), the issue I found is THE last issue. Bummer!!!

I would love to see it revived again someday, in better circumstances and with stronger support. In the meantime, as a writer myself, I'm so grateful to know that you actually paid for the content in your publication, especially as bigger, more "successful" glossy mags screw other writers over by soliciting articles but refusing to pay. I've donated $20 to your independent journalism fund... not a big amount, but it's with the hope that Punk Planet will find its way back to the newsstand again soon. In the meantime, I'll be waiting and getting my PP fix online.

Cheers,
Lorcan