salon vs. slate vs. atlantic

well the atlantic is a successful digital media property and the digital age has been what has been killing paid journalism. so the new jobs they have are still kinda replacing what would have been even more jobs at even more institutions in a previous era.

like it's not about the atlantic, it's about the state of the industry

I mean, they're also a successful digital property in that they churn out a bunch of blog posts designed to pull in reader eyes, but I'm not sure that content is anywhere near as valuable as print articles. Then again, the writers are probably paid even less than that marginal value.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/i-didnt-think-about-being-ripped-off-i-thought-about-whipping-ass/273937/#

tnc has some twisted logic here

What I am asking you to do is to avoid an appeal to a more noble past. I lived there. It wasn't noble. It was fucked up. Like right now is fucked up. When you ask me to show solidarity with writers who aren't being paid, you should also ask yourself what solidarity white magazine writers have shown over the years with struggling black writers who could not break in. You are appalled that Nate Thayer was once offered $125,000 to write for The Atlantic, and was then offered nothing. Fair enough. Are you equally appalled that there were virtually no black writers who could have gotten the same deal?

like you can appeal to certain parts of the past - such as 'there was a middle class in america' - without believing that it was better in every single way for every single human being. nobody's mourning white privilege, they're mourning the privilege of getting paid for a certain form of labor, something that affects and will continue to affect, ya know, black bloggers too.

i really doubt opportunities for black writers have blossomed that freaking much in the last ten years. the real heyday for a more integrated world of journalism (to the extent there was ever even the beginnings of one) was iirc the 70s. i'm really taken aback by how offbase tnc is here.

http://www.nabj.org/news/88558/

yeah I mean his examples of today's progress is like..these 3 people have jobs now

i don't think he's saying that opportunities for black writers have exactly blossomed in the last ten years, he's just saying that those opportunities didnt exist back then and if they dont exist now because of the decline of the middle class, well thats not that different than the way it was back then either

opportunities did exist back then, maybe not the opportunity to be the token dude at the atlantic

but in terms of getting paid enough money to pay your rent for writing, more opportunities, across the board

And now everyone got to fight. Some of the writers I most admire -- Jamelle Bouie, Adam Serwer, Gene Demby -- advanced themselves, in part, by writing for free in the form of blogging. These people are warriors. And fifteen years ago -- under the system that is so lustily praised -- they would not have existed.

like he is implying that the current system is more meritocratic and we shouldn't forget that, but a. I mean how much is it really and b. again it doesn't really matter if there are 3 jobs total we're talking about

I mean this is the mothership he's putting his credibility on the line to defend:

http://www.theatlantic.com/writers/

xp Jeremy Duns is weirdly fixated on nailing people for plagiarism. He's usually right but he comes across as quite vindictive and obsessive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Duns

yeah that page of writers says it all about opportunity. i get that the atlantic has done great things for him, but its really out of touch to not see what's happening everywhere else.

Yes, they were commentators, not shoe-leather reporters: "reporting" seems to have talismanic effect over the consciousness

I wish it did

Never looked at the masthead, but Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg would be an awesome Bond villain name.

Or Ivy League smut peddler!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X30fcMb5FA

ahahah

wow that list of 'contributors' is depressing

I'm not gonna actually go research this but it doesn't seem inconceivable that there was at least 1 minority working at the atlantic 20 years ago

That would make a great piece. Could you look into it and get me 1500 words by Monday? I can't promise payment, but a lot of people read ILX.

Before llx it was hard to break into the world of message boards

"reporting"

I'm so sick of 'capitalism, man'

― lag∞n, Sunday, March 10, 2013 5:58 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ftr you know my neoliberalism gum tweet was a joke right, i have been thinking about this for 1 week

hoos added to the list

otw

I liked this reaction to the whole payment kerfuffle: http://lhote.blogspot.com/2013/03/admiring-shade-on-somebody-elses-deck.html

I wonder what unpromoted or underpromoted publications well-read journalists write for today. You know, to give aspiring publications a leg up.

Unpaid, I mean

so i was on salon the other day and got this great set of recommendations:

http://i.imgur.com/5AC7567.png

I liked this reaction to the whole payment kerfuffle: http://lhote.blogspot.com/2013/03/admiring-shade-on-somebody-elses-deck.html

― maura, Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:02 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah. i mean, what we should all be mad about, if anything, is the slow inevitable crumbling of western society as we know it. :)))))))))))))))))))

:D

might as well post this here too, because fuck the atlantic:
http://natethayer.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-freelance-journalist-2013/

http://natethayer.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-freelance-journalist-2013/

― iatee, Monday, March 4, 2013 11:05 PM (1 month ago)

oh durr. someone just posted it to my feed today. oh well.

It sure seems like Slate is going down the toilet lately.

Go on?

It's worse now than usual?

the articles just keep getting worse and more vapid. Matthew Yglesias either copies other people's work wholesale, or just pukes out every inane thought he has under the guise of "THIS IS GOING TO FUCKING CHANGE EVERYTHING" (see his articles this week on how WALGREEN IS THE FUTURE OF RETAIL, or his idiotic article about how PASTA MACHINES ARE GOING TO SAVE THE SERVICE ECONOMY). And then there's Amanda Marcotte. Holy shit, talk about someone who is nothing more than a gross caricature of feminist politics. There's really no one worth reading on there anymore.

and the number of typos, misspellings, and factual errors that riddle every article has gotten to a truly horrifying state

a truly horrifying slate

oh poliopaws

i've been loving the foreignpolicy sister site bunches

bunches? that's a cute name for a site!

hello giggles!

Foriegn Policy magazine? That's an actual print magazine led by respectable authors, thinkers, and policymakers. Foreign Policy is not a "click-bait"-style journal. I don't put Slate in the same league as that, although at one point maybe 10 years ago, Slate was closer to being in the ballpark.

owned by slate tho

Slate is owned by the Washington Post, I believe.

foreign policy is one of those things where it's interesting to read *because* the ppl reading it are "respectable" but i hate most of what i've ever read in it, the perspective is so shamelessly fukuyama

"slate group"

Slate Group is owned by the Post. But regardless, I don't see much in common between Slate and FP-- just a convenient cross-marketing opportunity.