Another User-Generated Magazine Issue Experiment

Recently Budget Travel undertook an all user-generated issue, in which it paid readers to write pieces that needed some heavy editing. Now Time Inc.'s This Old House became Your Old House for an issue, according to a story in Folio. All the photos, DIY projects, and tips in the June issue came from readers:

Executive editor Kathryn Keller says the magazine received thousands of e-mails, letters, photos and projects since editor Scott Omelianuk's first call for submissions in his December editor's letter.

In addition to the letter, the magazine created a dedicated microsite for readers to upload materials and then called for submissions at the end of magazine stories, in e-mail blasts and at the end of the This Old House television show.

Ads were up over the same issue the previous year, but so were expenses. Interestingly, the big resource sink was apparently not the editing, but building and managing the associated web site. This Old House is currently thinking of doing this on an annual basis. There's even a company that apparently is finding a way to make this pay in the long run:

8020 Publishing, which formed in June 2006, produces its two reader-generated titles Everywhere and JPG with a total staff of 19, and may be profitable by next year. The company is reportedly considering similar titles for foods and car enthusiasts, if the demand among its online community reaches critical mass.

Why Have a Web Site?

If you've been debating whether to spend the time and energy on a web site, or you have a site and wonder what more you can do with it, here are some suggestions of business advantages you can get from your site:

• Show a range of writing that you do or topic ares you understand.


• List special training, talents, certifications, or expertise that might not be immediately clear from the writing.


• Keep a page of links to recent work so editors don't have to track everything down or deal with attachments.


• Offer a range of informative articles that provide value to clients and prospects while demonstrating your professional abilities.


• Show a client list and a set of testimonials so it's not just you talking about you.- Set out the nature of your business and the types of work you tend to do.


• Show speaking engagements that can communicate a more robust sense of your expertise.


• Provide a frequently asked questions section that can offload the more rote and time-consuming questions that you get.


• Convey the idea to prospects or even editorial sources that you are "real."

New Online Uses of Writing

I'm going to ask you to take a detour for a moment to another of my blogs where I mentioned the rumor of the New York Times opening its API, or application programming interface.

Have you ever thought about what electronic use of material could mean beyond posting an article on the Web or publishing it on DVD or CD collection? Opening the APIs is an example. The NYT can do this because it buys all rights, and so can make anything available to anyone it wants in any way it wishes. What if a company doesn't do this? In some cases, it may not matter:

• Their contract could allow something like non-exclusive "electronic" rights, and that might cover giving the material away to others. There is no set definition of electronic rights that I've been able to find.


• Some types of writing, like recipes, do not have copyright protection under law. Were I a publisher, I'd argue that even if the other material from writers was under their copyright protection, the recipes were not. It might stand up in court or not, but are you willing to spend the money to find out?


• Information also does not enjoy copyright protection. If the publication can extract what a court might see as straight information from your article, it could make use of that information. You, of course, could claim that such a use would be a derivative work - that is, derived from your original, and so needing a license from you. But that means either having the contract tight enough up front or spending time in court.


• What if another site simply links to select parts of your material in the form of an area clearly shown as the publisher to whom you licensed the piece? I don't think there is a clear answer.

The upshot to writers should be clear. If part of your business strategy is to re-license your work, and that work appears on the web, it may be that you find other sites taking it in bits and pieces, no longer needing an article in its entirety, or you, for that matter. And what happens when you marry this with the idea of Web 2.0, in which millions of users are capable of using programming hooks to include information on their own sites and social networking pages? It makes electronic databases look benign in response. At least in the case of the databases, you can point to a few names that create most of the problems.

If you'll notice an additional theme here, many potential uses of parts of an article fall into a grey area. Even if you thoroughly nail down a contract, the chances are that things are going to come up faster than you can possibly predict, and maybe faster than is possible to keep up. I know I was surprised when I read the NYT API story - and I have known of APIs and their uses literally for decades. Maybe the only business strategy will eventually be to keep moving so quickly, and being creative enough in the process, that your work retains its value to others. In other words:

1. Make sure that you know the value you bring to writing, and "being a good writer" is simply not going to be enough.


2. Have areas of deep knowledge that are difficult to duplicate.


3. Move upscale as fast as possible. Those who work at the commodity levels of the markets - service pieces, for example - are going to be the most vulnerable to the cut and paste approaches.

Market's Got Me Scratching My Head

A lot of writers have been talking about recession worries, but I've been talking with some of my colleagues who work more in the custom publishing and corporate arenas. They tend to be unusually busy with companies willing to pay good rates. It's had all of us scratching our heads, because publishing is typically on the leading edge of trouble; when companies fear a lack of money, they often cut back on their marketing and advertising (which would seem exactly the opposite of what you'd need to do so things would get better). Perhaps companies see online custom and ghosted publishing as ways to have more direct relationships with customers and prospects. As one PR and marketing person I know suggests, maybe this is all "low-cost, no-risk, high upside" activity on the part of companies that don't understand editorial and the issue of getting an audience. Or maybe the economy is about to turn around a bit and we're seeing the more pleasant side of working in a leading indicator industry. In any case, at least if you write about business, there does seem to be some good-paying work and a growing number of clients ready to spend some money.

SPJ Seems to Woo Freelancers Again

The Society for Professional Journalists seems to be running a blog - called The Independent Journalist - aimed at freelancers. Amy Green is the author. Personally, I"m going to wait and see how the organization behaves towards freelancers, and not make a judgment based on what someone in SPJ says. There was a right dust-up last year over the stance SPJ took regarding the ongoing cases involving some photographers and the National Geographic as well as its then-president floating an idea of certification for "professional" journalists:

• SPJ Freelance Committee Chair Resigns over National Geographic Support


• SPJ President Seems to Support Certification for Pro Journalists


• SPJ President Responds to National Geographic Criticism


• SPJ Withdraws Name from National Geographic Brief


• Incorrect Information Again from SPJ President


• Lawyer Robert S. Becker Responds to SPJ posts

The organization has traditionally focused on the needs of staff journalists and had not been altogether welcoming of freelancers. I know some people had tried to change that and had eventually resigned from the organization. Perhaps things are different now, and I'm sure the new chair of that group's freelance committee is sincere and well-meaning. But ultimately it can be nearly impossible to move an organization beyond what its leadership wishes to do, particularly when the leadership is long entrenched. Perhaps SPJ will see the role that freelancers play, particularly when more and more news rooms lay off staff and newspaper owners are left wondering how they will survive in the long run. But it will be action on the part of the organization as a whole that will tell.

Technique: Another Blogger Trick

If you use Blogger.com for your blog and you've been writing pretty frequently, then I'd say the chances are good that you get tired waiting for an update to happen. Even when away from my rural dial-up access and settled in at a WiFi spot, I've found myself waiting for things to finish. But I realized a way around this. It uses Blogger's advance posting. When you're about to post your entry, treat it as something you want to post in the future - as in five minutes from now (I've experimented some and if the window is too short, like two minutes, it publishes as usual and makes you wait, as usual). The system saves your entry and says that it will post in a fraction of the time it takes to wait as it goes live.

Warning: Doubledown Media

A number of writers are complaining about difficulties getting paid by Doubledown Media, which, ironically, publishes magazines for wealthy readers. Reports include claims of multiple promises of payments that never come through. Take it with a grain of salt, of course, because I cannot independently verify these claims. However, I know some of the sources as usually highly reliable.

News on Regnery Publishing and a Contract Tip

The following comes, with permission, from the newsletter that publishing attorney Anthony Elia has started. Five writers had brought suit against Regnery Publishing, a conservative publisher, alleging that the parent company:

...entered below market value deals with other wholly owned subsidiaries of Eagle Publishing - in some cases transferring the books at or below cost. Because the authors' royalties were based on a percentage of funds received by Regnery and not on sales by the subsidiary, the authors lost royalties as a result of the shuffle.

In addition, the suit claimed that the company was diverting sales from retail markets to its own subsidiaries, again lowering the royalty payments. The suit was dismissed. Why? Because the contract obligated any dispute to work through arbitration.

Folks, this is not the first time writers have alleged such things, nor will it be the last. I remember a case a few years ago when a book publisher was selling at a steep discount to the distributor that it owned, again artificially reducing the royalty amount. You've got to read your contracts and, in the case of something as complex as a book contract, preferably get a lawyer to go over them.

Anthony's current issue (you can sign up for the newsletter at his site, linked to his name above) also has a tip on language to include to find out more about what happens in subsidiary rights deals.

Contract Review: FenderBender

FenderBender is a trade publication for auto collision repair businesses. Please remember that, as always, I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, and that it's always best to try negotiation to get changes in contracts:

• Assignment Details I thought this part was thoroughly spelled out. Not only was there a working title and paragraph summary, but provided information on the publication, important reader demographics, and the general things they look for in an article.


• Section 1 - Rights Subsection a asks for First North American publication rights (note, that is not necessarily the same as FNASR). They specifically include "the rights to distribute, after publication by FenderBender, copies of the article(s) as it appeared in FenderBender, or other FenderBender publications."
  
  Subsection b allows them to "reprint or reuse" the article on the web, but doesn't pin them down to their own web site. That could be interpreted as letting them "use" it elsewhere, including on sites that aren't their own. They can also allow "limited reproduction" for non-commercial purposes, but include public broadcasting, which does normally pay for work. There is also no definition of what limited reproduction means - would 100,000 copies of an article be limited? Sure, if they don't print any more, then by one use of the word, it is limited. They can put it into a computer database, though the language here doesn't specifically allow them to sublicense that use, but it does include "published by or at the direction of FederBender," which would effectively be the same, I think. It might be good to ask for a bit more money for the database use and perhaps to keep public broadcasting out of the mix, unless you are getting a cut of those revenues. Even better - ask what they do with public broadcasting and, if they say nothing, ask to take the clause out.
  
  In subsection c, if you resell the piece to someone else, you have to tell them, at which point they can demand a credit line or forbid the use of their name in the article. On general principle, I dislike having to give a publication credit for something I wrote - they can do their own marketing. Couple that with not even knowing whether they will invoke this until after the sale is made, turning it into a condition after the fact, and this becomes a clause that should go (along with the i and ii parts).


• Section 2 - Payments Payment is within 60 days after acceptance, with the provision for "a reasonable request for revisions." Two months are overly generous terms, in my mind, though at least they're saying this up front and not pretending that it will come in 30 only to delay. But pushing back on this would be advisable. Also, there is no definition of how quickly acceptance has to happen. It would be good to add some reasonable time frame for it to occur. Ideally, you would have a provision that said after a certain amount of time, maybe 2 or 4 weeks, acceptance automatically happened.


• Section 3 - Issue Date They can hold an article for a later date. That seems fine, until you realize that if they have first publication in North America, you cannot resell in the continent until after they publish it. So perhaps something that revokes the first publication promise if it doesn't run in some reasonable window - 6 months, perhaps?


• Section 4 - Payment Penalties They want at least one week notice if the article will be late, and they consider deadlines absolute. If you don't give them that much notice, or if they don't give permission, then it's 10 percent off your fee if you're 1 to 3 days late, and if it's 4 or more days, then 20 percent and no guarantee that they will accept it. This is the type of clause that usually comes in becasue a publication has been badly burned in the past. You can try to negotiate that out, but then they will reasonably ask, "why can't you live with getting it in on time?" This might be one where you just have to be sure to be done on time or even early. You could try getting rid of the one week notification for a real last minute problem that you cannot anticipate.


• Section 5 - Kill Fee If they deem the article "unacceptable for publication for any reason," including a "reasonable revision period" if the article is submitted on time, then they pay a 20 percent kill fee and you get the rights back. The "any reason" wording is disturbing. That could technically include their changing requirements on sources or slant after they saw what you submitted. A kill fee should only be invoked when the writer submits something of less than professional quality and standards. That means if you do a professional job and cover what they requested, they shouldn't be able to turn it down.


• Section 6 - Independent Status This is pretty standard wording that you work for yourself, not them, and that you're responsible for your own taxes, insurance, and benefits.


• Section 7 - Termination Either side can immediately terminate the contract with clause, which includes (but is not necessarily limited to) a material breach of the contract or "any act exposing the other party to liability" or personal or property damage. If they terminate, they pay only "for those items The Writer has already satisfactorily completed." What items? There is only the one article described in a one-off contract. Do they mean the time spent? This is unclear.


• Section 8 - Miscellaneous This is the clean-up section, where you agree, among other things, that any dispute is covered by Minnesota law, although you don't have to take action in Minnesota.

Overall, the clarity of the opening section breaks down and you're left with some parts that should be changed for your own protection.

Book Promotion 2.0

Author Dennis Cass has a funny video on Youtube.com about an author hopelessly trying to get with internet promotion of his work. So smartly depressing that you can only laugh.

Work Listing: StorefrontBacktalk.com

I received the following from an editor I know, who asked if I could pass it on. Please, read the requirements carefully and only apply if it makes sense - he's a good guy (and client), and you really should have an aptitude for reporting about high tech and business:

Company: StorefrontBacktalk.com
Job Title: Reporter

Description: StorefrontBacktalk.com, a blog about retail technology and E-Commerce, is looking for some entry-level reporters. The positions will be telecommuting (which is a plus for most people, especially with today's gas prices) and will involve the standard reporting, writing and research.

Roughly 99.8 percent of the position will involve phone and online work, with a slight possibility of extremely minimal (and entirely optional) travel.
Ideal candidates will have some journalism experience (student newspapers can qualify) and a decent amount of interest in the topic. Salary based on experience. (Isn't it always?)

Contact:
Evan Schuman
Editor
StorefrontBacktalk.com
eschuman@storefrontbacktalk.com

Announcement: Arts Journalism Fellowship

I have no connection with the following - just posting for those that might be interested.

USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program Fellowship Opportunity Apply Now!
Los Angeles, CA
November 1-22, 2008

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: http://annenberg.usc.edu/getty

The USC Annenberg School for Communication and The Getty Foundation are pleased to announce the 7th annual USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship. Formerly held during the spring, the program for 2008 will be offered in the fall (November 1 to 22), in order to coincide with USC`s academic year and take advantage of the resources available through the University, including its new Master`s Program in arts journalism.

Six to seven arts journalists who bring distinction to the field will be chosen from the applicant pool. This is an international program for mid-career arts editors, critics and reporters from print, radio, television and online who cover the performing and visual arts, architecture, literature, entertainment and pop culture. They can be generalists or specialists. Staff writers, editors and freelancers and self-employed Web journalists alike are welcome to apply.

Based in Los Angeles, the fellowship is a total immersion experience that includes attending as many as 23 performances, art exhibitions and architectural sites. Participants will visit private studios, rehearsal rooms, architectural firms and art schools providing many behind-the-scene opportunities to meet renowned artists, arts administrators and accomplished journalists face-to-face.

IMPORTANT DETAILS

Institute dates: November 1-22, 2008

How to apply: Email an application request to uscgetty@usc.edu. Include your name, media affiliation(s), number of years you have been practicing arts journalism and your contact information. In addition, please note if you have applied in the past and for what year.

Application Deadline: June 16, 2008 (postmarked no later than this date)

Notification of Acceptance: August 8, 2008

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Cost: The program covers most expenses, including: roundtrip travel to and from Los Angeles, hotel, most meals, reading materials, Internet access in your hotel room and transportation within Los Angeles.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: http://annenberg.usc.edu/getty

In Copyright Infringement, Availability Does Not Equal Distribution

In a recent court ruling, a judge said that the Recording Industry Association of America could not sue for copyright infringement simply because someone gave others access to a computer directory. There must be evidence that someone actually downloaded copyrighted material. However, in the same case, the judge ruled that the RIAA could have its investigators download songs from such a directory, and that would be proof of infringement.

The lesson to take is this: if you find your copyrighted material available for download someplace like Amazon.com, download a copy of your own materials as proof that it was made available. Then you can happily make your case, assuming that you've registered copyright.

New Magazine Launches - Up and Down at the Same Time

Samir Husni, "Mr. Magazine" and chair of the journalism department of the University of Mississippi, watches the magazine market closely. In a relatively recent blog post, he noted that new magazines starts in the first quarter of 2008 were five titles more than the same period in 2007, but only 41 came out with the intention of at least 4-times-a-year publishing, versus 50 in 2007 and 72 in 2006:

So what does this mixed bag of numbers mean? Not much. Since I have started tracking new magazine launches, I have witnessed a two or three years’ declines after a very healthy and busy year. 2005 was a very healthy year. 1013 new magazines were launched. The decline started in 2006. We are in our third year of decline. In 2006 we have seen 901 new launches, the number dropped to 715 last year, and if the trend of the previous years continues, we will see another drop again this year before the numbers bounce back. Call it market correction if you please, but definitely it is NOT a sign that print is on its way out. History will tell us otherwise. So enjoy this quarter’s crop and look forward to more titles to come next month.

I must agree and disagree. On one hand, no, magazines aren't going to disappear overnight. However, even counting downward economic pressure, this is hardly something to make you feel comfortable. You have to find where the magazines are still strong and forget about any old mainstay that is being hit badly.

Newspapers Using Blogs Without Permission?

Generally you might think that bloggers often take copyrighted material and reproduce them without permission online. But a UK blogger found that the Sunday Mail reproduced one of his entries without even asking for permission. The author sent a letter to the paper:

Not having worked for the Mail on Sunday before, and a stated wordage figure proving elusive, I pluck a conservative amount out of the air and stick it on the bottom of an invoice, which goes off via the kind auspices of the G.P.O. To the Mail on Sunday’s credit, they pay me my two hundred quid quicker than most biggish companies would, and John Wellington sends me his (what I am sure are sincere) apologies.

Good for him - but one graph of the reply from the paper (outside of the check) was disturbing:

We generally take the view that blogs published on the internet have already been placed in the public domain by their authors and, in case of amateur writers, most people are happy to have their work recognised and displayed to a wider audience.

There is apparently some history of this happening in the UK, once again the Mail on Sunday. And in some cases, it appears that bloggers are finding writing or even graphics used by papers without permission but then thinking they were fortunate. This commentary in the Guardian Unlimited (online presence of the Guardian in the UK) is correct in stating that online work also is intellectual property.

But in the United States, that doesn't help you a bit unless you have registered your copyright. Registering after infringement lets you take legal action, but you can only go after the actual profits made off your work, and you cannot ask for legal fee reimbursement. No, the only practical way to go is to register either before the infringement, or within three months of the first publication (which, in the case of blogs, means when it first appears online). If you are not registering the copyright of your new blog entries every three months, you are running the risk of someone using them and being unable to do much of anything about it.

Distinguishing Between a Story and an Idea

At times I've spoken with colleagues about a common problem for writers: you send a pitch to an editor and get the response, "It's an interesting idea, but there doesn't seem to be a story here." If you've been writing for any length of time, you've heard it. In fact, a friend and I were discussing the very topic the other day, as a newer writer had brought it up in a discussion.

It's a fine point to make, but what, exactly, does it mean? At first glance, this seems to be one of those distinctions that you can't exactly define, but you know it when you see it. However, that helps little when such a comment hits your inbox and you're absolutely convinced that anyone would wait in line to read your opus. A little analytic thought can come in handy at such times:

• There's a difference between something interesting and a story. The latter must encompass the former, certainly; if it's not interesting, who would bother to read it, and what editor would make an assignment?


• Think from the audience viewpoint, not your own. You want to write about things that you find interesting - nothing wrong with that. But unless the topic is interesting to enough people, there is no story that others will read. When considering your idea, ask yourself if you find it interesting because of a personal experience, and then ask how many other people might have had that experience. The question becomes crucial when considering a profile. When relatively few could have the same experience with the subject, then either a) the person must be well enough known to attract curiosity, or b) what you have could only be a personal essay. Yes, you can think of some counter examples, but their number is like unto zero when considering the enormous number of profile pitches that have no relevance to anyone other than the writer.


• A story is compelling. I might be stating the obvious, but a story much have the ability to force the reader - and, by extension, the editor - to care. That means the audience must have either the basic information, the insight, or the emotional experience. A good news story falls completely into the information nook; a tear-jerker narrative is definite an emotional ride. A good philosophical essay must offer the insight, but might bring in an emotional connection. Having at least one factor is a must, and more would be better. People have to give a damn about the read.


• Be specific. Many pitches fail not for lack of a good concept, but because of generality. What is more interesting, noting that children can feel disaffected from step parents, or Hansel and Gretel trying to follow a breadcrumb trail back to the cottage only to find that birds ate their market?


• Have a beginning, middle, and end. No editor worth a drop of ink (or byte of pixels) wants shapeless writing showing up. That means a story must come from one place and have another as its destination, with a clear path leading from A to Z. That's clearly true in a narrative, as tales that go "Someone wandered around and then eventually wandered more" have limited attraction. But there are equivalents for any type of story. Even if you're writing a service piece, with lots of bulleted advice, the writing has to move from a problem, though approaches to solve it, to at least the promise of resolution and aid. Your query should show (not tell) that you address the stages.

Like everyone else in the business, you'll still come up with the occasional commercial clunker, but if you keep these principles in mind, that should happen less often, and you'll also get to the heart of your reporting and writing more naturally and easily.

Blogger Advance Posting Seems to Work Now

I had mentioned the advantage of blogging ahead of time, so that you can write posts when the ideas hit you and have them appear when you want. I mentioned that Blogger's advance posting wasn't working reliably, but that seems to have cleared up. I wrote my entire week's set of posts in advanced, scheduled them, and they seemed to come up when they were supposed to. If you use Blogger, then go to the draft version and log in as usual. Write a post, click Post Options and choose the date and time you want it to appear, and click the Publish button. Blogger should do the rest.

Someone Who Blogs for Cash

I heard about this story in USA Today about a photographer from The Baltimore Sun who is taking a year off work to see if he can make more money doing that than he got from his full time job. So far, the money has been better, as he's grossed over six figures with virtually no expense. His income is from advertising, and he has "200,000 mostly amateur photographers as devoted readers." On reading, I noticed a few things that jumped out:

• He was an expert in something.


• A large number of people wanted to learn what he knew.


• He started this on the side over two years ago.


• It seems to have spread by word of mouth.


• The topic is one he can keep returning to, analyzing new shots to extend the underlying principles.


• There is a companion spot on Flickr that allows people to upload their own photos, making the site interactive.


• He's broken out some posts, like his Lighting 101, so they can be easily found.

There's no reason that any one of us couldn't apply some of these principles to our own online ventures. But notice the big one: he was an expert. This shows that platform without expertise may not go far, because you really need to have something solid to offer an audience.