Doubledown Writers Face Bad News

Anyone who was writing for Doubledown Media knows that the company has been in bankruptcy. Now, the bankruptcy process can be a beautiful thing, even when you're talking about liquidation. A court supervises the sale of assets and distributes the money among those who are owed. You don't get the full value by any means -- maybe only pennies on the dollar. But it's something. A client of mine went bankrupt a couple of years ago and I've realized at least 40 percent of what I was owed. That's much better than a goose egg.

However, this process depends on the courts being able to sell assets. And that's the bad news for Doubledown creditors, including writers. According to Folio, at an auction last week, there were no "acceptable" bids for any assets, even including the customer lists:

According to the auction notice, the minimum bid for Doubledown’s Dealmaker was $100,000. For Corporate Leader and Trader magazines the lowest acceptable bid was $50,000. The minimum bid for Cigar Report was $25,000.

Corporate Air, meanwhile, carried a minimum bid of $55,000. Doubledown previously received an offer from a company called Private Air Media—which is headed by the magazine’s founder Dee Dee Morrison—and Knight Images Inc., for $50,000.

These are pretty low numbers as it is, so I suspect the chance of writers recouping any significant amount are next to nothing. My sympathies to those who were screwed.

Lessons from Suing an Ex-Client

For 15 years that I have been working for myself, I've never had to sue a client to get paid ... until recently. It was for a large amount of money that was beyond the scope of small claims and I had tried for months to get the company to even address the overdue invoices but to no avail. So I took them to court and won. Here are some lessons I learned that might help you if you find yourself in a similar situation:

• Document everything -- You want complete, overwhelming, and even crushing proof that you are owed money. That involves a) showing that there was an agreement for you to provide services to the ex for a given amount, b) showing that you delivered as you were supposed to, and c) that you had duly invoiced them and given them a chance to square things. This is easier than you might think. A signed contract is preferred. But in any case, you want all emails sent back and forth, as well as notes you may have taken at discussions. The emails are something you can export from your email reader. It helped that I always store every email from a client in either a client folder or project-related folders, as makes the most sense. Digging up the emails that I had sent required a bit of hunting in the Sent folder. I sorted them by recipient and then looked up the various people to whom I had sent emails. I checked for every name that had sent me an email, as well. Total time to ready things for my lawyer: about 30 minutes.


• Demand letter -- You want to have given a reasonable amount of time trying to get paid. That might be a few months. At the end of this period, you send a demand letter via certified mail, return receipt requested, so you have proof of delivery. (Actually, I sent mine via UPS ground and had the delivery receipt.) IN the letter, you lay out the entire chronology of what happened, including all efforts you made to try and resolve the issue and get paid, as well as every promise to pay that they made. What you ideally want is proof that they had accepted your work and had not disputed that you had done your part. If there has been any dispute, you should try to resolve it so you leave them no leg to stand on.


• Get a litigator -- Not all lawyers are litigators. You want one that is, because he or she will know all kinds of tricks to move things along. In my case, we filed suit, they tried playing innocent, but never answered the suit by filing a response. That put them into a corner. Then they asked for a settlement agreement. After back and forth via email (because you have written proof then), we agreed to terms, and then they didn't sign the agreement and didn't pay when they said they would. My lawyer was able to go to the courthouse and, after a mandatory three week wait, get the clerk to enter the settlement agreement. They were now stuck. We could have gone for a default, but that would have taken longer. It helps when your lawyer knows exactly what the options are.


• Be realistic but stick to your guns -- The ex wanted to settle for the original amount owed without interest. They kept pushing, but I refused. I was willing to go to court because I was so angry, so they backed down. One place where they didn't back down was that they wanted a non-disparagement agreement, my word that I wouldn't say bad things about them. My lawyer said that it should be mutual. I wasn't crazy about the idea, but eventually gave in for two reasons. I wanted to get paid, and I knew that given the court filings, it was going to end up on their corporate credit report and that any company doing any kind of due diligence would come across it. So I didn't have to say a single word; they had screwed themselves.


• Look for the pressure points -- Even after we had entered the settlement agreement (which threw their lawyer, who wasn't a litigator, for a loop), they wouldn't pay. My lawyer pointed out that he could order their bank to freeze their account, if I could get the name of the bank. Luckily, I had been paid some by them, though at the time wasn't recording bank info for client payments. But I called my bank and learned that not only does your bank keep copies of your checks as they are paid on file, but they keep copies of all checks that you deposit, as well. A $5 fee got me the front and back of one of the checks, so I was able to pass over the bank name and account. It's amazing how quickly a company can decide to cooperate when they can't get any of their money out of their accounts.


• Be persistent -- Even after all this, when their lawyer promised to wire money to my lawyer, it didn't come. So we prepared for stage two: issuing subpoenas to employees as well as large clients. Yes, we were going to drag in people who regularly paid them money and, likely, freeze any funds they would send. My lawyer let them know about this plan, and suddenly the money was there that day. Heh.

If you push, you can get paid, assuming that they have money. And when they keep paying themselves and landlords and utility companies, they have money. At that point, be indifferent to how much pain you are about to cause them. If they wanted to work something out, they could have, saving everyone grief. Hiring a lawyer isn't cheap. Mine worked on contingency, which could have mean as much as a third of the total. But I had come to the point that it was clear nothing would otherwise show up.

Writers Mill: Digital Media Buzz

A friend and colleague emailed a link to this JournalismJobs.com listing for writers from Digital Media Buzz. And I'm using this to test a new format in reporting these professional aberrations.

What They Want

In-depth news analysis of the digital media technology industry, including business practices, online ad/revenue technology, software development, SEO, e-commerce, and mobile technology.

What They Expect

People with journalism experience, whether in paid positions or as interns.

What They Offer

$30 per 500 to 1000 word story. As the ad read: "Yes, it's not exactly $1/word, but we need a ton of content written and promise a steady stream of income to anyone looking to make a name for himself or herself."

What That Means

You get paid between 3 and 6 cents a word as often as you'd care to and probably have to write the analytic pieces with precious little time to read or think before grinding it out. Sausage never had it so good.

(Not) Making It at Gawker

Earlier this month, a Washington Post staff writer just covered something from his own experience: having Gawker "excerpt" his exclusive story to such an extent that it probably eliminated the need for anyone to go to the original version. You can read about the controversy about the potential of blogs to essentially rewrite articles as their own posts. Read the original in the Post and then read the Gawker piece and decide whether it's theft.

I'm actually inclined to think that it wasn't theft. Yes, Gawker should have properly credited the post in addition to giving the link, but there is a difference between the two pieces. The Post had the reporting; Gawker had a critical take on how silly the entire thing sounded -- something the Post wouldn't let its writers say, even if it should be necessary.

But I'm not actually interested in this issue so much as another. In Ian Shapira's piece, The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition), he mentions that the Gawker writer, Hamilton Nolan, who freely used his work is actually a freelancer paid $4,000 a month by Gawker. That's $48,000 a year. Freelance. Without benefits. Before taxes.

Pathetic if you consider, as I've always heard, that the work load to do a blog at Gawker is punishing -- long, long hours for the flat fee and whatever passes for page view bonuses these days.

There are better online opportunities, I've found, and ones that don't effectively require you to plan your entire career around the convenience of a single client.

Two more Writer Mills: Voyage.tv and Trails.com

Just came across these two while looking at the Mediabistro job boards. (An aside - always market, always look for new venues/clients, and never dismiss off-hand a potential source of leads, because something interesting might come about.)

Voyage.tv calls itself "is a newly launched travel and lifestyle media company" with a focus on luxury travel:

The cornerstone of the Voyage experience is our original lifestyle and destination video programming, which inspires, informs and entertains. Shot in vivid High Definition, our Hotel & Resort Profiles, Activity & Tour videos, and Signature Series deliver content that is unbiased, current, accurate and above all, personal. Original feature articles written for the discerning traveler supplement this video programming.

They want articles that don't exceed 600 words. And how much does this video-oriented, luxury pursuing site pay per article? A flat $25. Don't look for the zeros to the right of the five unless they fall after the decimal place. Instead of not exceeding 600 words, how about not exceeding 25 words? That would be at least be a buck a word.

As for Trails.com, apparently it has outsourced editorial to Demand Studios. Assignments vary in length and pay ... wait for it ... $15 each. And it gets better, "with some rates higher or lower depending on the length and format of the assignment." Lower than $15? That's even worse than the numbers I've been hearing about Demand Studios in general, though at $30 or so, they are also risible.

At least this ad and the one from Voyage.tv said up front how much they wanted to spend, which means you can keep moving on to other ads. That's better than most Demand Studio ads or anything I've seen from Helium.com. When a company typically (and incessantly) trolls for writers without saying what they're paying, it might be that they know what the reaction would be.

There's a sales psychology at work - and, yes, someone is trying to sell you because they want something for next to nothing. When you've invested time into checking out an opportunity, you become more open to it because you don't want to feel as though you were suckered. Just remind yourself that you're not really suckered unless someone gets you to spend the time writing for such a laughable amount. I don't care how many damage-controlling writer mill executives come leaving comments or emailing me and I don't care how many writers want to say how they can make a living doing this. There is no way that at a freakin' $15 -- or even $25 or $30 or $50 -- an article you can make a living -- or even supplement one.

Maybe some people who want to be writers don't have the drive or the skills to do better. In that case, they should simply recognize that fact and enjoy writing for its own sake. Guess what? I'm not going to appear on the stage of the Met singing a lead in a Handel opera, nor dance in a professional ballet, nor be made the CEO of some large company. That's fine. We all have to learn where we can excel. And there's nothing wrong with singing in the shower, if you enjoy it. However, grinding out intellectual sausage for the sake of money that wouldn't even buy a hardcover book is nuts.