NBC Universal and Nielsen Want Your Money, Too

Just the other day I mentioned how Time Inc. wants you to take less money for prompt payment. Well, Gawker, which wrote about the first issue (and eventually noted that while one freelancer claimed payment within 30 days, another said that it generally took 60, making the discount-for promptness plan more economic arm-twisting) has another. NBC Universal is doing the same thing. There is one big difference: while Time may make you wait for 60 days normally before dropping that fiscal ort you so badly need to pay the bills, NBC Universal will either make you wait 75 days or cough up 2.5 percent of the money you earned in 15 days. Oh, and as my BNET colleague Jim Edwards noted back in March, Nielsen says that it won't pay until 75 days unless any of its vendors (which included, but is not limited to, freelancers) give up 3 percent for payment in 15 days.

And for the people who want to argue that discount for early payment is normal business, I'll say that it is, but here's what is considered normal:

• The service provider is the one offering the discount because that fits into its business plan.


• The service provider sets its own rates and doesn't have to ask, "And what do you pay for this?" So its rates can reflect a more realistic view of what a discounted fee would have to be to remain worth the work. It also sets fees to recognize the many companies that don't pay in a timely manner.


• The service provider also has late penalty fees, so if the client doesn't pay on time, more gets tacked on - like 2.5 percent a month or so.


• What doesn't happen is a fucking cheap-assed financially conservative megacorporation setting rates that haven't moved in so many years that archaeologists line up to study them recognize the economic pressures on today's business, and then putting a gun to someone's head holding payments for long periods of time to twist people's arms convince freelancers to take a discount.

Bastards.