• Profile logout login

#timeinc#gtblogging

Gawker

Share Cancel
   
Upload an image | Add an image URL
×

logging in
  • FAQ. Include # before tag:
  • #tips,
  • #stalker,
  • #opencaption,
  • #internalmemos,
  • etc.

New York, 9:34 PM
Thu Dec 17
50 posts in the last 24 hours

Team

Tip Your Editors:

Tipline: 646-214-8138

Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder |

West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield |

Contributing Editors:

Valleywag:
Ryan Tate |

Media:
Hamilton Nolan |

Politics:
Alex Pareene |

Investigations:
John Cook |

Entertainment:
Brian Moylan |

Nights:
Adrian Chen |
Azaria Jagger |
Ravi Somaiya |

Weekends:
Foster Kamer |

Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley |

SUBSCRIBE TO Gawker RSS

New: Breaking news and daily top stories via email
4260 Subscribers
Gawker
  • Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.
    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of zigyphoto zigyphoto
    12/06/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    My first freelance editorial work was for Time, Inc's PEOPLE mag, and i went on to shoot editorial for Time, People, Newsweek, NYT, USA Today, Forbes, Business Week, and most of the other US and many international mags. It was FUN! -- when I was 30, and a Nikon F2 cost one day's assignment pay: $250.

    As the cost of gear went up, the day rate stayed the same: from $200 (NYT) to $350 (Time Inc and the others mentioned above). and the mags became pathetically cheap:

    One of the Time Inc mags did not pay me for almost 90 days -- and i had already paid for airfare for myself, assistant, rental car, meals, hotels, etc. When i finally got paid, the finance charges i had added each month were, of course, not included.

    Sicilians say "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold." When that same magazine asked for rights to re-publish one of my images from that shoot, I charged them THREE TIMES the normal editorial rate. They paid.

    Or the photo editor at a Capitalist Tool biz mag who refused to pay lunch on an out of town assignment because i hadn't stayed overnight (i only was gone for 12 hours and produced two completely different images -- by myself). from then on, I suddenly needed to bill for two boxes of Polaroid (@ $20/ box) on every assignment.

    Another business weekly chopped $1.50 out of my $11.50 lunch bill -- which was for myself AND the subject, who had given me his day off -- because, as my editor said, "our lunch allowance is $10... and, after all, it's ONLY $1.50."

    Ah, the joys of editorial photography!
     Reply
    Kaila Hale-Stern approved this comment zigyphoto was starred zigyphoto was unstarred
    Image of TheSometimesWhy TheSometimesWhy
    12/04/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    What's amazing to me is how so many comments here tout the same old line about this practice being the "industry standard" as justifying it as an ethical policy. This kind of behavior is antithetical to the very phrase "industry standard" because the phrase implies that there is one. (Standard, that is.) When pinching freelance employees to get a business enterprise to honor their legally binding debts becomes the standard, it's time to find a new phrase that captures the odious conduct. Maybe from now on when businesses employ this technique, we can say they have met the black-hole model of business ethics and standards which is so strong that not only can light not escape its influence, neither can money.
     Reply
    TheSometimesWhy was starred TheSometimesWhy was unstarred
    Image of rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    It's still better than "within five days of publication" like my last would-be boss tried to sneak past me.
     Reply
    rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny was starred rmric0.wedding.photographer.and.manny was unstarred
    Image of D2theMatthews D2theMatthews
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    Where's your Freelancer's Union now?
     Reply
    D2theMatthews was starred D2theMatthews was unstarred
    Image of Swifter Swifter
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    This is a standard business practice.
     Reply
    Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred
    Image of tongue-tied tongue-tied
    12/03/09

    @Swifter: Where?
     Reply
    Swifter promoted this comment tongue-tied was starred tongue-tied was unstarred
    Image of Swifter Swifter
    12/03/09

    @tongue-tied: Uh...everywhere. Most large corporations offer 10 day payment for a 2% discount, otherwise Net 30- 60 days to vendors and contractors.
     Reply
    Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred
    Image of stevehowe435 stevehowe435
    12/03/09

    @Swifter: Yes, but is this 25 days 0.5% on top of the random four months or so they're usually late with a 'payable upon receipt' 30-day net invoice? And does 'paid' mean when they print the check? Or when they postmark it three weeks later? Or when they walk it from the postage meter to the 'mail out' pile three weeks after that?

    The terms, as printed, aren't so bad. But I've been freelancing 20 years, and.....
     Reply
    Swifter promoted this comment Nick Denton approved this comment stevehowe435 was starred stevehowe435 was unstarred
    Image of Swifter Swifter
    12/03/09

    @stevehowe435: Your only real options are to withhold future services or sue if you're not on the actual payroll. Small businesses have been dealing with this since forever.
     Reply
    Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred
    Image of Mediahohoho Mediahohoho
    12/03/09

    @Swifter: Not in publishing, it's not.
     Reply
    Mediahohoho was starred Mediahohoho was unstarred
    Image of Swifter Swifter
    12/03/09

    @Mediahohoho: Ok, then don't write, and don't get paid. No big deal to me, and I suspect it's no big deal to Time either.
     Reply
    Edited by Swifter at 12/03/09 11:47 PM Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred
    Image of The Count of Monte Fisto The Count of Monte Fisto
    12/03/09

    @Swifter: First they came for the writers, and I said nothing ...
     Reply
    Swifter promoted this comment The Count of Monte Fisto was starred The Count of Monte Fisto was unstarred
    Image of Mediahohoho Mediahohoho
    12/04/09

    @Swifter: Prick.
     Reply
    Mediahohoho was starred Mediahohoho was unstarred
    Image of Motoko Kusanagi Motoko Kusanagi
    12/04/09

    @Swifter: Most large corporations also take up to five months to pay anyone, even their largest suppliers.

    Also, you left out that anyone with any leverage gets 1-2% interest on late payments, which is the cost of holding back money.
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi was starred Motoko Kusanagi was unstarred
    Image of tongue-tied tongue-tied
    12/04/09

    @Swifter: I bill "Net 30" but no one has ever offered to pay faster if I offer a discount. However, more and more companies simply ignore my terms.
     Reply
    tongue-tied was starred tongue-tied was unstarred
    Image of tongue-tied tongue-tied
    12/04/09

    @Motoko Kusanagi: How do you collect though? Anyone can charge interest for late payment, but you can't do much if they ignore it and simply pay the original sum. Unless it's a very very large bill (in which case, you'd get at least a down payment), that 1% isn't going to amount to much.
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi promoted this comment tongue-tied was starred tongue-tied was unstarred
    Image of Swifter Swifter
    12/04/09

    @Mediahohoho: You betcha! Next to "Fire at will", "Fix Bayonets" is my favorite command.
     Reply
    Edited by Swifter at 12/04/09 12:04 PM Swifter was starred Swifter was unstarred
    Image of Motoko Kusanagi Motoko Kusanagi
    12/04/09

    @tongue-tied: You don't unless you are "anyone with any leverage". Also that's 1-2% monthly, not annually. The bottom line is that from the moment you finish the work, they are essentially borrowing the money they owe you. You are entitled to to interest, so you should ask for a reasonable "cost of money" interest rate in your contract. If you don't have the leverage to get the contract term, or enforce it, c'est la vie. That's why they're big and you're not. As Bill Gates said on the Simpsons: "I didn't get to be a billionaire writing checks."
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi was starred Motoko Kusanagi was unstarred
    Image of daveyjonesisdead daveyjonesisdead
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    Early payment discounts are pretty common, but usually are involved when the purchaser is paying a lot of money. This sort of flips it on it's head and takes advantage of already taken-advantage-of workers. I swear, it's time to organize, you NYers! Then hire me as your lawyer. Please?
     Reply
    daveyjonesisdead was starred daveyjonesisdead was unstarred
    Image of daveyjonesisdead daveyjonesisdead
    12/03/09

    @daveyjonesisdead: and those are pretty high percentages, to my mind, and it's unusual for them to be so graduated. Usually its just something like, 2% if you pay within 20 days, instead of 30 or 45 or even 60, which is not uncommon. Again, it's just taking advantage of the desperate.
     Reply
    daveyjonesisdead was starred daveyjonesisdead was unstarred
    Image of Immaculate Immaculate
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    I just heard that Time, Inc. is changing its name to Vito.
     Reply
    Tart of Darkness promoted this comment Immaculate was starred Immaculate was unstarred
    Image of D2theMatthews D2theMatthews
    12/03/09

    @Immaculate: That skyscraper that looks like it has a pack of smokes rolled into its t-shirt sleeve in Bay Ridge makes a lot more sense now.
     Reply
    D2theMatthews was starred D2theMatthews was unstarred
    Image of BxgrlJeri BxgrlJeri
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.
     Reply
    BxgrlJeri was starred BxgrlJeri was unstarred
    Image of NerD: Blattella NerD: Blattella
    12/03/09

    @BxgrlJeri: I say this in all honestly: That will never get old.
     Reply
    NerD: Blattella was starred NerD: Blattella was unstarred
    Image of AzureTexan AzureTexan
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    OK, fine, but if they're still late on a payment, do we get to go break the thumbs of Jeffrey L. Bewkes?
     Reply
    AzureTexan was starred AzureTexan was unstarred
    Image of iplaudius iplaudius
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    So are they admitting that they do not pay people according to the terms of their contracts?
     Reply
    iplaudius was starred iplaudius was unstarred
    Image of Tiger Lourdes: Zombie Hunter Tiger Lourdes: Zombie Hunter
    12/03/09

    @iplaudius: Freelancer contracts are almost always Net 30 to Net 90 so it's still within the contract. Tons of vendors will offer this to get invoices paid quicker, pretty common.
     Reply
    Swifter promoted this comment Tiger Lourdes: Zombie Hunter was starred Tiger Lourdes: Zombie Hunter was unstarred
    Image of RandomLunatic RandomLunatic
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    God, I'm so embarrassed to say this, but there have been times when if I'd been presented such an option, I would have taken it in a heartbeat.
     Reply
    RandomLunatic was starred RandomLunatic was unstarred
    Image of miss_msry miss_msry
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    I've been needing a Time, Inc. t-shirt. Give me a call, I still shoot film.
     Reply
    miss_msry was starred miss_msry was unstarred
    Image of TheSometimesWhy TheSometimesWhy
    12/03/09

    In reply to Time Inc. Will Pay You Promptly, If You Pay Them for the Service
    History proves that few people have ever gone broke loan-sharking.

    Welcome to the tank, Time, Inc.
     Reply
    TheSometimesWhy was starred TheSometimesWhy was unstarred
    Image of Perhaps Not Perhaps Not
    12/03/09

    In reply to Soft Porn for Media Junkies: The Nifty Tablet Demo from Sports Illustrated
    The gambling potential of this device is just limitless. Also, if they can create proprietary files for their comic book content (Time Warner owns DC Comics), they will sell a godzillion of these things.
     Reply
    Perhaps Not was starred Perhaps Not was unstarred
    Image of T-Gawk T-Gawk
    12/03/09

    In reply to Soft Porn for Media Junkies: The Nifty Tablet Demo from Sports Illustrated
    You had me until "the advertising will also be more dynamic". Sigh. Oh wait, you got me back at "what if it [the swimsuit issue] came to life." Bring on the all-singing, all-dancing advertising! say I.
     Reply
    Gabriel Snyder promoted this comment Edited by T-Gawk at 12/03/09 3:27 PM T-Gawk was starred T-Gawk was unstarred
    Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

Login

Enter your username and password.

Please enter a username.
Please enter your password.
logging in
Login via Facebook | Sign Up | Forgot Password?

Reset Password

Please enter your email address to have your password reset.

Please enter your email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
requesting password reset

Register

Registering will give you a user profile and the ability to add other users as friends. To become a commenter, however, you need to audition.

Want to know more? Consult the Comment FAQ and legal terms.

Please enter a username.
Please enter a password.
Please confirm your password.
Passwords are not identical.
Please enter a valid email address.
registration sent, waiting for reply

Submit Your Comment

You don't need to login to comment. Just enter your email address below.

See how your address will be displayed in the Comment FAQ.

Please enter a valid email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
logging in

Login with your Facebook or Gawker account.

Sign up here.



  • Archives
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Legal
  • Help
  • Report a Bug
  • FAQ
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.