My Photo

  • I'm a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.

    Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.

    Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

    Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).

CONTACT

  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn

« Write for free!: Huffington Post goes local | Main | Pubic support at the Portland Tribune »

August 16, 2008

Write for free!: Huffington Post Chicago débuts

Since I groused about Arianna Huffington's business model over at Romenesko's Medianews (nutshell: writers work for free while Arianna sells ads), Huffington Post Chicago has made its début. It's the first of many localized sites that Ms. Huffington is planning as online Internet newspapers of sorts, featuring a mix of ruminations from her celebrity pals (Chicago already has essays by John Cusack and Saturday Night Live guy Fred Armisen) and local content gathered from other unpaid sources.

Armisen's contribution isn't likely to dim misty cigar-smoky memories of Mike Royko:

Public transportation is really good in Chicago. Travel tip: to get a nice view of the city, take the Brown Line.

And I love the chocolate made by Vosges, which is based in Chicago. They make these really crazy chocolate bars -- and not the dumb kind of crazy. I mean the brilliant kind of crazy. They actually make a chocolate bar with BACON! Is there anything yummier?

Is Armisen kidding? Is Arianna kidding? I read better, more informative stuff on any neighborhood blog in town. Hell, I read better stuff on the bulletin board outside my building's laundry room. As for Cusack's musings, a blogger calling himself "So-Called Austin Mayor" noted:

Unfortunately, in that short piece, Mr. Cusack misspelled the name of former Cub, Larry Biittner. And he misspelled the name of former Blackhawk, Chris Chelios.

And the HuffPoChi's inaugural post repeatedly misspelled the name of a former member of the Chicago Bulls -- a fella named Michael Jordan.

Michael Freakin' Jordan!

I guess if you don't need to pay writers, you don't need to pay copy editors either.

Right now on the front page of HuffPost Chicago, the writing is more professional. Unfortunately, it's also less original: a writeup of Bernie Mac's funeral and a Cubs story (both taken straight from the AP), and a bunch of links from the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, Chicago Business, and other papers.

In other words: professional newsgathering organizations have paid professional writers to do professional work, and then Arianna comes in, creates links to their creations, and sells ads on her own page. How progressive.

That's not right. That's beyond not right. That's just The Drudge Report with an Eva Gabor accent.

Think she can't do it in your city? Well, she can, and she intends to:

We plan to roll out local versions of HuffPost in dozens of cities. So check out HuffPost Chicago and use the comment section to let us know what you think, what you want more of, what you want less of, and what cities you think should be next.

No, I'll do it here:

1. I think it's shabby, Arianna.
2. More pay.
3. Less ripping off writers.
4. Stay the hell out of New Orleans. We've been ripped off enough.

If you're getting the idea this is personal, it is. I've been hired to consult with Gambit, the alt-weekly here in New Orleans, and I'm working on their Web site, Blog of New Orleans (aka Gambit Daily). We're introducing guest bloggers on the site (bloggers, it should be noted, whose work kicks the shit out of Messrs. Cusack and Armisen) and the first rule was: guest bloggers get paid. (Not much, but they get checks, fill out tax forms, the whole W-9 yards.) I wouldn't be asking them to do it otherwise -- I've been agitating for years against the cruel hoax of "writing for exposure," and I believe what writers do is worth money. And respect.

And speaking of respect: peep out what the progressive HuffPost folk did to Marilyn Ferdinand, one of their many "unpaid citizen journalists" or whatever they call them. Marilyn came across my anti-HuffPo letter and had an experience of her own:

As some of you know, our site is affiliated with The Beachwood Reporter. I went to listen to some panel discussions at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication conference held last week in Chicago, one of which included Steve Rhodes, the founder and general manager of The Beachwood. Afterwards, Steve, another journalist, and I chatted, and one topic that came up was the advance work The Huffington Post was doing to get writers for its Chicago site. I was not approached, but both of them had been and were asked to work "pro bono," in other words, for free. Arianna Huffington is a multimillionaire, yet she is asking professional journalists to work for free. We all thought this was outrageous. If she wants to give space to unqualified celebrities like Deepak Chopra to write about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that's her business. They don't need the money, but they like the visibility....

The Huffington Post-Chicago premiered today. The comments thread under the site's introductory post were very positive, thrilled that Ms. Huffington chose our terrific burg to splash down in. That'll teach New York and Los Angeles who The Second City isn't! I thought I'd like to greet HuffPo a little differently by posting Allman's letter with my own comments. I'm still a registered HuffPo blogger from my brief stint with OfftheBus, so it should have gone up unmolested. It didn't. I watched the "Comments Pending" number carefully, seeing it go up and down and eventually reach zero. Strangely, my post didn't appear. I wrote another post that said HuffPo was censoring my comment, and it didn't appear. I tried another approach and responded to another comment with information that HuffPo doesn't pay its writers. It didn't appear either. I sent a final comment announcing my intention to write about this disgraceful disregard for working people and the censorship that seemed to be underway to ensure a lovefest for HuffPo's entry into the Chicago market.

I don't agree with Marilyn that it's "censorship" -- the Huffington Post is privately owned, and the editors can do whatever they like with the comments. But it's damned amusing that a "progressive" site neither pays its writers nor brooks dissent among the unpaid.

When my letter appeared on Medianews, I heard from a couple of professional journos who said the same thing: "Good for you" and "Oooh, you took on Arianna Huffington." Took her on? What's she going to do, not pay me to not write for her?

So I'll close here by throwing down. I have an interview request in for Arianna with Mario Ruiz, her VP of media relations. We'll see if she'll talk to me for free.

In the meantime, if any professional writers want to join in here, feel free to do so in comments. Let's get this party started. Journalism -- and journalists' jobs -- are already on life support.

DO NOT WRITE FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST FOR FREE.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83452477069e200e553ebb8698833

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Write for free!: Huffington Post Chicago débuts:

Comments

Hi Kevin. Thanks for the shout-out and for getting this sham out in the open. Maybe Ms. Huffington should have realized after the Marshall Field's protests that Chicago wouldn't roll over and die.

As to censorship, I wasn't intending that to mean gagging the press. Not allowing certain things to appear on her site is certainly within her purview, but she is still censoring the site. I have done that on my blog, but only with some anti-Semitic comments to a documentary about Hitler I reviewed. I consider hate speech inappropriate, not to mention, illegal. In my case, the only thing I was hating on was Ms. Huffington's "style."

No problem, Marilyn. I'm just glad to see that some Chicagoans aren't falling for the HuffPo BS that it's somehow a form of new media when all that she's doing is what Matt Drudge has done for years: providing links to other people's work. Her twist is somehow convincing bloggers that she values their work enough to feature it...only not enough to, you know, actually pay for it.

I'm gobsmacked at the number of people whose kneejerk reaction is "Hurray, she's killing the Old Media." Most of her content (so far) is coming from "old media," and the rest comes from people who are willing to work for free. This is new? This is progressive?

If Chicago writers are willing to rise up and speak up against this crap, I've got your back. Wanna pass this on to your buddy Steve at the Beachwood Reporter?

I'll definitely let Steve know. He'll probably show up here himself to comment. The Beachwood is a popular site, especially with journalists. The word is out. We'll see what happens next.

Thanks for publicizing this write-for-free outrage. I'm sure Arianna Huffington's books aren't given away for free.

Nice job, Kevin. The fact that HuffPo is censoring the comments section just shows Arianna's true colors. Kind of like a (red) devil in a blue dress. And if she's looking for "talent" I hear that Ari Fleisher is available these days when he's not lying about the Green Bay Packers or New Orleans Saints.

Well after hearing your comments at Rising Tide Saturday I wanted to check this out. HuffPo occasionally breaks some national news so I do read it from time to time via Digg. But I'm totally with you on this one -- they can stay out of NOLA. We don't need 'em. We already have a vibrant local community and you can just check the blogroll of any number of New Orleans bloggers to see more.

If HuffPo local does try New Orleans, I suspect it will be about as successful as Starbucks. New Orleans has always had a coffee culture and Starbucks really couldn't compete with the local shops. Similarly, I don't think something like this will gain much traction here. The whole active blogging culture has grown up organically and stands on it own. So something like what HuffPo is doing would whither and die a quiet death. You can see it happening. And then eventually they'll shut it down with some editor complaining about how New Orleanians just weren't engaged enough or some such trash while we continue on doing what we've been doing all along.

Nice meeting you (very briefly), on Saturday.


We offer 10% discount for any series of iphone purchase & Free Shipping.

Apple Iphones:
Apple iphone 4GB....$180
Apple iphone 8GB ...$200
Apple iphone 16GB.......$250
Apple iphone 16GB 3G Network...$300


Nokia:
Nokia N95 8GB.......$250
Nokia N96 16GB.....$300
Nokia Aeon............$450


Digital Camera:
Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi Body Only Digital Camera......$280
Canon Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D Digital Camera with EF-S 18-55mm
Lens...$250
Canon EOS-5D Body Only Digital Camera......................$750

Nikon D80 Digital Camera with 18-135mm Lens...........$510
Nikon D80 Body Only Digital Camera.............................$400
Nikon D40 Digital Camera with G-II 18-55mm Lens.....$260

Sony Cybershot DSC-T200 Digital Camera..................$200
Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Digital Camera......................$240
Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-H5 Digital Camera.................$310
Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 (Body Only) Digital Camera..$460


Digital Camcorder:
Canon XH A1 Mini DV Digital Camcorder.....................$1,000
Canon GL2 Mini DV Digital Camcorder........................$780
Canon XL H1 HDV Digital Camcorder..........................$1,680
Canon Pro XL2 Mini DV Digital Camcorder..................$810
Canon XL2E Mini DV Digital Camcorder......................$1,120

Contact :
Email: links4networkltd@hotmail.com
Tel: +447031834321

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

RECENT ARTICLES

BOOKS


  • Booklist:
    "A worthy successor to Tight Shot, Allman's insider view of the seamier side of Hollywood is not only hip and entertaining but also has something serious to say about our insatiable hunger for tabloid thrills."


    Washington Post:
    "Barbed, breezy and often pretty funny...sharp and entertaining. Allman can be very funny, and Hot Shot complements nicely the less forgiving takes on Los Angeles as the future of us all. "

    ----------


  • EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE
    BEST FIRST NOVEL
    MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA

    Booklist:
    "Allman turns a very sardonic pen loose on Hollywood's glitz-and-glamour crowd in this entertaining first novel... An impressive debut and an almost sure thing for a sequel."

    New Orleans Times-Picayune:
    "Allman clearly knows those of whom he writes. He's got L.A. nailed."

    Publishers Weekly:
    "Snappy debut... Readers will look for a sequel."

STAGE

  • BOO AND THE SHREVEPORT BABY
    A French Quarter convenience-store clerk has a hilariously traumatic encounter with a pair of Shreveport tourists. Part of Native Tongues 3 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2001; Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago; 2006).
  • BACKBONES
    An upper-class black caterer finds comeuppance and redemption. Part of Native Tongues 4 (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • MY-O-MY
    A recreation of an evening at the notorious New Orleans 1950s female-impersonator nightclub My-O-My (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2005).
  • THE LOVE GIFT
    A lonely man discovers purpose when he intercepts a televangelist's letters from his neighbor's mailbox. Part of the Dramarama New Plays Festival (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; 2004).
  • BABYDADDY
    A black father discovers that no good deed goes unpunished when he helps his white neighbor bail her son out of Orleans Parish Prison. (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2004; Walker Percy Southern Playwrights Festival, Covington; 2007).
  • TWO IN THE BUSH
    An evening of comedies. In The Stud Mule, the world's richest woman arranges to be impregnated by a doltish escort; in Snatching Victory, an earnest college student runs afoul of her lecherous professor and the dour head of a women's-studies department (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2003).

NEW ORLEANS READING

  • Patty Friedmann: <i>A Little Bit Ruined</i>

    Patty Friedmann: A Little Bit Ruined
    One of the first post-Katrina novels, and probably destined to be one of the best. Friedmann's sequel to Eleanor Rushing finds her crazy heroine still holding everything together after the storm (after a fashion), until she has to leave New Orleans and she falls apart physically as well as mentally. Mordantly, morbidly funny.

  • Tom Piazza: <i>Why New Orleans Matters</i>

    Tom Piazza: Why New Orleans Matters
    The best post-Katrina book I've read. In 150 small pages, Piazza explicates the New Orleans experience simply and beautifully. I'll be passing this one on to anyone who wonders "But why would anyone want to live there?".

SUBSCRIBE

  • Add to Technorati Favorites
  • Add to Google
  • BlogBurst.com
  • View Kevin Allman's profile on LinkedIn
Blog powered by TypePad