A reader writes:
Please watch your apples and oranges, Andrew. "HuffPo bloggers – the more high-profile and high-trafficked ones" are not analogous to "an occasional uploader … to YouTube." Compare YouTube stars to HuffPo stars or YouTube dabblers with HuffPo dabblers.
Would I have liked to be paid by HuffPo? Yes. Did I ask to be paid? No. Whose fault is that? Mine. People tend to forget one non-monetary way HuffPo pays its bloggers. The site handled all comment moderation on my posts – a task I find about as appealing as panning for fool's gold in an open sewer.
Which is why the Dish doesn't have a comments section. Another writes:
I'm enjoying your new blog digs, but I have to take issue with your comments on the "HuffPo vs Tasini" fight.
As a professional music journalist with material featured in hundreds of publications over the past 40 years, I can admit that a majority of the articles/interviews/album reviews that I've had published were written for free. Even as a precocious 15-year-old spamming music publications listed in the annual Writer's Guide, I knew exactly what I was getting into, and often swapped my dubious insights for free albums, books, concert tickets, and other swag.
As an adult, I still write for free for a couple of publications, as a supplement to my regular (paid) writing gig. Sometimes it's for exposure in a certain market, sometimes it's quid pro quo for publicity for a new book project, sometimes it's still for free CDs or books. The thing is, I freely give of my time and talents for my own reasons, to further my reputation, raise my professional profile, and hopefully lead to paid assignments in the future.
I have no doubt that, Tasini aside, many of the bloggers for HuffPo write for free for their own reasons. Personally, given the number of eyeballs that content on HuffPo attracts, I'd gladly write for the site any day of the week (and maybe even on weekends). The exposure and publicity given your words would be priceless, and could certainly be exploited into paid gigs and potential book deals if pursued. As for Arianna, et al making big bank off the AOL buy-out, welcome to the real world Antony! In the words of the great Jello Biafra, "work like a bitch so you can get rich, but your boss gets richer off you." He knew what he was getting into from the beginning, and it's too late now to have buyer's remorse. He should suck it up and go write something.
The Dish 