SB Nation California blogs firing most of their writers

https://www.ninersnation.com/2019/12/18 ... tion-again
And I thought the 49ers losing Sunday would be the worst news of the week.

For those of you who are not up to speed, I’m going to direct you to this post here.

Now let’s talk about it: it’s true. Me, along with the rest of the staff, got our eviction notices. We were given options, but it all leads to one thing: we’re done in March thanks to a new California labor law. Not just us, this is all California team sites across SB Nation. You guys will have Kyle and an announcement later on who else is going to come in.
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What happened is that California decided that anyone paid to post more than 35 times/year would have to be considered an employee versus a freelancer. Most people writing on SN blogs (i.e. Field Gulls) are paid less than $200/month.

From Cali's perspective, this is "worker's rights." From SB Nation's perspective, it's way cheaper to consolidate the work to 20 employees as opposed to paying these people more and possibly having issues with benefits, hr, workers comp and the rest. From the freelancers' perspective, it's 200 people getting fired and told to compete for 20 jobs.

From the fan perspective, those freelancers were never there at under $10/illustrated posts with gifs to support their family. Clearly, most had some other way of doing so. Most were in it because it was a technically paying job that allowed them to write about the team they were fans of.

A lot of these writers, like the OP, were worth following and were the only option for those who don't have extra to blow on paperless subscriptions to papers now demanding $100/year and/or whatever the Athletic charges. The OP himself is in Seattle (so you know he's not supporting himself solely with this), but no matter, he works for a California blog and has got his termination papers.

A lot of people happily wrote for ego. People were happy to read them. But now, neither one can.

Yeah this was just asinine.

While people being paid less than minimum wage are going to be losing their we're-not-allowed-to-call-them-jobs, I am 100% in support of this new legislation in the state of California.

In the last 20 years across a wide-swath of industries companies have skirted a century of workers rights and labor laws through the independent contractor not-a-worker loophole.

For digital journalism in particular there's practically nothing stopping these workers/not-workers from forming a collective to compete with SBNation.

Like it or not, the core of Vox Media's business strategy with umbrellas like SB Nation is plain and simply exploitative, and I have no problem whatsoever with the state of CA acknowledging that.

SantaClaraHawk":jzqcnklz said:

From the fan perspective, those freelancers were never there at under $10/illustrated posts with gifs to support their family. Clearly, most had some other way of doing so. Most were in it because it was a technically paying job that allowed them to write about the team they were fans of.

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Yep. These were never jobs and people were doing it for non-income related motives. In effect this creates 20 jobs where none previously existed. That's good news, not bad news.

SantaClaraHawk":jzqcnklz said:

A lot of these writers, like the OP, were worth following and were the only option for those who don't have extra to blow on paperless subscriptions to papers now demanding $100/year and/or whatever the Athletic charges.

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Absolutely. Which is why if these people want to keep writing about their favorite teams, at practically zero cost they can just create a collective and actually collect all of the ad revenue they generate.

It's literally no different than the formation of United Artists in 1919, except for the fact that the startup capital required is damn near zero for this rather than being very high (why it took already rich people like Chaplin, Griffith, Fairbanks, and Pitchford to found UA).

So what do you think of unpaid internships, Popeye? Or overall "volunteer" labor?

I've observed both on the job, and I think exploiting people's "need to feel useful" while paying them absolutely nothing is worse. And that's where the exploitation will go to even more than it is already. Getting paid (even nominally) is part of feeling useful. It also incents people to provide more useful articles.

But getting paid, even a nominal sum, is a deep-seated need. Something is always better than zero.

Sure, they could form a collaborative, but they'd need VC infrastructure and management. Most of these are just guys who know lots about sports who feel the need to be respected as professionals (i.e. paid).

SantaClaraHawk":1nly3o2q said:

So what do you think of unpaid internships, Popeye? Or overall "volunteer" labor?

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Re: unpaid internships, I think in most cases they're wildly exploitative and an indirect way for companies to get out of paying minimum wage for menial work.

They can be a foot-in-the-door to employment of course, but the same is true if they pay minimum wage or higher.

And if a company can't afford to pay minimum wage for menial labor, they're not in a position to actually hire more people to begin with.

In journalism things have been trending in this direction for the last five years or so, and unpaid internships/free labor has received MASSIVE pushback and is definitely changing.

As for volunteer labor, I've got no problems at all with labor exceptions for non-profit organizations. Most volunteer labor isn't formal or contractual to begin with though, so it's mosty beside the point, IMO.

SantaClaraHawk":1nly3o2q said:

But getting paid, even a nominal sum, is a deep-seated need. Something is always better than zero.

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FULL 100% agreed. And companies (behaving rationally) and exploiting that need for profit is exactly why we have labor laws (that companies, behaving rationally, will always try to get around, and that we, as a society, always have to update and reinforce because of that).

SantaClaraHawk":1nly3o2q said:

Sure, they could form a collaborative, but they'd need VC infrastructure and management. Most of these are just guys who know lots about sports who feel the need to be respected as professionals (i.e. paid).

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While there's some truth to this for sure, in this industry and at this time it's less true than it has been at any time in the past. For text, audio, and video production and distributin costs are at or near zero. The only real cost in this market is literally labor. And what's nice about the cooperative model is it removes the management layer also, as that the work of that layer is pooled across the cooperative.


EDIT: Maybe worth saying that I'm generally not some Bernie Sanders pie-in-the-sky person. I just think this is a very particular case and an industry which very particular features which makes a cooperative fairly easy and very possible.

"I'm from the Government and I'm here to help."
One of the most frightening statements an employee or taxpayer will ever hear.

AP ran as a collective, a longstanding one, that used to do collaborative content for daily newspapers (which was and remains a near-monopoly in markets).

But now, with more newspapers syndicating their independent content themselves or increasingly keeping it behind payroll, they're just another news service. Even they with all their accolades and fame can't put together an indy package that matches the cookie cutter depth of espn/nfl.com/profootballtalk online. All three of the latter are running their news feed as loss leaders.

Even something like the Athletic, which is hedge fund subsidized and headlined with prominent local writers, isn't exactly like Netflix even though the writing is supposedly top-notch. I can assure you people like Kawakami are being paid close to minimum wage.

Im may be willing to pay to bring Seahawks content to Seahawks.net. know anyone who would be intrested?

The OP, credentials here: https://www.sbnation.com/users/Patrick%20Holloway

I've read him for years. Learned probably most from this guy how and more important why 9ers do what they've done. He writes both humint and X's and O's in an interesting way.

He also lives in Seattle, bathed in AM radio/free TV content all about the Hawks. However he feels about them, he is certainly knowledgeable about them.

SantaClaraHawk":3rlu9ud7 said:

AP ran as a collective, a longstanding one, that used to do collaborative content for daily newspapers (which was and remains a near-monopoly in markets).

But now, with more newspapers syndicating their independent content themselves or increasingly keeping it behind payroll, they're just another news service. Even they with all their accolades and fame can't put together an indy package that matches the cookie cutter depth of espn/nfl.com/profootballtalk online. All three of the latter are running their news feed as loss leaders.

Even something like the Athletic, which is hedge fund subsidized and headlined with prominent local writers, isn't exactly like Netflix even though the writing is supposedly top-notch. I can assure you people like Kawakami are being paid close to minimum wage.

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Agreed with all this with the exception of Kawakami's pay. Staff columnists make good money and there's no reason for him to leave that gig unless he was getting more money. Now, we can't peak inside their finances and I don't know if The Athletic is actually viable in the long-term or is just a venture fund shell game, but I'd guess he's making as much or more than he was at the Merc.

Re the cooperative thing for these people who aren't at SB Nation anymore, 100% agreed that they're not going to make livings as reporters doing that.

They ALREADY weren't making livings from what they've been doing, though.

The question is can they make equal or slightly more than what they were making? Like, if they form a cooperative and equally distribute SB Nation's cut (which I'm guessing isn't small, Vox uses this "ghost site" independent contractor scam to subsidize their money losing flagship that has actual staff), can they each come away with the 100-200 bucks a month they were getting from Vox Media Group for their output?

Maybe, maybe not, but I DEFINITELY don't think it would be some panacea where it's a simple fix and 180 people can convert 1200 each in income from writing per year in 35K each in income from writing per year.

As we already agree on though, they're in it for the enjoyment of it and the legitimacy of makng ANY MONEY AT ALL from it -- they've already got jobs or other financial means through which they're actually living.

They COULD collectivize, Popeye, but I doubt they will for these reasons:

Starting a distinct, indy site especially for longform (or even insight) has been mostly a losing proposition, i.e. Grantland and Deadspin. Even those sites required investor wooing, ad contracts, infrastructure that most members of the collective would have to pay to outsource--probably more than they make. I agree in retrospect Kawakami/Barrows are probably making par, but with options that few have. Without a whale on board, you don't even have those options.

Many freelance football writers just want to write about football in a place the infrastructure is already set. I think it'd be mutually beneficial if some wrote here.