

A Day in the Life of a Digital Editor, 2013 - jseliger
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-digital-editor-2013/273763/

======
mpclark
I got down to the bit where the author tries to make it personal, then gave
up.

It's not about being personal or publishing private emails; it's about a
respected publication approaching an established writer and asking for free
product to sell on. Doesn't matter whether it was the poor dear's first
fortnight in the job or if she'd been there 25 years.

~~~
jseliger
The short version of this is, "Don't be a journalist." There are so many
people who want to be journalists, or to try to be, that The Atlantic thinks
they'll work for free. Evidently many of them will. Anyone reading this should
know that they need to seek another profession.

Interestingly enough, in 2001 I was the co-editor-and-chief of my high school
newspaper and thought about going into journalism. But it was obvious to me
then that the Internet was going to destroy a lot of careers in journalism.

It has. The only thing I still find puzzling is that some people want to major
in journalism in college, or attempt to be "freelance writers."

~~~
pyoung
I disagree. Better advice would be, if you want to be a journalist, "have a
solid back-up plan" or "pursue it on the side". Even before the internet, it
was a tough profession to be successful in. Now it is even tougher, but there
are still individuals who manage to eek out lucrative and rewarding careers.

This advice applies to any profession that has significant excess supply vs
demand. Athletes, photographers, artists, actors, musicians etc... Even if an
individual never makes it big (and most don't) these activities can be
rewarding hobbies as long as expectations are managed properly.

~~~
nutate
My Dad was a musician his entire life. He's had other side jobs, but that was
always his dream and big plan.

I decided to go to engineering school and do music on the side.

That has been much more successful for me money wise and in a way music wise
as well. I've never had to compromise my (crappy) music to make a buck.

------
pwthornton
The problem I have with this piece is that it doesn't really offer any
solutions and is basically a justification for trying to ask people for free
work.

Journalists rarely think about business models, which I think is one of the
main reasons that journalism is doing so poorly. Some journalists abhor the
idea of even thinking about how to support their work.

I wrote a post with some suggestions on how we can pay for great writing:
[http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2013/03/06/paying-for-
great...](http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/2013/03/06/paying-for-great-
writing-in-the-internet-age/)

My company got a reporting series funded on Kickstarter ($15,000), others are
using Kindle Singles and there are other models to explore as well. I like
what The Magazine is doing too.

Sitting around saying, "well our freelancer budget is small" doesn't help the
situation.

~~~
nutate
Oddly the Atlantic is doing pretty well. If Nate Thayer wasn't resting on the
laurels of his 1987 Pol Pot interview he probably would've caught onto the
joys of ePub tie ins, etc.

------
jseliger
This is partially a response to yesterday's discussion about "A day in the
life of a journalist:" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5324429>.

------
csharpminor
Pretty much all of the solutions that the author proposes for dealing with
freelancers involved fixed fees per article. But if revenue is determined by
unique visitors, why not just pay authors based on a royalty?

This, perhaps coupled with an appropriate sized advance would ensure that
authors were being rewarded for successful work, and that The Atlantic
wouldn't be pouring money into stories that only get 1,000 hits.

Given that major news can be broken over Twitter in 140 characters, paying by
the word seems incredibly antiquated.

------
jschuur
Does he get paid by the word?

If you're responding to controversy, don't get too lengthy. It looks
suspicious.

------
smoyer
I'm siding with Thayer here ... I don't think he was "mean" to Olga (actually
I thought it was refreshingly blunt), and Madrigal admits that you have to
"feed the children".

Edit: Olga's budget for purchased content is $12,000 a year? I'm going to
assume her salary is significantly more than that, but why would you ask an
expensive editor to "obtain/curate/manicure" work that was purchased so
cheaply? It sounds like it really wouldn't be worth her time.

------
joshAg
this video interview with harlan ellison seems relevant here (warning,
language):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mj5IV23g-fE#t=14s)

perhaps profit sharingbased on unique views might be a solution to the
problem.

------
droopyEyelids
I had trouble understanding what point the author was trying to make.

It feels a bit like the qualms you might feel during your first stint in
management, where you basically enforce rules passed down from above. Where
the good of 'increasing value' costs some of the well being of those you
supervise, and you have to grow a big doublethink muscle to continue to think
of yourself as a good person as opposed to a tool of exploitation, because,
unfortunately the opportunities for win-win changes are actually few and far
between.

~~~
elemeno
The point the author was making is that quality digital journalism is in a
tough place right now, with small budgets to spend on features, but also the
expectation that they'll churn out good work and worthwhile articles.

------
jmount
White knight article.

~~~
nutate
heheh. Olga is my girlfriend, she needs just about zero white-knighting.

~~~
jmount
Very few people need white knighting. Don't actually know either of you, hope
you are doing well.

