Will Arianna Huffington Be Paying You This Month?
The Huffington Post has been taking flack for not paying writers, but it’s not so simple. Most bloggers aren’t paid, but some are. On staff, there are paid interns, unpaid interns, and paying interns. It’s all very complicated, but luckily we made you a chart.
HuffPo just shared some key details with Irin Carmon of Women’s Wear Daily:
This year, The Huffington Post will have 22 interns… a number that approaches that of paid staff (about 35 in editorial, 60 on staff overall.) That includes one intern who paid at least $US13,000 in a charity auction for the privilege.
…Half of these interns are being paid, a spokesman for the Huffington Post confirmed. The spokesman declined to say how much, calling the question “silliness.”
It’s not clear how publisher Arianna Huffington decides who to pay and who not to pay (we’ve asked and not yet heard back). But it’s worth noting that some Huffington underlings have higher profiles than others. This year’s staff, for example, includes former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s daughter (per WWD), as well as editor Nicholas Graham, of the family that owns the Washington Post.
Liz Hanks, daughter of actor Tom Hanks, has also worked for the site. And Huffington this year handed an important management role to her godson, heir to a computer fortune worth billions of dollars.
So if you’re trying to get paid at Huffington’s innovative new media game-changer, it might help to be born to the right parents, if you can pull that off.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@mimigoliath: I can GUARANTEE that Huffington's business staff ain't working for free. You shouldn't either.
(For the record, after years of interning for free, I no longer work ANYWHERE for free. If my work has value to a company, they can pay me for it.)
xyzpdq
I don't care if this sounds bad, but I significantly devalue The Huffington Post because they don't pay their writers.
If they're not willing to pay for it, then you really shouldn't be willing to read it.
@T-RO: You can't devalue something that didn't have value in the first place.
celery
@mimigoliath: The problem with "exposure" is who does it expose you to? If nobody is paying writers then all the exposure and experience in the world is worth $0.
If a website is going to have someone write without a annual salary or freelance rate per word the least they can do is give an agreed upon percentage of ad revenue, which is still not good.
AvenueOfTheStrongest
Flak! flak!
Preopsician
@mimigoliath: seriously? Lots of people get paid for their writing. OR DID. Until people like you decided to give away the milk for free, devaluing what the rest of us do for a living. thanks for nothing.
I dunno, writing for HuffPo gets me lots of exposure, so I don't mind not being paid. Of course, I have a shitty full-time job to get me a tiny paycheck, so it's not as if I need it for money. But if I couldn't write for HuffPo, I'd be at a loss. Besides, I'm used to not being paid for my writing. Who does get paid for their writing? Please tell me!
And I *promise* they did NOT send me to say that. I'm only an unpaid flack for the show "Bones."
Payments will hereinafter be made with GM stock.
Heck I got got my very first check from adsense on my blog. At least if I was interning at HuffPo I'd get free coffee right?!?! Please say yes !?!?!
@mimigoliath: yeah, but who reads it?