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Valleywag
The rate that my employer, Gawker Media, pays its contract writers was adjusted tonight at midnight. The staff of this site has not been told the details of the new pay rate, but we do know that everyone at Valleywag is getting a per-view pay decrease. Senior management is promising the hit is only a "modest reduction." I'm told we'll find out the new pay plan by the end of the week. In the mean time, writers are getting a paycut, but are expected to continue working even though we don't know what we're getting paid. Read on for some background and an explanation of how Gawker writers are compensated.
Gawker writers are each assigned a "Monthly Base" pay. No matter how much traffic their posts generate in a month, writers will receive at least their base. On top of that, productive writers can receive a "Pageview Bonus," which varies depending on which site they write for. All Gawker sites are assigned a "pageview rate". Any amount of traffic a writer generates over their minimum is paid as "bonus." By comparing their monthly base to the pageview rate of their site, a writer can determine how many pageviews they need to generate per month or, if they exceed their minimum, how much they're getting paid in total. A leaked memo explains the whole process in great detail.
For example, my monthly minimum pay rate works out to 256,000 page views a month. If I deliver under that, I'm (theoretically) reprimanded and encouraged to write more popular posts. To determine my pay for a particular day or month, I multiply my total page view count by Valleywag's pay rate. Our contract is pretty standard fare for performance-based pay, offering a "monthly base" and a "page view bonus." However, Valleywag's writers have soundly beaten their minimum post counts all three months we've had this program in effect. Our page view rate is our de facto pay rate.
Since this plan was announced in late December, we've known that the pay rate is to be changed on the first day of every quarter. I expected to be informed of the pay rate before the month started, but that hasn't happened, even after repeated requests to my superiors. We're working in the digital equivalent of a sweatshop, effectively being paid based on how many views we can drum up — and now the goalposts are being moved mid-kick. This is unnerving and a slap in the face to the "creative underclass" that writes for Gawker's blogs.
If a potential advertiser asked Gawker to start running its ads and promised to negotiate terms later, they'd be laughed out of the room — but that is exactly what the company is asking of its writers. If I were a salesperson, I'd expect to know my quarterly sales goals well in advance.
Gawker Media is, let's not forget, a for-profit business. The company might need time to make proper pricing decisions. But that goes both ways: Writers are for-profit as well and we should not be expected to work blind.
And, no, this is not an April Fools' joke.
(Photo by Hey Paul)
Comments
Boy, that pay scheme makes me glad to have a stable, boring old salary. On the other hand, if I find myself a few hundred short when the rent is due, I can't make up the difference by linking to some boobies or calling some well-known individual a pedophile. So count your blessings.
(BTW, a quick scan of Jordan's oeuvre suggests that he has employed neither tactic. Get on the ball, man! Tits! Character assassination! Hoochie mamas! Enough of Scoble and Pogue and Page and Brin. Your fortune awaits.)
Nick Denton just wrote me and told me my fee for generating Valleywag content is being cut in half. Hope you fair better.
I've been wondering about the whole "making money from the internet" bubble for a while. After of stripping down to my tidy-whities and dancing the macarena for my webcam, the next best way to make money is through writing.
I don't have anything like the creative talent needed to put food on my table doing this, but I enjoy the musings of many people who seem to be able to make it work.
My enjoyment is hampered by guilt though. I'm not one of these "adblock-plugin anarchists" (I trained my brain to ignore them mostly) but I am a "Feed Reader Warrior", I consume almost all of my textual entertainment via Google Reader. Valleywag is kind enough not to truncate the writings it serves via its RSS feed so how does my pretending I've got a minority report stylee magic newspaper affect your ability to put food on your table?
I'd be mortified to think that my readership wasn't being counted!
seriously though. How does it all work?
Guiltyly Confused of Maidstone.
Oh, come ON! Not one Marxist reference? What is this, Fortpolio?
You better feel grateful Denton is paying you anything. Working for Gawker is a privilege so rejoice your purpose in life.
Yeah, this is bizarre. But it's also bizarre that you can call out your bosses in a post on their very own website. Nice. Do all the writers share the video posts or is that relegated to one extremely lucky point person?
Melissa already showed you how to extract as much blood out of Denton as possible. Scrape some hottie images off the web, put a thumbnail of it up so the undersexed segment of the Wag's readership will click through to the post to see the whole pic, and cash in.
"should not be expected to work blind"
I know how feel!
Imagine what Stevie Wonder must be going through?
@Blackjack: No, the Valleywag salary can't be enough. If she doesn't make a cool, tax-free million from referral fees by the end of this year, she's not smart enough to be attempting to make this segue.
predictably, this airing of gawker media's soiled laundry is mong the most-viewed posts. even when denton loses, he wins!
I like the floating "HAPPY APRIL FIRST" thingy. At first, I thought we were front-row witnesses to The Revolution.
If they are lowering your pageview take for the quarter, it's a sign of your success. (Isn't that interesting? The better the site does, the less you may get paid for your work. It seems like anti-incentive.) They paid out for around 2 million pageviews in March. That's a lot for Valleywag--not a lot for elsewhere. Feb and March were record traffic months for the site.
And so, if your pay rate was artificially inflated to keep you getting paid at a decent rate on less traffic, now it will be cut down to the more "reasonable" rate of other sites.
The giant flaw in this is, in the words of one psych prof: "The psychological impact of losing something is about 2.5 times as great as the psychological impact of gaining the same thing." And I don't think the company understands that employees react badly to uncertainty and to things that seem unfair, even if on paper they are completely logical.
But then, corporations aren't here to hold their (probably illegal) non-employee-status employees' hands. They have a business to run. Your happiness isn't their first concern.
Am I the only one seeing this "Happy April 1st" thing?
@In Other News...: Block images from Valleywag.org. [valleywag.org]
This has to be an April fool's thingy. How else would Count Denton allow you to dis him openly? He might be all smiley in this pics, but his rep on the streets is as one who will, and I quote, "Choke a fool!"
@Choire: You've nailed it. This is a success-driven devaluation. Profitability is too costly.
Meantime, my psychological fascination is in watching the ever-reticent manager cleansing via the catharsis of dissent.
Of course, it's his ball and his playground.
Go kick marketing for not maintaining the per-pageview value of your content! If they were selling ads that corresponded with your traffic, you'd be able to maintain your pay rate. Of course, there would have to be occassional dilution due to the self-perpetuating nature of pageviews, but this ideally would be a function that would - yes - be transparent to the writers.
So should I set this page to auto-refresh to inflate your bonus this month, Jordan?
The sensational (albeit inaccurate) headline on this story should heave you into bonus territory in no time, Jordan.
You mean Denton actually pays YOU and not vice versa? Wow. This whole time I thought writing for Gawker Media was a privilege you had to pay for...
@tootingbec - is this post Jordan's foolproof way of ensuring his bonus doesn't go down for this month...?
Time to get a job.
@Tnuc: I think this is an April Fool's post is what I'm saying.
You can address this situation in one of three ways:
1) Increase traffic to your posts by writing ill-researched, inflamatory pseudo-journalism (and help Denton achieve his dream of becoming the next Murdoch).
2) Increase traffic to your posts by showing more tits (and help Denton achieve his dream of becoming the next Murdoch).
3) Leave to work for or start a tech publication that's has a long-view of brand-building.
@In Other News...: Agreed.
@smashface: Amazing what discussions this has prompted tho'.
What's the per-mention kickback rate on Julia Allison pieces?
@Noah R: How would I know when I was in bonus territory?
@In Other News...: It isn't.
@raincoaster: Cool, she'll make bank both ways. Then she'll buy Valleywag, send Paul Boutin to Mistress Razorwire for sensitivity training, and drink margaritas out of Nick Douglas' hollowed out skull. Good times.
@In Other News...: Even the bit at the end that says it isn't an April Fool's joke?
@BadUncle: 3. a.) and starve ?
I'm happy with the system.
@Jordan Golson: Wow! Then what was that "Happy April First" thing... please, please explain?
@Blackjack: Saying that on April Fool's Day is like when people in jail say "I didn't do it!".
On the bright side, all you have to do is write another 63 posts bitching about your pay rate and you'll meet your monthly quota.
Or, do what I did: work in finance! Would you believe the people are nicer here?
@In Other News...: That was someone being dumb.
When do our paychecks come in this month anyway?
This sounds stressful, but it's great how you can be so open about it on the blog... Totally unheard of at newspapers.
Ironic that your post about pay (which now has nearly 5,000 views) is going to get you paid.
Nice!
Union now! Union now!
Try a creative solution. Mr T seems to be available. Sub-contract your posts to him for a greatly reduced rate and pocket the difference. That's GOLD! And from what I'm reading at Gizmodo today his writing is not half bad...
@Annalee Newitz: I told Jordan he could only splice over to us if he mentioned "UAW" in the healdine.
Jason Calacanis charges his employees per pageview!
@raincoaster: Thanks for advising Denton of my pandering plans as exit strategy. But how do you know I'm not already holed up in Buenos Aires, filing stories to Mr. Boutin, lapping the blood of near-virgins from a redhead's brow as I write? Four Hour Work Week indeed.
Except you do know what your salary is. Presumably your base rate (or, shall we say, "salary") remains unchanged; the only thing that might change is the page view rate, which would only effect how many page views you're expected to accumulate, and when you'd be able to get a bonus (and how much the bonus would be, of course).
So basically: you don't know what your bonus is. But since that changes month to month depending on your traffic, you never know that.
What's changed, again?
Hope this bitchy post gets you some pageviews! Get a real job!
This post is going to make Jordan rich, regardless.