'Demand Media Can Go To Hell'

Them's harsh words, pardner. Folio:'s Tony Silber penned an editorial bashing Demand Media's low freelance rates, and all it serves to prove is that the debate about the company is still going strong. [Matt] Pressman [, who yesterday wrote a VanityFair.com piece about Demand Media] quotes Steven Kydd, Demand Media's executive vice president in charge of content, as saying that writers have the benefit of steady reliable work and a quick turnaround on payments. Please. Spare me. Getting a quick turnaround on nothing is meaningless because it's still nothing. Then he gets even tougher: I hope no magazine ever partners with Demand Media. In fact, I hope Demand Media and any site like it goes out of business. They demean and abuse professional content creators, leveraging them to generate revenue from Google ads. They're sweatshops. No magazine should accept content from a company that treats content with such disrespect. The comments are filled with support from Demand contributors, saying things like "I take in $1,500 a month without breaking a sweat, and I am happy with the arrangements" and "Because I can work as much as I want, I am making more money than my fulltime job. Obviously, I have no benefits and pay more for Social Security. But this job is the difference between living on unemployment and likely having my house in foreclosure." And this particularly impassioned/harsh (depending on your 'tude) comment: Did Demand Media put 7000 out of work writers and editors back to work? HELL YES. If you can't back up your indignation with some good basic fact-checking, maybe you should pick another profession. I hear Rupert Murdoch is looking for a good shoe-shine boy. Yikes. We predict this debate will really come to a head in 2010.

Fishbowl

'Demand Media Can Go To Hell'

Rachel Kaufman

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Rachel Kaufman