Vice News has promised to change the way it works with freelance journalists after several freelancers accused Vice of mistreatment.
“Vice and freelancers depend on each other, so when a freelancer is working with Vice, that freelancer should be treated with the respect as if he or she is a Vice employee,” writes Ciel Hunter, Vice head of content in a memo obtained by the Columbia Journalism Review, which published a first-person account written by a Vice freelancer who said “never had I felt this utterly taken advantage of.”
In the memo, Vice notes that it has recently hired a payroll company to handle payments to freelancers, and made new hires in its accounts payable department “which has resulted in substantial improvements in how quickly and accurately freelancers get paid.”