Bloggers Union/Guild - Would you go for it?
March 20, 2008 – 10:19 amYesterday Michael Arrington posted a very interesting article about how much money bloggers are making and some things that are involved with this. After his post, Josh Catone came and raised another question which I would like to discuss.
According to Josh, the majority of bloggers aren’t being paid what their outlet could afford to pay them. Some, like those who write at the Huffington Post or DailyKos, might not be paid at all. He observed that a bloggers union is an idea that was most recently advanced last month in an issue of the Columbia Journalism Review.
People are starting to envision a professional guild for bloggers, not unlike the Writers Guild of America, that would rep professional bloggers. Their task number would be weed “professional bloggers” from the hobbyists . Unionizing bloggers is something the National Writers Union is also talking about. Organizing bloggers is a subject that is slowly popping out everywhere.
This kind of organization is something that I fear the most and I tell you why. As far as I see it, blogging is too dynamic to be controlled/represented by a guild or a union. The tradeoff would be too expensive: bloggers would lose freedom and speed. Almost everything the web conquered was due to freedom and speed. If it was up to me I wouldn’t trade it to have someone negotiating how much I will make and how many benefits i will get.
I truly believe that on the web the power is on my hands and if I think I’m not earning as much as I should I have all I need to negotiate it or to go for new ventures.
People tend to like power more than they should; they fear the most when they feel that the power is being distributed. They may try to shade this but the truth is that bloggers don’t need a guild is the guild founders that need bloggers and the power that comer with them.
I think we are fine the way we are and thank you very much!
2 Responses to “Bloggers Union/Guild - Would you go for it?”
I too am mightly opposed to things like ‘unions’ yet I recognize the benefits - IF there are issues and IF they can be made to work correctly. And some do. It is the corruption that is at issue IMHO.
Ponder this. What if a blogger guild (or guilds i’m thinking) were more like Writer’s Guilds. And I’m talking about the kind that provide an incubator, say, for helping each other out.
I read many of Laurel K. Hamilton’s books and she generally refers to her ‘writer’s guild’ and I get the distinct impression that they are a group of like-minded individuals who congregate periodically for the benefit of each member.
I can imagine that they read each others manuscripts and maybe offer editing help to each other.
I could see a ‘blogger’s guild’ of that nature. I know I could sure use help and feed back and I know that various folks sort of naturally combine forces to do just that. (i’m part of some of that!)
Would that make sense to somehow offer up some guidlines for folks who wanted to start such a group? Would you consider THAT kind of organization?
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
By Pam Hoffman on Mar 22, 2008
Paul,
Yeah. That king of organizations is always welcome the problem is that this subject is brought to the table every time we discuss about wages and benefits. It is all about “professional bloggers”, health insurance, $x per post. They don’t talk about improving the blogging experience as you propose. Unfortunately, I don’t see any good coming from it…
My Best,
Thiago!
By Thiago on Mar 22, 2008