the kicker

Irony Watch

Why get paid when you can give it away for free?
November 15, 2007

This one is just too good to pass up. Last night, journalist Albert Kim posted a piece over at the Huffington Post–a site that famously doesn’t pay its freelance writers for their work–to voice his complaints that journalists and writers don’t’ get paid enough. Seriously. Apparently not alive to the mind-bending irony of the situation, he writes,

Writers create stories and turn them over to companies who use them to make money. When those companies reuse that creative content to make more money — think reruns, international sales, home video and such–the writers get cut in on that new revenue. The equation is so obvious and fair-minded that no one, not even the producers, is arguing that there shouldn’t be residuals. The fight is over just how much money should be shared.

Which leads me to wonder: Why don’t journalists get residuals?

Good question, Albert. Could part of the reason possibly be because some writers have no problem giving their work away for free?

Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.