ANNOUNCEMENT: A letter from Study Hall Co-Founder P.E. Moskowitz

A letter from Study Hall co-founder P.E. Moskowitz.

Hi everyone.

I wanted to write you a note to say that after many years (like 8 or something??) of owning Study Hall, Kyle Chayka and I have decided to finally hand over the reins. As you probably know, we haven’t been involved in the day-to-day operations of SH for a while (thanks to Erin Corbett and Daniel Spielberger and Chris Thomas, along with all of SH’s former employees, for doing that!), but the organization still belonged to me and Kyle on paper. This wasn’t really an ideal situation, as Kyle and I have full-time work as journalists and writers, and thus we could not invest time or money in SH to make it as good as we want it to be—more resources, more reporting, technology that doesn’t revolve around Google Docs, lol.

So, after much thoughtful consideration, including the input of SH’s employees, we’ve agreed to merge with OutVoice, a company that already has a history of providing really good services for freelancers. I know news of a company coming into a smaller organization is often the sign of something bad on the horizon (we’ve all worked in the media so we have seen it many times before!) but this is truly the best option for Study Hall. OutVoice has committed to investing in the community, its editorial work, and its employees. I’ve had many conversations with Matt Saincome, OutVoice’s owner, to make sure this was the best thing for SH, and I really trust that it is. Matt will introduce himself soon I’m sure.

Matt himself is an experienced writer and editor.  He was a full-time freelancer, writing for Rolling Stone, VICE and many other places. He was a music editor at SF Weekly. And he founded the comedy sites The Hard Times and Hard Drive. OutVoice started because he wanted an automated way to pay his writers instantly when an article went live so they never had to deal with the delays he did as a freelancer.

Not much will change for SH in the immediate future, but expect more soon—more reporting, better technology, better resources/databases, etc. Erin and Daniel and Chris are staying on. And I’ll still be around if you have any questions. And we already have a new website that’s less janky than the last one!

I’m so happy we started Study Hall all those years ago, and I’m really, really happy that it’ll actually be able to get the investment it deserves to grow and do more and cooler things now.

-P.E. 

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A NOTE FROM MATT SAINCOME, CO-FOUNDER OF OUTVOICE

When I was a full-time freelancer, my two biggest problems were finding work and getting paid on-time. When I was an editor, attracting and retaining the best talent — and ensuring they were paid with reasonable ease — was a pain.

And fast forward to when I was a publisher (of the comedy websites The Hard Times and Hard Drive), I felt there were no viable solutions out there to automate away all the headaches of finding, onboarding, and paying my growing freelance team. 

But now finally together, OutVoice and Study Hall will help solve these problems.

I have long admired Study Hall and what it’s done for media freelancers. From my perspective, Study Hall’s main assets are:

1. Community
2. Opportunity
3. Knowledge

The new combined Study Hall and OutVoice team plan to improve all three of these for Study Hall subscribers while maintaining the identity and community that make Study Hall so special in the first place.

So how are we going to do it?

First, we’ll be seeking feedback and input from the community. Subscribers are invited to a Town Hall discussion. The details will come via email. 

Some of my initial thoughts are that many large and small publishers use OutVoice to onboard, manage, and pay their freelancers. We can use these relationships with companies like Hearst, Adweek, Slickdeals, Fanbyte, Clickhole, and others to bring more opportunities to Study Hall subscribers. This would allow all of OutVoice’s customers to offer additional opportunities via the opportunities newsletter, and in an optional, more refined marketplace version of the opportunities newsletter. This marketplace, which we’re calling Study Hall Marketplace, will encapsulate everything subscribers love about Study Hall’s Opportunities newsletter, while making it easier to use and connect with commissioning editors. 

Additionally, we welcome the thousands of freelancers and hundreds of editors currently using OutVoice, to join the Study Hall community — giving subscribers the networking and learning opportunities they have come to expect from Study Hall’s Slack, listserv, and other community watering holes.

And finally we’ll continue creating and publishing originally-reported, editorial content. We’ll also take a renewed focus on building an evergreen content library: Our initial plan is to feature editors and publishers at some of the world’s leading publications, who can speak directly to Study Hall freelancers in order to increase learning opportunities available on our platform.

We’re excited about this progress, and hope you are, too.

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 SALE TIP SHEET FOR CURRENT SUBSCRIBERS

—All current Study Hallers will keep their current subscription tiers. No forced price increases for anyone here ever.
—Study Hall’s broken pieces will be fixed. We started with the new website and have more in store soon.
—The pieces of Study Hall that work and are loved by Study Hall subscribers will be continued and improved. In the near term, we hope to create a better “Opportunities” experience, but for those who just want the newsletter version, that will continue as well.
—Anything new that we build to improve the Study Hall experience will be done with feedback from the community.
—Study Hall’s previous owners, Kyle Chayka and P.E. Moskowitz will remain partial owners.
—And a final note about/from Matt: I’m a DIY punk kid and music journalist who made money building a punk comedy website (The Hard Times). I raised money and started OutVoice with my cofounder Issa Diao (also from the punk scene) to help freelancers not have to go through what I did as one. OutVoice is the business that bought Study Hall. Our mission is to advocate and incentivize publishers to pay freelancers more quickly.

If you have any questions, please email: [email protected]