Digest 03/28/2022

Buzzfeed beefs with union, Inside Science says goodbye, and more.

Today’s Digest has been handed over to freelance business and science journalist Kat Eschner. Kat is looking for a full-time journalism job after almost six years of slinging copy and would welcome any tips.

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BLOODSHED AT BUZZFEED

Buzzfeed, Inc.’s leadership is trying to give about one-third of the Buzzfeed News team the boot by offering buyouts to the investigations, inequality, politics and science teams. One problem, the Buzzfeed News Union says: the company can’t legally do this to its members during ongoing contract negotiations. 

This story gets a little weedsy, but I promise you it’s worth it. What’s happening at Buzzfeed is a test case for how digital media companies are going to deal with workers as they financialize, which is just a fancy way of saying “become beholden to shareholders.” (Full disclosure: I applied for a job at Buzzfeed’s health desk last fall. I’m also a member of the Canadian Freelance Union. )

Last Tuesday, then-Buzzfeed News EIC Mark Schoofs sent out an internal memo saying he was leaving, along with deputy EIC Tom Namako, and the company was planning  “to reduce our size through voluntary buyouts, not layoffs.” 

Buzzfeed News Union folks say the move is a bad-faith action by the company after more than two years of contract negotiations. “This is as devastating, if not more, than layoffs. This is an absolute gutpunch to Buzzfeed News,” says unit chair Addy Baird, speaking in her union capacity. Baird is also a politics reporter at Buzzfeed News.  

During contract bargaining, which the union and the company have been engaged in for more than two years, the circumstances under which union members can be laid off or even offered buyouts are limited. Technically, according to the National Labor Relations Act, the company can only make these moves because of economic exigency: in other words, if the only other alternative is going entirely broke. 

Buzzfeed laid off two News Union employees in 2020 because of pandemic financial issues that did constitute an exigency, the union told members in an email I reviewed. The company wanted to do more layoffs at that time, but the union negotiated a work-sharing agreement that held off other job losses for its members. In this case, “They have confirmed to us that it’s not a financial exigency,” Baird says. 

The memo came out an hour before the company released its full-year and fourth-quarter 2021 earnings, which weren’t great. It’s hard to parse exactly what Buzzfeed’s prospects are, since it only went public in December 6 of last year. But in the months since, stock value has dropped about 40%. Just days before that debut, Buzzfeed News union members staged a walkout. 

Buzzfeed is the first digital media company to go public. The initial public offering (IPO) is another example of the publication’s struggles to treat its employees right: Kate Robertson of The New York Times reported in mid-March that 77 current and former Buzzfeed employees are in arbitration with the company over two separate claims that it didn’t give them the proper info to trade their stocks before the valuation drop. 

The claims, which I haven’t personally reviewed, were made to the American Arbitration Association instead of to a court, in part because of an employee contract clause that requires such things to be arbitrated instead of going straight to lawsuits. The 77 complainants are seeking more than $8.7 million in damages, Robertson reported.

Expect to hear more about what’s happening with Buzzfeed News after the meeting this Tuesday, March 29 between the union and the company. In the meantime, I leave you with this tidbit from CNBC reporter Alex Sherman that suggests Jonah Peretti, CEO and founder of Buzzfeed, is being pressured by big shareholders to shutter the newsroom entirely. 

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INSIDE SCIENCE SHUTS DOWN

Inside Science, a physical sciences media outlet that helped shape today’s science journalism landscape, is shutting down at the end of the month after more than 30 years in the biz. 

“The organization that funded Inside Science, the American Institute of Physics, has decided to re-allocate its finite resources to further support advancing the physical sciences,” senior editor Chris Gorski wrote in an article published on the publication website mid-week. 

This is pretty big news in the science journalism community. Freelancing is a lot more achievable in science journalism than many other sub disciplines, because it’s specialized and a number of publications actually pay pretty well. 

Many of them — like Inside Science — work at arms-length from funders that are national or international scientific bodies. Every time one of these shutters, the feasibility of the freelance business model drops. 

Inside Science was also notable because of its propensity for wacky ideas. Of personal interest is this 2018 deep dive by science freelancer Marcus Woo on whether hightops actually prevent ankle sprains. 

At the same time, lots of publications just don’t have science reporters on staff anymore, even though two of the biggest stories of our day—the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change—are primarily science stories (as well as culture stories, politics stories, business stories, et cetera, et cetera.)  

“Everything that a freelancer wants and needs was what Inside Science provided,” says Ramin Skibba. From the start of his career in 2015 to when he accepted a job at WIRED as a space reporter last fall, the publication was one of his main clients. 

The publication had good rates — Skibba says he made around $1 a word for straightforward reporting — and was willing and even excited to publish off-the-wall ideas. “I don’t think I would be where I am now if it were not for everything I did with them,” he says. – Kat Eschner

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A COMPACT LITTLE THING

Last week, new magazine Compact joined the ranks of liberty-obsessed, politically confused online rags seeking to revolutionize the space once occupied by the now-forgotten trash fire Persuasion. But why did the New York Times find it necessary to commission a feature-length article on this non-event, which is also non-news? Dumb question, I know, but one I am willing to ask myself at least twice monthly. 

Our boys at Compact want to combat the “libertine left” and “libertarian right,” and see themselves at the center of a “two-front war,” in which their editorializing is akin to throwing “Molotov cocktails.” It’s super tough manly stuff that not all of us will understand, which is why pastries as delicate and sweet as Nina Powers and Slavoj Žižek have been enlisted.

I’m fussy, but it seems kinda bad that some dudes who had some media jobs (sus) are starting a fascist magazine (also sus). So why does the article move so dangerously close to legitimizing interest in a right-wing fraternal order as news? Even its author, Jennifer Schuessler, acknowledges the periodical hosts contributors including “right-wing populist-nationalist” sympathizers. At minimum, given that Compact is a magazine — not a missile being launched — shouldn’t that ring a bell to chill the word count? 

There is other drama about the magazine as well, such as their choice of name. But the idea that we’re supposed to care about Compact, the magazine’s editorial vision, and its founders’ work histories just because the Times rewrote their cover letter doesn’t sit right. Schuessler begins her article by comparing Compact to other “small media start-ups” who “believe they can deliver the final blow to the tottering neoliberal order.” As a staffer at a small, subscription-funded media startup dedicated to helping workers topple busted ass working conditions, I’m wondering where’s the love? Please just let us know their rates. For whatever it’s worth, I hope they pay less than Jacobin. – Evan Kleekamp

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COMINGS AND GOINGS

— Ziva Branstetter is leaving the Washington Post and joining ProPublica as a senior editor. 

— Tara Parker-Pope is joining the Washington Post to form a new wellness department. 

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EVERYTHING ELSE

— Reports Tina Vasquez: Journalist Manuel Duran won his asylum case after spending 15 months in ICE custody; he was “targeted in 2018 while covering a protest against law enforcement officials who work with ICE.”

— The inventor of the GIF, Steven Wilhite, died

— SiriusXM bought Earwolf and Stitcher in a deal worth up to $325 million. But it’s been downhill ever since as confusion within reigns and the companies hemorrhage staff. 

— Felicia Sonmez had her case dismissed last week; she has alleged that senior staff at the Washington Post discriminated against her by not allowing her to cover sexual assault because she has been open about being sexually assaulted. A judge dismissed the discrimination suit, finding that Sonmez had failed to make a “plausible claim.” Sonmez plans to appeal.