My friend Bill tipped me off to AOL/HuffPo searching for a whole buttload of writers to blog for free for Huffington Post’s new local local local blog network, Patch:
“Anyone may apply,” Greenfield Patch editor David Cotey wrote in a post on Wednesday. “Parents, grandparents, favorite aunties, crafters, shopkeepers, baristas, hobbyists, nonprofit organizers, and government officials — here’s a chance to share your expertise and your voice.”
“Patch bloggers are not paid and will own their blogs,” Cotey continued, “so if you are already blogging and want to share with our readers, too, let us know.”
Some of you remember that I got let go as a contractor for AOL earlier this month. Unlike some (maybe most?) of the other freelancers that worked with AOL, I had no issue with being let go, based on my contract with AOL. I don’t expect anything more or less than was agreed to, regardless of all the great talent they lost.
The comments on the article, as you might guess, lean negative. Even if HuffPo’s play to get freely-generated local content is a bad business move for HuffPo or a bad career move for wannabe writers, why anyone would be against two parties coming to a mutual agreement on (free) work is confusing to me — especially in the writing world. Back when people learned skills and trades and didn’t expect the world handed to them after getting a state-approved diploma handed to them, you would do work for at cost or free until you established yourself and people valued what you did enough to pay you for it.
I don’t think it’s a great move by HuffPo just from a PR perspective, but I have no idea how badly this will end up.