Web Publisher/Editor, High School Sports The Magazine

bullshit. pay is discussed here all the time.

what makes this guy/job so different than any other?

 

Exactly right, Tom.

And for the amount of work this guy wants, it definitely should pay more than $250. Like I said before, the same volume of work at a smaller daily (20K) would probably yield $700/month or so.

I feel bad for any sucker who takes this job. It'd be like giving away your work.

 

It's been a couple weeks since I weighed in on this thread and took Brock to task with some pretty pointed concerns, asking him to shoot straight. (Back on the first page, about a third of the way down).

Brock answered me quickly and he's still being evasive. I"m not an applicant for this job, first of all. I have a very good position at a large media entity and I"ll leave it at that. I"m also familiar with startups, such as those backed by angel investors or even venture capital, and I know how this works.

The business plan for ventures like this typically is to lure in passionate wannabes willing to work cheap, patting them on the head, and consolidating cranked-out content that they can then go to advertising prospects and have something to sell with delusions of 30% annual growth and low operating expenses in the start-up phase. These passionate wannabes are just personnel fodder to produce "stuff", although they will turn around and make marketing/advertising pitches that their writers are "local experts" providing superior content.

Bottom line: the business model is to produce content as cheaply as possible while dangling future hopes to those providing it so that the bulk of operating capital can be used for productionh, distribution, marketing and advertising. In the mind of these types of start-ups backed up investors, having to pay and deal with wannabe writers is a necessary evil---writers are the low end of the totem pole.

I say this without bitterness or ignorance. It's just a fact. If I were part of a group putting up six or seven figures of my own money to back this venture, I would probably feel the same way.

Just be warned.

 

This is not a start up business. We have been around since mid 2005. We currently print 9 magazines, with a 10th coming next month. The web properties are just another piece of the business that we are launching. Most of you may or may not know that the cost for going into a region to start printing a magazine, is major dinero. Each of our print magazines is owned by a local person, many of who have invested their savings and retirement into their franchise and are already making a return. All of this to say, we aren't a fly by night operation.

We are looking to start web franchises in markets across the country, which is where these web positions come into play.

 

You know, I think everything's been presented here -- the opportunity and the drawbacks. Don't know how much more can be accomplished by pinning the man's business to the wall. He's just trying to make a go of it.

 

You are a start-up business because you're less than three years old, and you still are ramping up based on your own explanation of expansion and add-ons. This is what is refererd to as second phase beyong initial startup.

I mention all this business-like gobbledygook just to say that the intent of hiring passionate wannabes and paying them petite dinero is still a purposeful part of the plan to help lesson the expense risk of new investors (i.e. local magazine owners who are burning through cash in other areas). Again, nothing wrong with that, but applicants just be forewarned---you ARE cannon fodder and keep your resumes out and about even if you get one of these jobs. On the one hand you are highly expendable, and on the other the shelf life of new magazines such as these is a year or two at best---not all fall by the wayside, but a lot do.

Let me repeat: Be forewarned. Proceed with caution and tempered expectations.