Another freelancer has collected for unauthorized use of articles on electronic databases. A longtime contributor to Los Angeles Magazine found several of his feature articles online. Los Angeles (owned by Capital Cities/ABC, a Disney company) is one of the few leading magazines that does most of its article assigning without benefit of contract, but the writer argued that under the law, since he hadn't licensed electronic rights, only one-time print rights were implied. After consulting with ASJA, he demanded payment for electronic use since publication, setting his price at $1,845--15 percent of the total originally paid for the articles. His first letter was ignored. In a follow-up, he said simply that his next stop would be court. That brought a phone call and, after a little discussion, a check for the full amount. "I asked for a reasonable amount based on what other publications now pay me for these supplemental rights," the writer told Contracts Watch. "Our conversations were cordial, but I was firm in my demands."
The publisher's attorney, in a letter, offered the customary denial of guilt ("The settlement payment to you should not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing...") but at the same time said the company had pulled all the articles and wouldn't sublicense their reuse again without negotiating with the writer.
Ladies' Home Journal continues to send all-rights contracts to see how many writers will take the bait. The magazine's "other contract" is labeled "Exclusive First North American Serial Rights" but tosses in all-media rights and promotional rights as well. Editors accept cross-outs on both and addition of the word "print" in FNASR, leaving a simple, acceptable contract.
Science is promising to improve. In a recent letter to regular contributors, the magazine's top editor says: "With the likelihood that your work for the print magazine may now yield us further revenues that we can track precisely to their source, we not only plan to share such revenues with you, but our Business Manager is busily revising the contracts you have been signing to fulfill a pledge to you. We promised that as we got deeper into the electronic age, we would continue to improve our contracts according to industry standards."
Macdonald Communications, new owner of Working Mother, Working Woman and Ms., is beginning to pay for articles it's publishing from the inventory acquired from the defunct former owner, Lang Communications. Some editors are said to be telling writers they must sign a harsh, grabby contract--a carbon copy of the old Lang boilerplate--to get paid. Untrue: Others have amended the contract. One freelancer slashed the terms back to "first North American print serial rights" and wrote to her editor, "I would be happy to add other rights, with appropriate compensation, but would need to know just which rights are requested. By the way, if it's more convenient for the publisher to pay for additional rights via the Authors Registry, that's fine with me...." No additional rights were requested and the change was accepted. Owner Jay MacDonald has promised a new freelancer's contract that does pay separately for any extra rights beyond first use. It hasn't yet appeared.
The latest newsletter of PEN devotes more than a page to an article decrying rights grabs by the New York Times and others. The author, PEN member Rolaine Hochstein, says, "While I recognize that PEN does not usually make public statements on writers' financial or business-related concerns, the state of affairs ... demands attention from all writers and the organizations that speak for them." For those who are ready to protest to the Times, the newsletter offers the fax numbers of publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (212-556-1434); executive editor Joseph Lelyveld and editor for electronic projects Kevin McKenna (212-556-3690), and associate managing editor Dennis Stern (212-556-7126). The newsletter also notes that the PEN board has voted to join the Authors Registry.
Writers recently report cleaning up excessive rights demands in contracts offered by Modern Maturity, Saveur, Parents, Fitness and Family Circle. At the last three, all published by Gruner + Jahr, editors have gone to the brink on the company's standard demand for free e-rights, offering only to shorten the time for the freebie. But in each case they agreed in the end to drop the clause or insert "at a fee to be negotiated." As Contracts Watch has previously pointed out, if G + J stops allowing its editors to make significant concessions on electronic rights, potential Family Circle contributors can turn to competitor Woman's Day; writers not treated well by Parents can consider Parenting; those unhappy with terms offered by Fitness can find more flexibility at Health and others in the field.
When Atlantic Monthly settled its part of the still-active federal lawsuit against the New York Times and others for continuing digital reuse of articles without the authors' consent, the publisher said it would negotiate electronic rights in the future. That's just what it's doing.
[The text above was supplied to ScienceWriters by The American Society of Journalists and Authors, a national organization of leading free-lance writers. Inquiries from all are welcome: Contracts Committee, ASJA, 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, tel 212-997-0947, fax 212-768-7414, e-mail 75227.1650@compuserve.com. ]