Crain's has a nice profile of Michael Winship, the president of Writers Guild of America, East. Now we know where he got his chops:In 2004, the two of them won a Writers Guild Award in the commentary category for “Wall Street Scoundrels,” an episode of Now With Bill Moyers.
Thinking about blogger for your TV show? Think twice, says Jonathan Handel in his blog that looks suspiciously like ours:So, my analysis is that the strike rules do indeed prohibit blogging for struck-company-owned TV show blogs. It's odd to think that blog entries - unadorned text - constitute "programming." But so it goes in the crazy world where new technology collides with an abstruse, 600-page Guild agreement.
Australian Writers’ Guild members Terry Antoniak [L] and David Franken [R] at the Brisbane, Australia, AWG demo on the International Day Of Solidarity, 26 November 2007
The LA Times quoted a WGA writer saying that this is "the first Internet strike." It covers the essential debate: Is writing and creating entertainment to mock the AMPTP breaking strike rules, or does it help the strike?But these are writers, aren't they? If they're going to protest, they should use the best weapon they've got: their pens. That instrument would seem to be an awful lot mightier than the picket sign -- which, as a symbol of solidarity in the 21st century, has begun to look positively quaint.
While The Daily Show writers are kicking The Colbert Report writers ass by 67% to 33% in this morning's poll (vote now), perhaps all have something to worry about. It seems CNN.com is pushing some seemingly parody news from the AP. The strike should have everyone worried...
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have struggled for many hours to produce an open letter that didn't sound like a cease and desist order without the benefit of writers, but they've finally succeeded.[Compared to pre-strike] Dispatches from a war room.The AMPTP's unsigned letter said:
The lengthy ad copy in today's Los Angeles Times and New York Times reads as if composed in a Zen tea garden.
The AMPTP has offered to pay writers a percentage of the revenues the producer receives from licensing streamed content on the Internet. However, the Writers Guild is asking that writers get a percentage of what the Internet site owners receive in advertising revenues connected with the streaming content, even if producers are getting none of that money themselves.The WGAw has a point-for-point response, but the AMPTP raises an interesting point: should there be an ad rev share?
Simply put, what the Writers Guild is asking for has no precedent. No labor agreement in history has given writers, actors or directors a portion of advertising dollars. There is no way that this change can be deemed reasonable.
We believe common ground can be found once reasonable people take the time to understand the issues. We hope this letter can help move us all closer to that goal.
Like so many other struggling actors, Sarah Silverman could barely write her picket sign, much less add any wit to it. Apparently she offered the dude who wrote the "Hitler Hated Artists Too" sign a hot meal, shelter and $5 to make her a sign, but he refused citing WGA regulations.
Michael Learmonth, who quit his day job at Variety to work at blog startup Silicon Alley Insider, doesn't want competition from WGA striking writers. He offers some fuzzy math to scare 'em off:Entry-level jobs for unionized TV writers start at $70,000 for a 6-month TV season. What does that translate to in the blog world?The math works out technically, though he left an "m" out of commission (Michael, you should write for TV, no one minds misspellings in scripts). But his comparison is quite incomplete.
Let's make some assumptions:
• You work by yourself, and you're just writing compelling stuff -- no audio, no video, and no other labor costs (we're going to assume you keep your WGA health insurance for the near future).
• You use a network like Federated Media to sell your banner ads. FM generally takes a 40% cut of each ad sold.
• You have a successful, good-looking site that advertisers want to be on, so they're willing to pay you an average of $6 for each 1,000 page views you generate - this is roughly what Nick Denton's Gawker network can command.
• You sell two ads per page at that $6 cpm.
That's $12 for each 1,000 page views, less a 40% comission. At that rate, you'd need to generate 9.75 million page views to match your TV salary.
If Gawker writers wanted more money from their CEO Nick Denton, could they write a funny episode of Cheers in protest?Now that they're on strike, it seems like screenwriters are busier and more productive than ever. But left to their own devices, it turns out that they are a distinctly unfunny bunch. Put a bunch of 'em in a room and eventually they'll write Six Feet Under, but in the end they're just monkeys—monkeys writing for the LA Times and New York mag and making their own blogs [link to yours truly] and getting all up on the HuffPo.Now, we've acknowledged the shortcomings of many writings of striking writers and have called for better. It's getting better.
So far the writers strikers have been very effective at penning witty "why we strike" op-ed pieces in pretty much every single major news outlet. But intimidate on the picket line? They couldn't even scare off Ellen DeGeneres from crossing the picket line. Most writers can't act or do cinematography, so what makes anyone think they can strike?
Online publishing industry blog paidContent sends a chillingly cryptic message to TV/screen writers today. They quote News Corp's MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe benignly saying "I am certainly not an expert in that, but I think it is bad for everyone. It could cripple the economy in Los Angeles." But in the photo they use (see right), his name tag says "C. de WOLFE".
Just when you thought you'd heard every notable person give their take on the WGA strike, Osama bin Laden decides to lend his unsolicited advice to writers:The studios that the writers are striking against are comprised almost entirely of Jews (and, in the case of the few non-Jews left in Hollywood, Zionist atheist Jew-lackeys), And the writers are all homosexuals or the sort of tedious women who enjoy cavorting with homosexuals.Read the rest on Osama's blog (not to be confused with Obama, who also supports the writers, albeit for different reasons).
Ultimately, I decided that I hate the Jews more than the Gays, so I offer this advice to the striking writers:
Perhaps you should consider each strapping between 10 and 20 pounds of homemade pipe bombs to a vest beneath your clothing. Then, split up between public buses, pizza places, and nightclubs in the Los Angeles area, and arbitrarily blow yourselves up.
Mayrav Saar of MediaBistro's FishbowlLA has published an interview with your favorite guide to all things strike. She called this blog a "sparse, funny read that has yet to turn black and ugly." Please be patient.
It seems the WGA Strike is a goldmine for print publications as TV and screenwriters take to writing residual-free articles to express their frustration at not getting residuals. Former Simpsons and Looney Tunes writer Larry Doyle made several demands in The New Yorker:OUR DEMANDS: An end to the lying. Just kidding. We recognize that, without lying, Management would be unable to exhale and would thus perish.
A renunciation of droit du seigneur. As it stands, studio executives, from chairman down to associate producer, have the right to deflower us on our wedding night, or any other night or time of day of their choosing. We believe that this change can be written into our contracts without affecting a similar agreement they have with the Screen Actors Guild.
