JazzTimes confirms rumors first reported here the 38-year-old monthly magazine's deep financial distress requires it to stop publishing. Its management hopes for a brand-sale and re-emergence. But in a longer email to freelance contributors, those same managers adopt a can't-help-you-pal shrug toward the brand's freelance contributors.
“The brand and operation will undergo reorganization and restructuring in order to remain competitive in the current media," according to the brief note on the mag's website. In the iteration of this message that went out to Jazz Times' contributors, though, that assertion was followed by words of dread to freelance writers and photographers: “. . . payments for previous assignments remain in limbo, as the JazzTimes ownership seeks the necessary financing."
Payments In limbo? What would a carpenter, plumber, landlord say? “I'll take the shelves back." “Your toilet's in limbo." “No rent, you're out!" But freelance editorial contributors are “unsecured creditors" -- most often without contract stipulations regarding surrender of properties in the case of default -- and way down on the list of payees when a company becomes hard-pressed or worse. Stories (warnings) about this are legion amongst editorial freelancers, so we try to to stay alert to bad signs in our outlets.
Are a publication's pages noticably, repeatedly fewer? Are payments taking longer to arrive? Is there turnover among administrative staff? Are noticably fewer articles commissioned? This sort of thing is a major topic of conversation amongst any group of freelancers. (In better times it's “Who's buyin'?" “What exotic junket am I covering next?" and “You won't believe what I just did with who!")
I have colorful memories of being maddened by non-paying publishers, and at my reference to JazzTimes' admission that it can't say when/if its bylines will be recompensed for their very real labors, a radio colleague responded he's had the same problem recently trying to get his due from Chicago-based Johnson Publications for work on EbonyJet.com. “I wasn't owed so very much," he said, “but some of the others, it' in the thousands."
Writers, a desperate lot, tend to keep scratching out their pitiful fantasies and offering them for public distribution in eternal hopes they will be read, recognized and regaled with the riches they so richly deserve. A good rule of thumb is not to keep writing for any publication more than three months in debt to you. Don't do it!
“The brand and operation will undergo reorganization and restructuring in order to remain competitive in the current media," according to the brief note on the mag's website. In the iteration of this message that went out to Jazz Times' contributors, though, that assertion was followed by words of dread to freelance writers and photographers: “. . . payments for previous assignments remain in limbo, as the JazzTimes ownership seeks the necessary financing."
Payments In limbo? What would a carpenter, plumber, landlord say? “I'll take the shelves back." “Your toilet's in limbo." “No rent, you're out!" But freelance editorial contributors are “unsecured creditors" -- most often without contract stipulations regarding surrender of properties in the case of default -- and way down on the list of payees when a company becomes hard-pressed or worse. Stories (warnings) about this are legion amongst editorial freelancers, so we try to to stay alert to bad signs in our outlets.
Are a publication's pages noticably, repeatedly fewer? Are payments taking longer to arrive? Is there turnover among administrative staff? Are noticably fewer articles commissioned? This sort of thing is a major topic of conversation amongst any group of freelancers. (In better times it's “Who's buyin'?" “What exotic junket am I covering next?" and “You won't believe what I just did with who!")
I have colorful memories of being maddened by non-paying publishers, and at my reference to JazzTimes' admission that it can't say when/if its bylines will be recompensed for their very real labors, a radio colleague responded he's had the same problem recently trying to get his due from Chicago-based Johnson Publications for work on EbonyJet.com. “I wasn't owed so very much," he said, “but some of the others, it' in the thousands."
Writers, a desperate lot, tend to keep scratching out their pitiful fantasies and offering them for public distribution in eternal hopes they will be read, recognized and regaled with the riches they so richly deserve. A good rule of thumb is not to keep writing for any publication more than three months in debt to you. Don't do it!
