Tina Brown Is The Media's Last Safety Net [Journalismism]

[KiRby]

Can Tina Brown and her newfangled "website" The Daily Beast singlehandedly provide refuge to all of New York's talented laid-off writers? Ha, no, of course not, not even a glimmer of a chance. She'll be lucky to get through the next two years without burning through tens of millions in start-up funds and flaming out like the Talk magazine of the internet. But there's no reason talented laid-off writers can't get a piece of that sweet monetary pie while it's here! The [I]Observer[/I] notes that Tina's passing out freelance bylines to many deserving newly unemployed vets of dead publications like [I] Radar[/I] and the [I]New York Sun[/I], like a blond Brit Santa with a media fetish. And the pay is not bad! Not by recession standards, at least:

“We’re not offering big fees,” Ms. Brown said. Posts are generally good for $250. One recently laid-off staffer who’s been pitching the site was told posts could get $300 to $500—others say it’s closer to 50 cents per word...
“They want celeb-focus and featurey stuff that’s light and fun to read,” said one recently laid-off staffer who contributes. “They’re less interested in the scoop and more interested in the fun, light read. They like stuff with celebrities attached with little lists: five of this, five of that.”
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Well that sounds like... our job. If we got paid at that rate, we would make six hundred and eleven million dollars per year. [NYO; pic via. Choire Sicha is on The Daily Beast, for example!]

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