Washington Post Writers Lose Blog and Chat Swag?

Posted on February 4, 2009, 11:57 am, by JC, under Other.


Say it ain’t so, WaPo. According to the Washington City Paper, Washington Post beat writers will no longer be compensated for live chat sessions and blogging on the publication’s website.

The belt keeps tightening around the newsroom budget of the Washington Post. Following a stretch that featured the killing of the Sunday Source and Book World, newsroom administration on Tuesday announced perhaps a bigger no-brainer: Staffers at the paper will no longer get paid extra for doing chats and blogs on washingtonpost.com.

The piece goes on to say that strictly web-based writers will also see a slashing of cash for work published in the print version. That makes me sad, because Metro riders everywhere deserve to know who’s rocking the Obama Caps jersey BEFORE they get to their desks in the morning.

Another good point bought up by The Truth: What does this mean for exemplary blogs like the Wizards Insider? Will we see less and less of Ivan Carter’s timely insight on how much the Wizards are blowing it this season?

If you are shuddering right now, you should be. This is going to suck.

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  1. David Earl says:
    February 4, 2009 at 12:18 pm

    Hope this doesn’t have a major impact on Steinberg’s Sports Bog either. This really will suck.

  2. JC says:
    February 4, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    I’m waiting to hear back from him, but I think it might cause a reduction in the features he does for the print version.

    Hopefully, it doesn’t impact the Bog at all.

  3. Greg S. says:
    February 9, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Tarik’s “Capitals Insider” with Katie will also be adversely affected, I assume? One has to wonder with an average of around 100 responses to each of TEB’s posts why WaPo would want to bite that hand. I think that WaPo needs to become more creative in building income streams instead of cutting costs. The money is out there. They’ve not figured out how to tap it.

  4. JC says:
    February 9, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    I’ve heard that only a few of the WaPo writers actually got blog and chat bonuses, so by and large, the other beat writers won’t be affected in their post output.

    Still, for as many hits as they generate for the site, it would seem that they would institute some kind of bonus for the extra insight they provide.

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