The editorial Guild at Time Inc., which was a pretty damned toothless, dickless organization when I was there, now proves itself to be brainless, too, as it leads its members forthrightly into the past. It just won a contract demand to prevent magazine editors from requiring Guild members to contribute to the web.
Idiots. The Guild should be demanding instead that its members should all be permitted, encouraged, and trained to work for the web. The web is the future. But the Guild assures that its members will die with trees. This means that its members will not be qualified to work in the omnimedia future present. And tactically, it means that management now has every motive to get rid of print people and hire newer, cheaper, younger, more qualified web people.
Yes, I know, the Guild’s issue is that it does not cover web-site employees. So it is acting in the self-interest of the Guild only, not in the interest of its members and their careers or in the interest of the industry and its future.
When I was at Time Inc., the Guild was voluntary and thus was the club of losers. Now it assuring its members that lot in life.
: LATER: See a Guild response from Bill O’Meara in teh comments.
