Newspaper Guild Calls on Unpaid Writers to Boycott Huffington Post

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The national Newspaper Guild has upped the ante in a strike against the Huffington Post, calling on all unpaid writers to stop contributions to the website.

The 26,000-member union of media workers asked all unpaid contributors on Wednesday to withhold their work in support of a strike launched earlier this year by the art publication Visual Arts Source, whose writers had previously contributed free content to the Post.

"Join us in shining a light on the unprofessional and unethical practices of this company," the Guild wrote in a press release. "Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical picket line, we ask that they honor this electronic picket line."

The call comes in response to the Huffington Post's "refusal to compensate its thousands of writers in the wake of its $315 million merger with AOL," the Guild wrote, and its refusal to acknowledge requests to meet with Guild officials "to discuss ways the Huffington Post might demonstrate its commitment to quality journalism.”

"What we're trying to do is get a dialogue going with the Huffington Post," Newspaper Guild Administrative Director Tim Schick told FoxNews.com. "They obviously have a large following, but we're at a time when the standards of the industry, as far as pay and benefits, are going down and we think that because of Arianna Huffington's stated positions on what's good for middle class Americans that she should be open to discussing how to maintain the standard of living for people who write for a living."
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Strike! Strike! Strike!

[Rheo]

The AP writers are withholding their bylines in support of this. That should make a difference.