Writers Waiting to be Paid   

It's the worst nightmare of writers everywhere. Their article appears in a publication, but the payment never arrives.

Many freelancers spend countless hours writing letters and calling editors in an effort to collect what they are owed. Among the latest is a group of writers, artists and photographers, mostly women, who wrote pieces for Ms., Working Mother and Working Woman magazines.

The group found itself in financial limbo when the assets of the three publications were purchased by MacDonald Communications Corp. in June 1996 from the financially troubled Lang Communications Corp. While the exact terms of the deal were not released, MacDonald Communications CEO Jay MacDonald has said in published reports that he is not legally obligated to pay the debts that were incurred by the previous owner.

That position was not well-received by Ms. magazine founders Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem, who joined forces with 15 other prominent activists and feminist authors — including Bella Abzug, Susan Brownmiller, Gloria Emerson and Susan Faludi — in asking that the writers get their money. In August they signed a letter to MacDonald urging him to make good on the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to several hundred professionals. They appealed to his "moral and ethical obligation to honor these debts to the very people who created the value of the publications whose assets you purchased."

Karen Springen, a Chicago-based correspondent for Newsweek, covered the summer Olympics in Atlanta. A Working Woman editor called her to do a story on female Olympians, which ran in the magazine's May 1996 issue. Springen signed a contract that specified a $1,500 payment upon acceptance, but she has yet to receive a check.

While most of the writers who remain unpaid are women, Washington Post science and technology reporter and columnist John Schwartz is one of a handful of male writers in the same predicament. Solicited by a Working Woman editor to write an article on locating Web sites of interest to women in business, Schwartz' five-page article appeared in the magazine's March 1996 issue. With a full time reporting job and three children, Schwartz says he chooses his freelance assignments carefully. "I started bugging them upon acceptance," Schwartz says. "Within months it was clear that these people were not paying."

Working Woman Editor in Chief Nancy Smith, who joined the magazine after the MacDonald purchase and who returned a call that AJR made to MacDonald for comment on this article, paints a different picture. "I don't think it's a problem," she says, pointing out that, since taking the job, she has contacted a number of writers who were not paid by the magazines' previous owners "to let them know we would be an outlet for them in the future."

"We have gone out of our way to accommodate, as much as we could, all of the people who worked for the magazine in the past," Smith says. "Whether we can right every wrong that Lang did is a more problematic question. If we acquired their debt, we would be in the same boat."

From the writers' standpoint, the issue is far from resolved. Some unpaid writers have filed individual suits in small claims court. And the National Writers Union in New York is lobbying writers to join together in a lawsuit to recover their money. So far, the union says, about 36 journalists have signed on to the suit, which was filed in early December in the Supreme Court of New York.

Meanwhile, changes are underway at the three magazines. On November 5 MacDonald announced a 20 percent work force reduction as part of a major restructuring of the company that will include moving some offices and consolidating several departments. Working Woman and Working Mother will drop from 12 to 10 issues next year. Ms. will continue to publish six issues. The company says the restructuring is expected to reduce expenditures by nearly $10 million.

According to a press release, the money saved as a result of the reengineering is being allocated to circulation, promotion and marketing efforts. No mention was made of outstanding debts to the writers, many of whom have sworn off the MacDonald titles for good.

Says Newsweek's Springen, "I'm just so soured on them."