Freelance journalists getting nickeled and dimed?

The Guild freelance unit has a plan.

By Rebecca Rosen Lum

“Citizen journalism." The phrase has a certain democratic, Mr.-Smith-Goes-to-Washington ring to it.

But publishers’ beeline away from skilled journalists toward Everymen who will work for free or cheap is part of a larger trend that serves ultimately to torpedo democracy. For without a robust, untethered and principled news media, the idea of democracy is just that – an idea. An exercise in theory.

It should come as no surprise that enterprising, rigorous journalism — the kind that nourishes a democracy — is costly. It’s costly because it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and requires skill, both depth and breadth of knowledge, resourcefulness, vetting. That’s before we even get to writing with elegance and impact.

Seldom a day goes by that a posting does not appear on Craigslist seeking skilled writers so bursting with “passion” for the topic at hand that they are willing to devote hours of investigative reporting for the thrill of “exposure.” Ironically, many of these employers represent do-good nonprofit organizations, such as “JustMeans,” which offers roughly two cents a word for the thrice-weekly, quality postings it demands.

Resist, cries news media analyst Alan Mutter.

Mutter (“Reflections of a Newsosaur”) lit a match to a combustible topic this week when he pilloried publishers, including online content providers, for failing to pay journalists an honest buck for an honest day’s work – and challenged journalists to reject substandard pay. Read his full column here.

“It’s time for journalists to stop participating in their own exploitation by working for a pittance – or, worse, giving away their valuable services for free,” Mutter wrote.

Publishers are also seeking more secondary rights for the same buck that once secured one-time rights, a critical change for freelance journalists, who maximized their earnings by reselling stories in multiple markets. Magazine fees have been on a downward slide for decades (One of the nation’s top-paying publications, Good Housekeeping, paid $1 a word for 40 years). Trails.com pays $15 for articles about the outdoors; livestrong.com $30 for 500-word pieces on health, writes the L.A. Times’ James Rainey in his recent piece “Freelance Writing’s Unfortunate New Model.”

“The crumbling pay scales have not only hollowed out household budgets but accompanied a pervasive shift in journalism toward shorter stories, frothier subjects and an increasing emphasis on fast, rather than thorough,” Rainey writes.

Of course, students and recent grads have long produced stories to get clips and exposure. Nothing new about that. But add to that population the number of out-of-work, experienced professionals and tanking advertising dollars, and you’ve got a set-up for exploitation.

Mutter writes that part of the problem is that we don’t value ourselves as professionals. As a reality check, we can try on the idea that it makes good sense in this tanking economy to promote legions of “citizen urban planners” or “citizen surgeons.”

Are we joining that range of low-paid workers Barbara Ehrenreich chronicled in her groundbreaking book “Nickel and Dimed,” doomed to toil at umpteen low-paying jobs to make ends meet? Is being paid per click the journalist equivalent of the sweatshop in which seamstresses are paid by the piece?

Not always, cautions San Francisco tech writer Bill Snyder, who has done well with at least one pay-per-click website.

“The only way to know whether this is essentially legitimate, or potentially exploitative, is to have some experience with the company,” Snyder said. “Without it, who knows? Which is why it makes a great deal of sense to track freelance employers and share the intelligence.”

At Guild Freelancers, that’s the plan.

One of our primary goals is to develop a “Fair Freelance” seal, modeled after Free Trade certification, for publishers who value our work . The sites that pay two cents a word — if that — will find themselves listed on our Wall of Shame — and the recipients of an Amnesty International-style, polite-but-frank letter barrage.

And thanks to Mutter, who thoughtfully provided a spreadsheet template for with his rant, we can calculate our worth.

“Journalists need to stand together – and stand tall – to reassert the stature of their profession,” Mutter writes. “The reason is simple: If they don’t put a value on what they do, then no one else will, either.”

Rebecca Rosen Lum is the chair of Guild Freelancers.

Bill would end journalist lockout at state prisons

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, special to Media Workers Guild and Fog City Journal

February 1, 2012

Bills loosening restrictions on media access to prisoners have been vetoed eight times by three California governors, but the latest version stands a chance to become law.

This month, the Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously passed AB 1270, also known as the “California Prisons: Media Access” bill, and it is expected to sail through the Senate in March.

Of course, lawmakers have repeatedly approved nearly identical legislation in the past, only to see it fall victim to vigorous lobbying by the Department of Corrections and victim rights groups.

But neither opposes the current bill, which was sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

The prisons have been operating virtually free from public scrutiny, a travesty given the nearly $10 billion the state prisons take in each year in taxpayer dollars, Amminao says.

The bill would not only allow journalists increased access to inmates, both randomly and in pre-arranged visits, it would also prohibit corrections officials from retaliating against those who talk or correspond with reporters.

Since the last legislative go-round, an inmate hunger strike delivered a public relations pounding to the corrections department and its use of extended isolation in underground, windowless cells and other abuses in Secure Housing Units (SHU).

Prison officials barred reporters from interviewing the inmates during the July action, which grew out of the maximum-security Pelican Bay Prison and spread to include more than 6,500 prisoners.

“It was near impossible to get unbiased information about what was happening due to these restrictions,” Ammiano said in his statement. “Inmates kept in secure housing units (SHU) have no visitation or telephone privileges and information about their solitary confinement punishments are largely unknown to the public even though a disproportionate number of inmate suicides occur in the SHU.”

The state clamped down on media interviews in 1996, abruptly closing the curtain on the state’s penal institutions, ostensibly to avoid glamorizing convicted felons and re-traumatizing their victims.

Theoretically, the state already provides media access. But to interview an inmate, a reporter must wait for weeks as the request percolates through the prison bureaucracy. If and when the request is approved, the reporter may have to conduct the interview under the watch of a prison employee. Notebooks, records and camera are forbidden. And prisoners are not entitled to write to journalists in confidence.

Crime Victims United has “fought and fought” to keep similar bills from becoming law, said president and chair Harriet Salarno. But the statewide organization has withdrawn its opposition since the current incarnation requires crime victims to be notified of interview requests.

“That’s the way it is in Sacramento,” Salarno said. “You work things out. It was going to go through without any notification. We fought hard. We had to compromise.”

While Gov. Jerry Brown in a previous term created the Inmate Bill of Rights, which included media access to prisoners, journalists and free speech advocates say there is no guarantee Brown will sign Media Access, presuming it passes.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, which supports the bill along with the Pacific Media Workers Guild.

“Fast forward to 2011, 2012, and you have a governor who has taken a very hard-right turn,” Ewert said. “In a post-mayor mood has aligned himself with law enforcement in a way he never would have done in the past. That gives me extreme pause.”

Ammiano’s office calls Media Access “an extremely modest bill.”

“This bill makes it possible for the media to have access to prisoners, but it in no way guarantees it,” said aide Quintin Mecke. “Victims are going to be notified, wardens still have discretion.”

Supporters include the American Civil Liberties Union of California, California Broadcasters Association, California Newspaper Publishers Association, California Public Defenders Association, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, Drug Policy Alliance, Fair Chance Project, Services for Prisoners with Children, Media Workers Guild and the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association, which includes prison guards and parole officers.

Copyright FogCityJournal.com, 2006-2012. All Rights Reserved.

National real estate title insurance scandal widens

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Florida probes alleged kickbacks at 50 companies

Friday, February 25, 2005

By Janis Mara
Inman News

Florida regulators are investigating more than 50 title insurance companies for alleged illegal referral fees and other improper practices in a growing national scandal over title insurance kickbacks.

Florida's Department of Financial Services is investigating 50 title insurance companies for alleged referral incentives that violate both Florida statutes and the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, said Dean Andrews, a senior attorney with the department.

Illegal incentives paid to real estate agents to steer insurance their way have become an "epidemic," Andrews said.

The Florida news comes on the heels of similar developments in California and Colorado. California's Insurance Commissioner, John Garamendi, Wednesday announced an investigation into alleged title insurance kickback schemes in that state.

Last week, First American Title Insurance Co. agreed to refund about $24 million to consumers nationwide while under investigation by the Colorado Department of Insurance. Fidelity National Financial, under investigation in California, has discontinued the reinsurance agreements that came under scrutiny.

Kickbacks are so common in Florida's title insurance and real estate industries they are considered everyday business practice, Andrews said.

The practices under investigation include:

Paying advertising costs to advertise and promote the listings of Realtors and/or real estate salespersons; sponsoring and hosting or paying for the sponsoring and hosting of open houses for Realtors and/or real estate salespersons; and entering into affiliated business arrangements in an attempt to provide kickbacks to builders, Realtors and/or real estate salespersons or mortgage brokers.

Andrews said he couldn't name the agencies his agency is investigating.

"We're investigating title insurance agencies that are licensed by the state of Florida. We are not permitted by law to reveal matters under active investigation," Andrews said.

Wally Senter, formerly Florida's top title insurance regulator until his 2002 retirement, told the Tampa Tribune that until the state starts disciplining real estate agents and brokers for demanding and accepting incentives, the practice will continue.

While in office, Senter told the Tribune, he warned title insurance company executives not to engage in compensating real estate agents and brokers for sending business that way. "I told them, 'you better not get in bed with the Realtors. It will be never-ending.'"

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Send tips or a Letter to the Editor to janis@inman.com or call (510) 658-9252, ext. 140.

Alleged title insurance kickback scheme explained

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So-called scheme said to involve title insurers, reinsurers, builders

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

By Janis Mara
Inman News

The alleged title insurance kickback scheme under investigation by California and Colorado insurance officials isn't simple. In fact, it's extremely complicated – some might say devious, which isn't too surprising given that the so-called scheme is said to violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

But Erin Toll, deputy insurance director of the Colorado Department of Insurance and leader of that state's investigation, has a simple explanation:

Picture a triangle with the broadest part at the top, like a pyramid.

Now picture the homebuilder at the top left corner of the triangle. The title insurance company is across from the homebuilder, at the top right corner of the triangle.

The homebuilder approaches the title insurance company. The homebuilder knows the title insurance company is eager for the volume business the homebuilder has to offer.

So, the homebuilder makes an offer, Toll alleges. According to Toll, if the title insurance company will agree to sign up for reinsurance with a certain reinsurance company, it'll get the homebuilder's business. That reinsurance company is a "captive" – a subsidiary of the homebuilder.

The title insurance company agrees. The homebuilder uses the title insurance company's services, and that's the line that connects the two.

At the bottom of the triangle is the reinsurer. The title insurer makes payments to the reinsurer, and that's the line that connects them. There's one more step, but let's stop for a minute.

This all sounds simple, yes?

What's wrong with this picture?

Several things, according to Toll. First of all, the reinsurance is most likely unnecessary. "Over 99 percent of the transactions involving title insurance don't require reinsurance," Toll said. "We typically see reinsurance for hugely expensive commercial properties or tiny title insurance companies." But these arrangements involved residential properties and huge insurance companies.

Second, Toll says that the title companies paid the reinsurers a premium so high, it was grossly disproportionate to the risk the reinsurers were taking. Toll says the title companies were paying the reinsurers half the title insurance premiums they got from the builders.

And now for the last step – what's really wrong with this picture.

According to Toll, the reinsurers then funnel the payments from the title insurance companies back to their parent companies – the builders. And that's the line connecting the reinsurers with the builders. The title companies are returning, or "kicking back," half their fees to the builders via the reinsurers, Toll said.

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Send news tips or a letter to the editor to janis@inman.com; (510) 658-9252, ext. 140.

Newest U.S. cathedral rises to Oakland skyline

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Rebecca Rosen Lum

Jun. 3--It happens throughout the day: Traffic slows near the corner of Grand Avenue and Harrison Street in Oakland as motorists glimpse Christ the Light Cathedral climbing skyward. Cell phones and cameras emerge from car windows to snap photos.

For now, its warm blond bones lie bare. Soon, glass panels will cloak the massive ark-shaped sanctuary. It will anchor a landscaped complex encompassing an open plaza, smaller chapels, offices, a rectory and residence for Bishop Allen Vigneron, gathering places, gardens and a conference center.

It is the newest cathedral in the nation, and only the second most expensive in American history.

The $190 million, 224,000-square-foot complex replaces St. Francis de Sales, fatally damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

When it opens in fall 2008, the cathedral will bring together two parishes, St. Francis and St. Mary's, also in downtown Oakland.

The sanctuary's pivotal feature is its use of light, which architect Craig Hartman said he introduced in "the most poetic ways" possible.

"It makes the presence of God manifest," he said. "The promise is of a glowing, luminous space -- very spiritual in the way (of) a redwood forest, with light coming through the trees, diffuse and luminous. As the sun moves across the building, (the light) will constantly change."

It's not like anything Hartman has ever built, or has ever seen, and that's no accident.

The plan won Hartman the San Francisco American Institute of Architects Design Award. Hartman has been jetting between projects here and in Beijing, where he designed the U.S. Embassy building on one end of town and the 22-building Beijing Finance Street on the other.

Critics say the money could have been better spent elsewhere, but proponents say the sight of the soaring sanctuary has stirred beatitude throughout the diocese -- and helped spawn a construction renaissance along Lake Merritt. Within a short span, developers plan to build a restaurant, a Whole Foods Market, and hundreds of business and residential units nearby.

"What Lake people have been talking about for years is finally happening," said Mike Brown, cathedral communications director.

"It's an act of hope and commitment," said Arthur Holder, dean of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. "It's a kind of positive statement about the future of the church, especially in the downtown area."

The structure is hewn from 26 110-foot curved Douglas fir ribs and 768 horizontal struts, spaced by 26 101-foot high laminated mullions. The curved supports are cemented at the root and held in place at the top by a steel ring; outward pressure exerts a third type of support.

The entire structure rests on a foundation of base isolators intended to protect the cathedral in an earthquake by giving it some flexibility of movement.

"It's really quite interesting and exciting," said Richard Kieckhefer, a professor at Northwestern University who has studied church architecture. "I am particularly interested in the treatment of light."

Only eight curved pieces remained to be set in place Wednesday. Workers prepared to pour the last bit of concrete into a mold for the main entryway. Two sets of massive double doors will open out onto Lake Merritt. By July, crews will begin cloaking the frame in hundreds of glass panels.

Each day, engineers who work in nearby buildings wander over to check the building's progress.

"They're out here every day like locusts," chuckled Brown about the curious engineers.

It may not be the most adventurous cathedral architecture in the world. That honor may belong to the Catedral de Maringa in Brazil, whose conical tower and surrounding geometric protrusions were inspired by Russian sputnik satellites.

And it certainly isn't taking the longest time to build: Construction on France's Notre Dame broke ground in 1163 and wrapped up 182 years later in 1345.

Nor is it the first cathedral to rise from the wreckage of an earthquake: A magnitude 9.5 temblor battered Chile's Valdivia Cathedral in 1960. The structure has been rebuilt 15 times since the 16th century because of damage from quakes and fires.

But of all those, Christ the Light is the priciest, and it's the cost that has ignited discord.

Estimates skyrocketed from $131 million in 2003 to $190 million in 2007.

The costs rose partly because of inflation, and partly because some figures could not be pinned down accurately before construction began, Brown said.

Parents in the San Ramon Valley had long hoped the diocese would make building a new parochial high school a priority over the cathedral.

"It might be more prudent and productive to build fewer grand cathedrals and more Catholic high schools," parishioner Bruce Bergondy of Hayward said. There are too few Catholic high schools in the suburbs, yet that's where most Catholics live, he said.

But proponents point out that the cathedral was financed through donations solicited specifically for the project. None of the financing has come from the $350 million the Oakland Diocese spends annually on social services, schools or church administration, according to the church's finance committee.

Arguments over construction costs also wracked the Los Angeles Diocese when it spent $180 million to replace its quake-damaged Cathedral of Saint Vibiana. Critics dubbed its replacement the "Taj Mahony," believing it to represent the oversized dreams of Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Now, motor coaches line up outside the boxy, auburn Our Lady of the Angels to see the cathedral where actor Gregory Peck's remains are interred.

In Los Angeles, members of the Catholic Workers movement protested the investment in bricks and mortar when services for the poor were so desperately needed.

The director of Catholic Workers of Oakland, on the other hand, was persuaded by Pulitzer Prize winning architectural critic Allen Temko to support the cathedral, despite its cost.

The pair was among 143 people involved in early planning meetings.

"I had my opportunity to voice my hesitation back in the pre-planning process," said Margaret Roncolli. "Allen Temko kind of changed my mind on the thing. Even (Catholic Workers founder) Dorothy Day said even the poor need beautiful places to worship."

In 1821, the Baltimore Cathedral became the first major religious building constructed in America after the adoption of the Constitution. Its first major renovation was just completed.

In the past decade, dioceses in Seattle, San Jose, Rochester, N.Y.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and other cities have undertaken extensive cathedral renovations.

But the building of a new cathedral is rare -- so rare that two art historians teamed up to teach a class in cathedral architecture at the Graduate Theological Union focusing on Christ the Light.

"I think it's wonderful," said Mia Mochizuki, one of the teachers. "The design combines the ethereal and the grounded."

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers religion. Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.

The numbers

--224,000 square feet: size of entire complex

--53,000 cubic yards: amount of soil removed during excavation

--60,750 tons: amount of concrete poured

--15 feet: height of surrounding concrete base walls supporting the wooden structure

--110 feet: height of 26 curved Douglas fir ribs

--101 feet: height of 26 straight vertical fir mullions

--768: number of Douglas fir horizontal louvers

--1,028: number of 4.5-foot-by-10-foot glass panes that will envelope the wood structure

--94,000: number of pixels in the Omega Wall, through which light will pass, illuminating the Christ in Majesty, an image from Chartres Cathedral in France

--36: number of friction pendulum double-concave base isolators, each of which weighs 4,200 pounds, protecting the cathedral against earthquake

--1,300: number of crypts the cathedral will hold

--1,450: number of niches it will contain

--200: parking spaces

Source: Christ the Light Cathedral communications office