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When Writers Strike

Written on
December 17th 2007
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by DM Confidential  |
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actors_small.jpgIf asked to name a union, I imagine many would gravitate towards one of the larger, albeit waning ones, the United Auto Workers. Name the last time that they went on strike, and unless you actively follow or have some direct connection to the industry, you probably don’t know. I love cars, but I know very little about the labor unions who build many of the domestic models as their strikes do not impact my life. The same doesn’t hold true when the grocery store workers or mass transit workers strike. Those interrupt millions of lives, and when they strike, you know. Currently, it’s another union’s turn to strike; they represent a large and powerful group whose work, similar to the auto industry, impacts millions of lives. Similar to the auto industry though, their work might impact tens if not hundreds of millions of people and billions in dollars, but it outside of a news item, the vast majority of those that enjoy their work won’t know. If you live outside of Los Angeles and New York, especially if you belong to the DVR generation, you might not even know that the people behind the people, i.e. the members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have put down their pens and pencils, this being the sixth week of their strike. Many of us, myself included, have just started to realize what this strike means, and unfortunately, for those organizing the strike, they meant for it to secure their future. Instead, it looks like it will do just that for ours.

Ask six weeks ago those in the television industry, and you hear terms like long awaited and a foregone conclusion as to the likelihood of the writers’ strike. What made them walk? Money of course, and while they technically have a total of 26 points of contention, some of the biggest involve digital media, specifically content on the Internet. Those of us in the Internet advertising space will, like all the analysts before us, agree that online video and consumption of media online will change the economics and the landscape of Internet advertising. We see the ripples already with Google’s billion dollar acquisition of YouTube, the emergence of heavyweight backed Hulu, the hype from the Skype founders’ Joost, and many more. We aren’t the only ones. The writers behind the content, material that arguably makes up the vast majority of online consumption, see it too, and they don’t want to miss out on the upside that their content creates, something they felt happened with DVDs. Add to that networks playing fewer and fewer reruns, thus paying less to writers, showing them instead online, something that currently brings them limited to no money. Complicating matters, the WGA also wants those who write for reality shows counted among its ranks, who currently are part of a separate larger union, the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees.



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I wrote about the writer’s strike over a month ago in my blog (http://018c49a.netsolhost.com/blog1/?p=63)

While I’ll be the first to say that writing is a talent, it can’t be hard in this day and age of finding adequate talent from the audience pool working together, at least for keeping plots going until the strike is over.

But creative talent in a digital age can come from anywhere and old media just has to wake up…

Posted by Joseph "Giuseppe" Zuccaro | 3:38 pm on December 17, 2007.

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