Kid writes for Bleacher Report, never gets paid

Very interesting piece on Deadspin right now.

http://deadspin.com/the-top-200-ways-bleacher-report-screwed-me-over-1608499729

 

I don't understand BR's ranking system and badges. When did the writer have good reason to believe he'd ever be paid? He knew going in that the writing wasn't paid and that leading to a paid gig later was all a "maybe" right?

What BR does is bogus on many levels, as has been discussed other places on the site many times, but I've always seen it as pretty transparent in that regard

 

For the life of me, I can't figure out how B/R is the third-biggest sports site. I'm a long-time sports journalist, I hang out with dozens of rabid sports fans and I don't know ANYONE who goes to B/R, including myself. Not one.

As for the writers who write for free for B/R: You get what you deserve for letting a huge corporation make millions of dollars off your hard work. Frankly, this place sounds like a sophomoric enterprise that will eventually fail based on its sophomoric content.

 

Bleacher Report isn't even the McDonald's of sports writing- it's far beneath.
The lesson is never work for free. Unfortunate it comes at a price.

 

Deadspin put it best a few years ago: "Google-raping SEO."

 

Dog bites man.

 

And I'm sure it doesn't hurt that they have a decent amount of content on every major sports team every day. Which you can do if most of the writers are working for free.

Feel kind of bad for this kid because he saw a few signs that he might get his shot after initially thinking it might not be the best idea to rely on B/R for a job. Seems to me they strung him along for quite a while until he finally figured it out. But did we need that 4 million word opus to figure out he got screwed? And why is it called 200 ways he got screwed? Did I miss something? And I was waiting on him to dish some dirt on Finnocchio after he led with that. Strange story.

 

Don't. Work. For. Free.

 

The 200 ways he got screwed is just a play on Bleacher Report's usual string of slideshows and lists in their headlines. He did get led on quite a bit though, which is too bad. It seems like he gained some valuable experiences with the company though, the key is just knowing when to get out.

 

I couldn't agree more. Just. Don't. Do. It. If they can't pay you, you don't write it for them. Boost your ego some other way.

That said, what Bleacher Report did to some of these folks was reprehensible.

 

The bottom line comes down to one word ...

contract - noun,ˈkänˌtrakt/ 1. a written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law. "Both parties must sign employment contracts."

 

And the 200 number also happens to be the total amount he was paid for his work at Bleacher Report.