I am gratified to see Demand Studio’s Senior Vice President of Content and Editorial, Jeremy Reed respond to writer concerns about eHow that I articulated here. I am reposting the exchange below.
January 30, 2010 at 5:08 am JadeDragon says:I’d like to know what Demand Media is going to do about eHow Writers who are feeling pretty used and abused? Using copyrighted material on the ehow UK site to compete with the residual income writers’ own work is just lousy business practice and a PR nightmare. Is anyone up at corporate paying attention to the fall out?
I would be happy to interview Jeremy and post the results on my blog – as a business person myself I can understand the issues and as a writer I can articulate the issues. Currently all the eHow writers are getting are presponses (not answers) and deleted forum posts. Will Demand step up with some actual answers?
January 30, 2010 at 1:48 pm Jeremy Reed says:
JadeDragon,
The simple answer: We messed up and now we’ve got it fixed. Short story: We didn’t have the proper tracking in place. And, you will see the results (e.g. money), if you are an eHow WCP (Writer’s Compensation Program) writer. Since this interview above was about Demand Studios, I do want to make the point that it did not affect writers who did revenue share articles through the Studio. Those had tracking in place.
Anyway, my good friends Greg (know in the office as GB) and Rich (know in the office as The Guch) explained the issue and solution in this video just posted: http://blog.ehow.com/. These guys/I care deeply about treating all of our creators (writers, copy editors, filmmakers, etc.) fair. We just made a mistake, realized it, and now we are fixing it. I really apologize for the financial hit it was for people who rely so much on eHow.com for their income. All of us at the company have felt so bad about this and as such, made it a priority to fix. It was also important that the fix be fair. Please email me directly (reed@demandmedia.com) if you still have concerns after receiving your overdue compensation.
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy for your fast response, for being honest, and for fixing the problem. This will go a long way to rebuilding trust in the eHow community.
Jade Dragon
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
JADE feel free to post the link on my blog …. This is awesome. I am glad that they wrote you and did a direct statement. Time will tell. I hope the earnings go up enough but those that weren’t expected probably wont’ see as much as they’d like. :) Good job you have been instrumental in the turning around as have so many others. Awesome blog you have here :)
I just came across your forum post at eHow! I haven’t been reading to deeply in to the UK debacle too much. I never realized the impact it is having on writers. I noticed my earning drop significantly but just figured they would bounce back. At least now I’m optimistic about my earnings in the future. I have written about 300 articles this month (January)! I hope every writer here gets their dues!
Thanks for sharing. Should be interesting to see what the “fix” actually changes. I haven’t seen any uptick in earnings and am down a lot in January.
Thanks again.
A fast fix? There were a handful of writers questioning this for MONTHS while eHow tried to keep it all swept under the rug. Then, when the forum started getting hot they finally offered to remove the articles–though this would take weeks according to them. They also said no compensation.
The only reason I can see they are now offering more, though it isn’t much, is that it has become national news and everyone is bad-mouthing them. The only thing eHow cares about saving is their own reputation. As usual, eHow is taking care of number one–themselves.
I won’t be returning to eHow. Glad I noticed problems shortly after signing up and stopped submitting articles until I could decide just how it all worked. For me, there was little invested, unlike others who have years into it.
IF eHow was truly committed to treating their writers fairly they would remove articles, compensate them for all UK sites, give them a bonus for the headache they have caused AND most importantly come up with an accurate, detailed TOS that tells writers exactly what they will earn in the future.
There is nothing in the TOS to stop eHow from doing this again…..writers who stay should really consider this. Quit being a doormat–demand better TOS.