In January, I received an email from freelance writer A.C. Shilton, who was trying to get paid by HudsonMOD magazine and its publisher, Shannon Steitz. She told me: “I have gotten a lawyer involved to help me go after my $675, but she’s not taking my lawyer’s calls. …Anyway, if anything this has taught me how vulnerable you really are as a freelancer. I’m not really even sure what my next step is.”

I called HudsonMOD in late January and asked the editor about Shilton not getting paid. (Steitz wasn’t available to take my call, and the editor claimed she didn’t know about past due checks.) A few weeks later, the freelancer finally got her money from Steitz. “She ignored my lawyer for a good two months before a check randomly arrived.”

Terry Ward

Today I received another email about HudsonMOD not paying a freelancer; this time it was Terry Ward trying collect $3,460 for her articles. She was sent a cease-and-desist email after tweeting about her collection troubles.

“It’s been months of trying to get paid by this ‘magazine,'” says Ward, “and the minute I start tweeting that they don’t pay writers, they try to make me stop spreading it on social media.”

Sarah Rose, a former HudsonMOD contributor who also had collection problems, says of the cease-and-desist to Ward: “I’ve been freelancing for almost 20 years and it’s terrifying to get a letter from a lawyer under any circumstances. This is just plain bullying.” She adds:

I would like to draw your attention to a few things [in the cease and desist] —

1) the lawyers are offering HALF of the contracted money, as long as she stops posting on social media and signs an NDA

2) the insinuation of a “friendship” with her editor — something a female reporter hears all too frequently and that gets right under my skin.

3) the lawyer asserts industry standard is $.50/wd – implying her “friendship” got her a 2x raise. As you know, industry standard is $2/wd — most of us are making do with $1/wd.

The magazine, through its lawyer, is offering to pay Ward $2,000.

Are you accepting it? I asked the 39-year-old writer. (She’s been published in BBC Travel, Men’s Journal, Maxim and other magazines.)

“Hell, no!”

I called HudsonMOD this afternoon and, again, was told that publisher wasn’t in the office.

The cease-and-desist letter: Page one, page two, and page three.

Let me know if you’ve also had collection problems with HudsonMOD.

– First version of Seward (Alaska) City News’ story

– From the Seward City News comments section

* Seward City Council tweaks drug testing policy regarding marijuana (sewardcitynews.com)

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Today’s Chicago Sun-Times:

New York Post, June 2014

* Sneed “exclusive” almost a year old (@BeachwoodReport)
* Sneed exclusive: Obamas want to live in New York (suntimes.com)
* New York Post, June 2014: Obama may retire in New York (nypost.com)

* Sorry, newspapers. Your print edition just isn’t needed these days. (infinitedial.com) | h/t @thedudekabides | One buck or more for your thin product? No thanks! (niemanlab.org)
* WTF? A Florida judge requires journalists to apply for credentials and says some reporters are not “media” by his definition. (jacksonville.com)
* “Clearly, the Sun-Times itself is winding down as a paper,” says newspaper industry analyst Ken Doctor. (chicagotribune.com)
* Conservative radio talker Hugh Hewitt “is having a moment.” (nationaljournal.com) | (huffingtonpost.com)
* I’ll miss the Times Home section, too, and all the glass houses they featured. (nytimes.com)
* On the weekend to-do list: Watch the New York Times-Kickstarter films. (digiday.com)
* WSJ goes behind the scenes at “offbeat” cable network Adult Swim. (My favorite offering: “The Eric Andre Show.”) (wsj.com)
* “@PFTCommenter’s parody act plays upon the sensationalized, bigoted commentary that consumes much of the NFL discussion on the Internet.” (northwestern.edu) | h/t Ryan Glasspiegel
* Work here: Association of Washington Cities seeks a communications coordinator. (Romenesko Jobs)
* Virginian-Pilot editor Denis Finley resigns. “It time for me to try something new,” says the 62-year-old journalist. (hamptonroads.com) | “He looked tired, as if the job stopped being fun a long time ago.” (davidputney.com)
* Former New York Times and Politico editor Rick Berke joins the Boston Globe. (politico.com)
* The editor of a New Mexico paper that runs photos of drunk drivers faces aggravated DWI charges. (sfreporter.com) | (santafenewmexican.com)
* The student paper at Miami University (Oxford, OH) fires its community editor for plagiarism. (miamistudent.net)
* Pants on fire! “When CNNMoney inquired about [Nancy] Snyderman last week, an NBC News spokesperson said there was nothing unusual about her absence. The same day, Snyderman told CNNMoney that ‘all is well.'” (cnn.com)
* From a Montana paper’s “crime” log: “0921 – A lady reported someone watering on the wrong day.” (jacklimpert.com)
* RIP Rose Allegato. She resigned after being told to make big newsroom cuts in 1968. (theledger.com)
* Interested in placing a job ad or sponsored post on Romenesko? Contact Tom Kwas and he’ll get on the site.
* Send news tips, link suggestions, memos, reports of comment spam, and typo alerts to jim@jimromenesko.com (I’ll protect you, of course – unless you do want a h/t.)
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Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni and former adjunct Mo Krochmal decided to attend Thursday morning’s town hall meeting after reading about Dean Steve Coll’s restructuring plans. (Coll’s memo – with the meeting announcement – was posted on this site Wednesday afternoon.)

“I was there out of concern” for journalism education, says Krochmal, a class of 1995 graduate. Plans to cut j-school staff and reduce enrollment were on the session agenda.

The journalist got to the meeting about 20 minutes late and found an empty seat in the front row. He took out his phone and a notebook, which got the attention of two nearby journalism school employees. They went over to Krochmal and told him the meeting was off-the-record and he couldn’t take notes or record it.

Krochmal says he was “disappointed” that note-taking wasn’t allowed at a j-school meeting, but he agreed to Coll’s rules so he could stay.

Coll tells me there was confusion about the meeting, which was supposed to be for faculty and staff only. (The dean’s restructuring memo, which gave the meeting location and time, is addressed to “colleagues.”)

Coll writes in an email: “I refer to our quarterly all-staff meetings as ‘town halls.’ They are not public but for full time J-School staff to discuss school updates and plans.

“A note to alumni reporting our intent to hold an all staff meeting gave the unintended impression that this was an open forum. When one or two alums turned up I asked them to follow the ground rules so I could be fully open with my affected colleagues. I regret the confusion but the meeting was fine anyway.”

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The $5,000 prize places a premium on stories that expose undiscovered or covered-­up problems, explain detailed solutions in ways that can be put to use, and help readers understand the broader significance of the issues being covered.

Journalism in any media is accepted that best illuminates an environmental issue or story in the United States west of the Mississippi River, Canada west of Ontario, including Nunavut, and all of Mexico. Entries are not limited to journalists from western news organizations.

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* Knight-Risser Contest eligibility guidelines

Young journalists will never know what it's like to work for "companies that pay reasonably well & provide pensions." http://t.co/85QJs8tLbh

— Laura J. Nelson (@laura_nelson) March 12, 2015

* “Some people seem to be taking John Schwartz’s retirement tale a bit too personally” (twitter.com)
* Suggestion: Go work for Cablevision-owned Newsday (facebook.com)

Earlier: A 28-year-old Cosmo writer makes almost $80,000 (thebillfold.com)

– From today’s Washington Post story on “quotable consultants”

– From today’s Washington Post story on HRC and yoga

Letter to Romenesko
From DONALD SCHILLER: Thought you might be interested in page 2 of today’s Style section of The Washington Post.

In the middle of the page is the jump of a story from the cover on political consultants who are used to provide quotes for stories they may know little about. The story quotes Joe Trippi, a Democratic consultant who is often called to comment about the Hillary Clinton news of the day and most recently her email habits. He says: “There isn’t a campaign to call about the e-mails, so reporters have to call someone like me or Paul Begala. Hopefully they find someone who is closer to her than I am.”

So, who is quoted in the story above that one? None other than Joe Trippi, who comments to the Reliable Source about Ms. Clinton’s yoga habits (I’m sure this is something he knows a great deal about.)

“It makes her more relatable,” says veteran Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. “Yogi is to 2016 what jogging was to, like, 1990.” When voters saw former presidents Bill Clinton or George W. Bush jogging, he says, “they would think, ‘Hey, I like to jog, too.’ It’s the same thing now with yoga, for women in particular.’ “”

Seems Mr. Trippi’s not such a bad source after all – if you really need one.

* A political vacuum that’s easy to fill (washingtonpost.com)
* Hillary Clinton is most likely practicing Hatha yoga (washingtonpost.com)

Bloomington (IN) Herald-Times copy editor Penny Reid says her biggest concern about appearing on “Jeopardy” was what to wear. She chose a Goodwill sweater and got lots of compliments, “so I guess it was OK.”

Alex Trebek and Penny Reid

Reid did OK on the show, too, winning $24,400 in two appearances that aired this week. (They were taped in Los Angeles in early January.)

“People [at the newspaper] are pretty excited and full of praise and whatnot,” Reid said in a phone interview after winning $22,400 on the show that aired Tuesday and being allowed to return for a second appearance. “It’s very embarrassing.” (The copy editor says she doesn’t like being in the spotlight.)

Reid took second place on Wednesday’s show, and added $2,000 to her winnings.

“I was terrified the whole time just because of the pressure, mostly that I put on myself,” she told her newspaper in a story that’s behind a paywall. “I was shaking the whole time. I was a little worried that I might swear on camera. But once you’re there, you kind of get into a professional mode. So you don’t.”

Her plans for the money: “I’m going to take a slightly less backpacking type of trip, and more of hotel trip.” She’s going to London this summer, then Germany to visit a brother.

Friends have encouraged her to buy a new car with her winnings, but Reid says she wants to see how long her 1999 Subaru can stay on the road.

The 1987 Indiana University j-school grad, who has been a copy editor at the Bloomington paper for 25 years, says she still loves her job.

“It’s kind of a dream to get paid to read the paper,” she tells me, adding: “I’d like to say I knew the [“Jeopardy”] answers from reading the paper, but most of them I probably learned in high school.”/CONTINUES Read More