Arianna Huffington managed to sell The Huffington Post to AOL for $315 Million. Not a bad deal for Ms. Huffington, especially since she hasn’t even had to pay many of the people who provide content for her site.
Some of the bloggers, led by Jonathan Tasini are now suing, saying they should be paid for all the work they did. Forbes quotes Tasini as follows:
In my view, the Huffington Post’s bloggers have essentially been turned into modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington’s plantation. She wants to pocket the tens of millions of dollars she reaped from the hard work of those bloggers….This all could have been avoided had Arianna Huffington not acted like the Wal-Marts, the Waltons, Lloyd Blankfein, which is basically to say, ‘Go screw yourselves, this is my money.’
Modern day slaves? Now, I know voluntarily entering into an agreement to provide content for free with the absolute ability to quit at any time is almost like slavery, except for the part where it is nothing like slavery. You don’t gain sympathy with hyperbole. At least you don’t from me.