Pour one out for ol’ TV Squad

I got word this morning from an old TV Squadder that the entire freelancing team at TV Squad was given notice that, effective today, they had no place on TV Squad. Unlike how Cinematical was handled, the shitcanned writers were not “encouraged” to continue to write for the site for free. They were told they’d be paid for services rendered, and that today was their last day.

Here’s the note that was sent out:

Thank you very much for your contributions to AOL. As we have discussed on calls and in emails, going forward our editorial direction is to build a great team of full-time editors, writers, and reporters. To that end, we are reducing the scope of AOL’s freelancer program.

Per the terms of your agreement with AOL, this note confirms the end of your engagement for content services effective Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Rest assured, you will be paid for your content and services through this date, disbursed to you per AOL’s regular payment schedule in late May.

We greatly appreciate your contributions and are available to answer any questions you may have. Please email freelancers@teamaol.com with any inquiries.

Apparently their appreciation for past contributions was in the form of being shown the door.

It’s certainly no secret to anyone that CliqueClack was founded with writers from TV Squad a few years ago, when I stepped down as its lead editor. At the time I had no aspirations of starting a new project. I had (and still have) a full-time job I had to put my energy into, and I was content with not having to do another job on the side. After much encouragement from Deb and many TV Squadders to start something new, CliqueClack was born. I’m eternally grateful for being pushed to doing this, as it’s been more satisfying for me than TV Squad ever was.

Actually, “ever” is a strong word. In its early days, TV Squad was a hell of a lot of fun. I dare say many aspects of those early days are the basis of what we do here on CliqueClack today. Lots of opinion and goofy fun, not harping too much on what might or might not hit the AOL front page. We didn’t give a crap if something was SEO-friendly or whether we’d piss someone off with what we said. The point is, we had fun, and for a LOT less pay than the writers were most recently getting — back then we started at around $5/post, most recently I think they were getting $25! Granted, CliqueClack doesn’t have investment dollars to pay our fine writers much, but the more you guys visit our site and help draw visitors our way, better compensation for everyone is a real possibility.

One thing I want to get off my chest: Back when CliqueClack was formed, it was solely for the purpose of allowing the TV Squad freelancers a place to continue to write show reviews for the shows AOL no longer wanted TV Squad to review. The writers wanted to give the readers what they knew they’d be clamoring for, and the plan was to have CliqueClack be that outlet. So, I decided to approach the then-boss of AOL TV with an idea: allow the TV Squadders to post those reviews on CliqueClack, and give us a button on TV Squad so we’d get traffic and can pay the writers ourselves. We would not review shows TV Squad covered — no competition. He’d have none of it, and from what I heard he took CliqueClack as a personal insult. CliqueClack’s purpose was never to compete with TV Squad — we have different voices. AOL had a chance to make themselves out to look pretty damn nice to their freelancers by driving a little traffic their way — traffic to a site that wouldn’t compete with what they were doing — and they turned thumbs down to it. Now, seeing how they’ve once again treated the freelancers there like cattle, it’s no wonder they didn’t want to help.

Anyway, I don’t want to take up a thousand words here to reminisce of the good ol’ days of TV Squad. Those days, for me, are long gone. I never did and do not wish TV Squad ill will, which is why everything I’ve seen happen to the site in the past few years has been sad to me. I’ll pour one out for those who’ve lost their jobs there tonight. It’ll probably be poured down my throat, but it’s with good intentions.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Apr 06, 2011 @ 12:20 EST5EDT