Hey, those kids will work for free, won't they?

So I'm the teacher/adviser for a fairly successful high school newspaper (and yes, I realize "fairly successful" and "newspaper" don't seem to go together much these days).

As a result, I get semi-regular queries from start-up websites looking to provide "opportunities" to my young journalism students. Inevitably, these "opportunities" are really nothing more than free labor -- the websites need local content, and they need it cheap.

The latest query came earlier this week, and it asked for the names of students who might want to produce content for a website focusing on local high school sports. Students would get "experience" and "published clips" ... but no pay.

Here is my response, with all names removed to protect me from lawsuits.

***

Dear _________

 You should know that my policy, formed over several years now, is that I do
 not forward "opportunities" to my students that are unpaid. The print
 journalism business -- in which I have a fairly long track record -- has
 historically been one of the better industries about paying interns the
 actual wage rate of a rookie reporter/copy editor/page
 designer/photographer. But as it's been morphing, and as once-proud
 institutions have been slowly shrinking and dying, the pool of paid
 internships has dried up.

 The result has been the rise of opportunities like yours, in which students
 are paid in "clips" and "experience." Of course, I already pay them in clips
 and experience, and I also offer a grade and camaraderie and an audience of
 their peers and instant feedback and all kinds of other intangibles.

 Plus, if they start writing for you, they quit writing for me -- which
 doesn't exactly help my program.

 Sorry about my mini-rant, but if you and other web-based content providers
 want quality content, you're going to have to start paying for it. Arianna
 Huffington already got her corporate pot of gold, and I'm not willing to be
 part of the labor supply chain for Huffington Post wannabes who want to take
 advantage of innocent and naive high school students by offering them
 "opportunities" they already have as members of my staff.

 Sincerely,

 Karl Grubaugh