The Writers Guild Wants To Organize Podcasts…But Don’t Hold Your Breath — An Editorial by LW Ghost

According to an August 14th article by The Hollywood Reporter’s Katie Killkenny, candidates running for Board elections at the WGAW (Writers Guild of America West) are talking up the potential to unionize/organize writers for podcasts, “verticals,” and, perhaps, video games. They believe adding those folks to the ranks will make up for the fact that overall the number of working writers in Hollywood is down markedly since the last and long-suffered-over WGA contract agreement was reached. They see expansion into online media as a natural way to pick up the membership slack.

There are, in my view, only two things wrong with this idea: It ignores why the number of working writers in traditional media are DOWN and it ignores the utterly different working conditions and payment methods of the “new media” which bear little resemblance to traditional TV shows, movies, and even cable projects.

Tom Welling recording Talk Ville with Michael Rosembaum – YouTube, Talk Ville Podcast Clips

Let’s deal with that second one first since it is easier and clearer to explore. The objects of being unionized as a writer (or for that matter director, actor, grip, whatever) are:

FIRST…minimum wage pay scales. The bigger stars with more clout can always negotiate number OVER the minimums in the contract. Indeed, one study a while back suggested that in the case of SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, about 2,500 people made 90% of all union income which leads to…

SECOND, the participation once you are “vested” (i.e. have worked the required number of hours, years, or made the minimum amount of money to qualify) in pension and health benefits. And only a TINY percentage of the overall membership of ANY of the major Guilds and Unions actually DO participate compared to the fact that everyone—even those who get in on one or three jobs and whose real work life is selling shoes or waiting tables—pays in as a piece of every dollar earned, and lastly…

A screenshot of Jim Cummings from his podcast Toon’d In With Jim Cummings – YouTube, Toon’d In With Jim Cummings

THIRD, what are known as “working conditions” having to do with everything from degrees of creative control to limits on long, tiring hours, and all of the not-directly-pay-or-bennies related world in which people earn their livings…or a piece of them…or not.

Even a cursory look at most podcasts (putting aside the teensy minority that actually have writing staffs other than the “influencer” and their best buds or spouses) shows that when the producer is the director is the writer is the star, there isn’t a lot of room in there for any of the above to be regulated by an outside entity like the WGA. And remember too that people have to be working for a company that has agreed to sign on to the Guild contract to get the goodies promised AND they are obligated to then REFUSE to work for non-signed companies or entities or face discipline including ejection from Guild membership.

Can you see that working for any percentage of online stuff large enough to make the game worth the candle for all concerned? I can’t.

Gina Carano via PBD Podcast

Now let’s look at why fewer writers who are in the Guild are working now than before the recent contract and when we put aside a general slowdown in the industry as more and more production companies do the math with actual pencils instead of their political or social dreams (see Colbert, et. al.) there is one HUGE factor nobody (but me) anticipated and pointed out in the new contract’s provisions—it almost guarantees less work even though it tried to create more.

Imagine you’re a producer type or an “executive producer” type (the difference being physical production chops vs. writing/creative ones) and have an idea for a new show. Under the old deal you kicked it around, perhaps with a couple of colleagues, and explored whether it made sense to seek or put up financing to actually get a pilot written and produced. IF further exploration said “Nope, won’t work, fuggeddaboudit” what you were out was largely your time or some token, non-union-mandated payments to your pals who tried with you and figured out it wasn’t a viable deal.

But in the interest of getting more work guaranteed, the NEW contract says that IF you want to go ANYWHERE outside your own head to explore the possibilities, you have to actually hire, at specified Guild rates and bennies, a “writers room” staff of about a dozen people for a set number of weeks minimum, and suddenly your “what if?” idea begins to imply serious expenditures, especially if it is going to reach the same “no go” conclusion at the end of that process.

So what happens? You keep it to yourself, you work on your own, and more and more of these inspirations never get to pilot, let alone series production, and let alone a trial writers room of unionized folks.

It sounded great when they got it to those who thought, “Hey, I’ll get on several of these things! Even if they don’t go further, I’ll get pay and bennies and huzzah!” except, of course, the producers GAVE it because THEY knew it would happen LESS than the work going on in such tentative venture already….and that is exactly what’s happened: Fewer what-if explorations, and thus fewer pilots, and thus…less writers working than before.

Mel Gibson via Inspire Me Podcast / An Experience With YouTube

SO…while I understand why proposing this new source of potential members and new area of work is a great sales pitch if you’re running for office in the Guild, if anyone thinks it through they will see it has little chance of happening and little chance of swelling the diminishing ranks of working writers and, alas, is a not-too-deeply-thought-out pipe dream that looks great in headlines or articles, like Ms. KilKenny’s in the trades, that bend over backwards to, in the musical words of Monty Python’s Eric Idle, “Always look on the bright side of life!”

My expert experienced opinion/verdict? I repeat: Don’t hold your breath.

Do you think the Writers Guild will expand to podcasts? Sound off in the comments and let us know!

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