It’s a dream tucked in the backs of many journalists’ minds: the article they write becomes a blockbuster movie and they reap a healthy share of the profits, a walk on the red carpet and — who knows? — maybe even an Oscar.
Fred Prouser/Reuters
Dawn Ostroff, president of Condé Nast Entertainment.
At Condé Nast magazines like Wired, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, that wish has become reality for a small but steady number of writers. Condé Nast articles led to the movie “Argo,” which so far has generated $166 million in worldwide box-office sales, “Eat Pray Love,” which made $204 million in global sales and “Brokeback Mountain,” which brought in $178 million.
But now, Condé Nast, whose magazines are battling a punishing business environment, wants to capture more of the film and television profits, which previously went to writers who owned the rights to these works. The new contracts have angered writers and their agents who argue that it’s another cut at their already rapidly shrinking compensation.
“It doesn’t give authors the option or the alternative to go elsewhere for their movie and television rights, and therefore there’s no competition,” said Jan Constantine, general counsel for the Authors Guild who recently advised an agent negotiating one of these contracts.
According to copies of the various contracts provided and described to The New York Times, those exclusive rights ranged from 30 days to one year. The contracts also show that if Condé Nast decides to option the article, writers receive $2,500 to $5,000 for a 12-month option. If an article is developed into a major feature film, writers receive no more than 1 percent or $150,000 toward the purchase price.
Television programs and made-for-television movies are capped at even lower amounts, especially for less experienced writers. These arrangements are agreed to before an article has even been published.
“This is bottom-of-the-barrel pricing,” said one agent who refused to allow writers to sign the new contracts, but declined to be identified for fear of retribution toward the agent’s clients. “There’s no reason my clients who are the premier writers in the country should be shackled by this agreement that forces them to accept very low prices and also take their project off the market.”
Many writers for Condé Nast magazines like The New Yorker work under one-year contracts that lack basic employee benefits like a 401(k) retirement plan or health insurance, but they are allowed to keep the rights to their work. (By contrast, newspapers typically own the full rights to articles published by their employees.)
Some agents have warned writers not to sign the contracts because they chip away further at their income. But other writers have signed the agreements because they don’t want to lose the chance to have their byline appear in The New Yorker or Vanity Fair.
Writers interviewed for this article who have contracts with Condé Nast emphasized that in this economy they can’t simply go out and get a contract with another magazine.
One longtime contract writer used the proceeds from an option to pay for medical bills resulting from an injury caused during reporting in the Middle East.
Some writers predict that these contracts will create an even wider divide between Condé Nast’s most celebrated writers and its stable of lesser known but productive contributors.
“The people who really get the big options are not going to sign, and the people who don’t get the big options are going to be railroaded,” said one Condé Nast writer who asked not to be identified because of fears of retribution from the company. “What you are really taking is people’s self-respect.”
The plans to secure more of these rights started in late 2011, when Condé Nast formed an entertainment group to help it secure some of the profits its writers received when their articles were developed into film and television programs.
In the past, Condé Nast struggled to profit from many of the programs made about its publications. For example, it did not receive any of the $6.4 million made at the global box office for “The September Issue,” a documentary about Vogue.
In late 2011, the company hired Dawn Ostroff, previously president of the CW television network, to run the entertainment group. While a Condé Nast spokesman declined to talk about the specific contract negotiations, the spokesman said the company hopes to offer its writers more development options through the new entertainment group.
“As we expand into digital, film and television entertainment, we are excited to bring the extraordinary work of our writers and photographers to these platforms, showcase their content in new ways, and create expanded opportunities for their work to be enjoyed by new audiences,” the spokesman said.
But writers and agents remain skeptical of how many projects will actually be developed. Although Charles H. Townsend, chief executive of Condé Nast, said in October that the division is developing 15 projects, the entertainment group has not officially announced any of them. Some agents said they fear that Condé Nast does not have enough muscle in the entertainment world to make these deals happen.
“They’re not a film company,” the agent said. “There are many other companies who are not in the movie business who tried to do a land grab and it doesn’t work.”
