Apr 07 2011
∞
What's Going on With This Whole Cinematical/Moviefone Business
- David Chen: so have you been following this whole Cinematical debacle?
- Michelle: You know, I tried to look into it last night, because it kept showing up in my twitter feed, but i can't say i understand what's going on
- David Chen: woudl you like me to explain?
- Michelle: yes please!
- David Chen: so it's like this
- David Chen: Cinematical has been in danger for awhile now
- David Chen: they got folded into moviefone which is less friendly to their type of film criticism/discussion
- David Chen: but still, EIC Erik Davis fought to keep the site alive and separate
- David Chen: despite the fact that cinematical.com no longer directed to its own site (it redirected to a moviefone subsite called cinematical)
- David Chen: it was a losing battle
- David Chen: AOL bought Huff Po
- David Chen: Huffpo took over all AOL properties
- David Chen: (including moviefone/cinematical)
- David Chen: In the past week, AOL/Huffpo began the process of firing all freelancers
- David Chen: of which Cinematical had dozens
- David Chen: they offered some people full-time jobs.
- David Chen: Davis is such a good guy, he refused to take a full-time job
- David Chen: because he knew it would involve firing all his writers.
- David Chen: Are you still with me?
- Michelle: yes, totally
- Michelle: i didnt get the huffpo connection, now it makes sense
- David Chen: So the other day, Davis told everyone he was stepping down
- David Chen: Writers started leaving in droves
- David Chen: but around that time, Moviefone EIC Patricia Chui sent an e-mail out to all the Cinematical writers
- David Chen: Eric D Snider tweeted out the email
- David Chen: it got picked up everywhere
- David Chen: http://gawker.com/#!5789245/youre-fired-would-you-like-to-work-for-free
- David Chen: here's a good summary of that story
- David Chen: Apparently, Chui wasn't supposed to tell people about the offer to write for free in that same e-mail
- David Chen: so that was her bad
- David Chen: but she was doing right by the writers
- Michelle: she wasn't supposed to put it in the same email because it would look too much like what it is?
- David Chen: yup
- David Chen: so yesterday, her higher ups at AOL got wind that the email was public
- David Chen: and they terminated her
- David Chen: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110406/exclusive-aol-fires-moviefone-editor-who-offered-fired-freelancers-the-chance-to-work-for-um-free/
- David Chen: so now a bunch of writers are pissed off because she was only being like, a human being
- David Chen: and AOL/Huffpo are making her out to be completely incompetent.
- Michelle: jeez
- Michelle: has she commented?
- David Chen: Not publicly, to my knowledge.
- Michelle: what a mess
- David Chen: Indeed.
