Disgruntled writer sues Huffington Post and AOL for piece
of $315-million sale price

April 12, 2011 | 12:42 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/04/
huffington-post-writer-sues-the-huffington-post-aol.html

Jonathan Tasini, a social activist and commentator, is
suing AOL and its newest purchase, the Huffington Post,
over claims that he and other writers weren't paid
appropriately for their work.

Tasini's suit, which is seeking class-action status and
was filed on Tuesday in a New York U.S. District Court,
argues that none of the $315 million AOL paid to buy the
Huffington Post has gone to the writers and producers of
the news and opinion website, while estimating that about
$105 million should have.

DOCUMENT: Read the suit

Between December 2005 and February 2011, Tasini said in
the suit that he contributed 216 "pieces of content" for
the Huffington Post and was never paid for any of his
work. Tasini also alleges in his complaint that as many as
9,000 other "content providers" have also worked for free
for the Huffington Post.

"TheHuffingtonPost.com has been unjustly enriched by
engaging in and continuing to engage in the practice of
generating enormous profits by luring carefully-vetted
contributors, with the prospect of 'exposure' (which
TheHuffingtonPost.com deceptively fails to verify), to
provide valuable content at no cost to
TheHuffingtonPost.com, while reaping the entirety of the
financial gain derived from such content," the complaint
said.

The suit also alleges that, of the $315 million AOL paid
for the Huffington Post, "the value added by the content
provided by Plaintiff and the Classes to
TheHuffingtonPost.com's price was at least $105 million,
none of which was shared with Plaintiff and the Classes."

Mario Ruiz, a spokesman for the Huffington Post, said the
suit was without merit.

"As we've said before, our bloggers use our platform -- as
well as other unpaid group blogs across the Web -- to
connect and help their work be seen by as many people as
possible," Ruiz said. "It's the same reason hundreds of
people go on TV shows to promote their views and ideas.
HuffPost bloggers can cross-post their work on other
sites, including their own. Aside from our group blog, to
which thousands of people from around the world
contribute, we operate a journalistic enterprise with
hundreds of staff editors, writers, and reporters, all of
whom have commensurate responsibilities -- and all of whom
are paid."

In a post on his personal website, Tasini explained a bit
more about why he filed the lawsuit.

"The Huffington Post was, is and will never be, anything
without the thousands of people who create the content,"
Tasini wrote. "Ms. Huffington is acting like every Robber
Baron CEO ... who believes that they, and only they,
should pocket huge riches, while the rest of the peons
struggle to survive. Ms. Huffington stance has been clear:
only she deserves the fruits of the labor of the people
who work for her.

"Actually, Arianna Huffington is worse than the CEOs of
the banks, the Walton family of Wal-mart. At least, they
pay their workers something -- even if those wages aren't
enough to make ends meet.

"Huffington pays zero. Nothing. Nada."

Tasini's complaint against the Huffington Post isn't the
first the writer has lobbed agianst a publication he's
worked for.

In Tasini's Huffington Post biography, the writer is
described as having been both a writer and activist in
labor issues for more than 25 years.

"From 1990 to April 2003, he served as president of the
National Writers Union (United Auto Workers Local 1981),"
the bio reads. "He was the lead plaintiff in Tasini vs.
The New York Times, the landmark electronic rights case
that took on the corporate media's assault on the rights
of thousands of freelance authors.

"For the last 25 years, he has written about labor and
economics for a variety of newspapers and magazines."

In 2010, Tasini also made an unsuccessful bid for
Congress.

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