Questions abound at The Tyee Fellowship Funds
By running a contest for independent journalists, The Tyee is getting all the best story ideas but offers no assurances about what happens to them
by Dan Crawford
Imagine being at the helm of a start-up cottage magazine, faced with a difficult problem to solve: You must build a huge photo library compiled of the best cottage photographs in the country. All ownership regarding copyright and publication rights must be held and no money can be spent to accomplish this task.
The solution is simple and one that is routinely employed by the media industry: run a contest.
This enables a media outlet to entice hundreds of people to freely submit their best, most-coveted photographs. The fine-print rules cover ownership and copyright issues, stating that the owner relinquishes all rights upon submission of the entry, no matter if it is chosen as a winner or not.
Many people do not read that fine print and are often surprised, years later, when they see their photograph in a magazine without knowledge of their consent or any credit given to them.
This happens so frequently that a number of sites online are dedicated to the subject, offering free advice on what to look out for when entering these contests.
A few weeks ago, The Tyee, an online magazine about BC politics, announced that they are now accepting submissions for their Fellowship Writing Funds. The strongest four submissions, selected by an independent advisory panel, will receive $5,000 each to research and develop a short-article series based on their ideas. The funds are divided into two categories: an investigative fellowship and a solutions fellowship.
In essence, The Tyee has put out a call to all independent journalists in the province, asking them to freely submit their best, most-coveted story ideas. Sound familiar?
Reading through all of the material about the fellowship available at The Tyee site, a number of unanswered questions emerge: Where is the fine print containing the rules and guidelines? Does a journalist surrender all rights to her story idea upon submission? Who handles the submissions? Are the submissions destroyed after the winners are chosen, or are they posted online, handed over to Tyee writers, or sold to other media outlets?
And regarding the submissions that are chosen: Who owns those publishing rights? Who owns the research and who owns the data that comes out of the work? More importantly, how is all of this assured? Does a journalist have any recourse or rights available to her if things unfold differently from what The Tyee says?
Considering that journalists, especially the investigative ones, are the intended recruits for this contest, why would The Tyee leave so much ambiguity surrounding all of these important details?
From a logical perspective, this is no way to appeal to a crowd of inquisitive, detail-oriented minds with a reputation for questioning everything. How could any journalist submit his or her most-coveted story idea, fully realizing that all possibilities are open for what may or may not happen to it—not to mention that there is absolutely no recourse to follow if the idea is used without consent?
Emails were sent to The Tyee to try and get answers to these burning questions.
“I am interested in applying for a Tyee Fellowship,” began one, “but I am concerned that if I am not chosen, my story idea might be used by others without my consent.
1. Will my application be read only by the independent advisory board? What assurances does The Tyee give in regards to this?
2. For the people who are chosen, who will own their research at the end of the project? Will they keep sole ownership of the raw data collected and generated through their research?”
A response was received from the assistant editor of The Tyee, Vanessa Richmond. In response to the first question, she wrote, “Our integrity rests on our treatment of writers’ ideas.” But this response in no way answers the question.
For the second question, she answered, “The Tyee gets first publishing rights to the stories but you own all subsequent reprinting rights.” Fair enough, but why hasn’t that been publicly stated? Instead, it says online that the stories “will run on The Tyee and possibly in other publications”; and then elsewhere it says, “the series will be published first on The Tyee, and then will be available to be published by other publications upon request.”
Those are two different statements and neither one agrees with what Richmond said in her email, that the writer “owns all subsequent reprinting rights.” Richmond then goes on to say, “all of this will be covered in the legal agreement.”
But nowhere, in any of the fellowship material, is there any mention whatsoever of a legal agreement being involved.
If this legal agreement is a part of the Fellowship Funds program, then it should be stated and made available to anyone who is considering applying. This is the only way one can make a truly informed decision as to whether or not they want to submit an application.
A follow-up email was sent and another reply received from Richmond. The first question was tackled again. To this she responded, “The application won’t be made available to anyone else. If you submit it through this email, I will see it, then forward it along to them [the Independent Advisory Board].”
This is a loaded statement, because she first contradicts herself and then calls into question how the Independent Advisory Board can operate at arms-length if all submissions first go through Tyee staff. Why doesn’t the Independent Advisory Board receive submissions directly? Does The Tyee filter submissions before forwarding?
This next piece of information calls into question the integrity of the editor of The Tyee, David Beers, and shows that he possibly took another journalist’s idea and used it as his own without giving credit.
On November 30, 2004, Kevin Potvin, publisher of The Republic of East Vancouver, wrote a letter calling on all independent media in Vancouver to come together and form a media co-op. This letter was mailed out at the beginning of December to many different publications and media companies around Vancouver. The Tyee was one of those recipients.
“I propose to create an industrial co-operative service company for small independent newspapers,” the letter stated. “[I am seeking] funding for research and development to create a business plan for the co-op, and I write you today to invite your participation. . . . Enclosed in this package is a more detailed description of how the co-op company could work, [and] a description of two existing models of the kind of company we envision.”
Less than a month after the mail-out of Potvin’s letter, a Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications hearing took place in Vancouver. Beers gave an address to the senators on emerging trends in Canada’s media industry. In his discussion, he brought forward the idea of forming an independent media co-op as a solution to near-monopoly conditions in Vancouver. The quote below is taken directly from the transcript available online:
“Here are some proposals: . . . foster media owned and operated by membership-based society. Some might call them co-ops, even though I know that is a loaded politic term. . . . I have been looking . . . to find some of the funding that it takes to advance it.”
Potvin was in attendance that day and watched in surprise as Beers addressed the committee without giving credit to Potvin for the idea. Minutes later, Potvin ran into Beers in the hall, and Beers said (supposedly in jest), “Yeah, I know I stole your idea, so sue me.”
Is this the response we should expect from The Tyee if sub-missions are used without consent?
Before I submit my best story idea, I ask that The Tyee put the details in writing. For them to expect investigative journalists to accept anything less goes against everything that journalism stands for.
Note to The Tyee: If you do resolve these issues, could you credit me for the idea?
THE TYEE RESPONDS, IN LETTERS ISSUE 135 CLICK HERE
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