When most people do a job, there’s a certain expectation that they will be compensated in a timely matter. In fact, many jobs today pay weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. However, for dozens of freelancers working for Chicago-based Ebony magazine, their paychecks never arrived. As a result of not being paid, many of the freelance contributors filed a lawsuit against the publication. Fortunately for them, Ebony magazine “has agreed to pay $80,000” to cover “unpaid work stretching back more than two years.”
When most people do a job, there’s a certain expectation that they will be compensated in a timely matter. In fact, many jobs today pay weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. However, for dozens of freelancers working for Chicago-based Ebony magazine, their paychecks never arrived. As a result of not being paid, many of the freelance contributors filed a lawsuit against the publication. Fortunately for them, Ebony magazine “has agreed to pay $80,000” to cover “unpaid work stretching back more than two years.”
The settlement agreement was reached earlier this week, and under the terms, “Ebony Media and its owner, Texas-based private equity firm CVG Group, will pay out the full amount claimed by the freelance contributors in quarterly installments over the course of the year.” When discussing the agreement, the president of the National Writers Union, Larry Goldbetter, said “we consider it a pretty good outcome, even though it was totally senseless to have to go through all of this.” The National Writers Union is the organization that flew to the freelancers defense and organized collection efforts on their behalf. But what did the lawsuit begin? What is Ebony magazine?
For starters, Ebony magazine is “a monthly African-American lifestyle magazine that launched in Chicago in 1945.” Over recent years, the publication has struggled with the timely delivery of it’s magazine to subscribers and paying it’s freelance contributors ever since it was “sold by Johnson Publishing to CVG Group in May 2016 for an undisclosed price.”
The lawsuit itself was filed last September in Cook County Circuit Court and was a dispute between Ebony magazine and more than four dozen freelancers, including “writers, photographers, videographers and graphic designers.” One of the freelancers included in the lawsuit is Adeshina Emmanuel. Emmanual is a Chicago-based freelancer “who is owed $2,200 for two contributions to Ebony and said the settlement was a long time coming.” He added, “at some point, I sort of lost hope that I would ever get paid and just moved on. It’s good to see that our efforts and the writers coming together … was a fruitful effort.”
Growing up, Emmanual revered the magazine and always thought it would be an accomplishment to write for the publication. When the opportunity presented itself, he “pushed aside other projects to write for Ebony,” and was, understandably, upset when he wasn’t paid for two of his three pieces. He said the incident “left me disillusioned because I had a lot of love for the publication, for its history.”
Despite the fact that a settlement was reached, Ebony magazine has yet to admit to any wrongdoing or liability. Additionally, the co-founder and chairman of CVG Group, Michael Gibson, declined to comment after the settlement announcement. However, it’s important to note that, under the terms of the settlement, “CVG is guaranteeing the payments to cover the struggling magazine’s debt to the freelancers — even if Ebony Media declares bankruptcy.”
Sources:
Ebony to pay freelancers $80,000 to settle lawsuit after #EbonyOwes campaign
Freelancers sue Ebony magazine, claiming $70,000 in unpaid work
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