New York Times

American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) Authors Guild
National Association of Science Writers (NASW) National Writers Union (NWU)
Washington Independent Writers (WIW)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

                                                For immediate release
                                                       March 25, 1996

             NEW YORK TIMES BACKS DOWN, BUT NOT FAR ENOUGH;
           WRITERS CONTINUE PROTEST, JOINED BY HUNDREDS MORE

   MIMI SHERATON, JANE SMILEY AND JACQUES BARZUN CRITICIZE THE TIMES    The ongoing freelance writers' protest directed at the New York Times is having an effect, writers say, but the newspaper hasn't yet moved far enough to satisfy them.

   The action, which began last summer with a statement signed by 13 well known writers, was sparked by an internal memo decreeing that the Times "shall own all rights to material printed in the newspaper."

   By law and industry standard practice, freelancers license a publisher only the right to use a work once, retaining ownership for secondary uses. But, citing a wish to control all its content for a variety of ventures in electronic publishing, the memo ordered that writers who decline to sign everything over to the Times "will no longer be published in the newspaper."

   That isn't the way it's turning out.
   Early on, writers for the newspaper's Magazine, Book Review and Op Ed sections learned that they would not be asked to yield all rights to the Times. Then, Arts & Leisure and Travel fell; after those sections' editors told Times management that the new policy was making it tough to keep better writers, a less onerous contract was devised for freelancers who object to the all-or-nothing demand.

   Next came the Living section, which had lost regular contributors, including one of its stars, food columnist Jacques Pepin, who resigned in protest; it, too, now offers some writers a different agreement. ("Less odious," Living's editor describes it.) Certain writers for other sections continue to contribute to the Times without contract, eight months after the management order was issued.

   The Times backed off further by offering to split some syndication income with writers--promising a 50-50 share of individual sales by the New York Times Syndication Sales Corp., as it had often done before. And the new contracts are by the article rather than perpetual contracts, and do not require writers to indemnify the publisher--two major sticking points in the contract of last summer.

   Still remaining in virtually all Times contracts is a provision for full electronic rights, which allows the publisher to keep all the income from selling and reselling articles on its well publicized new World Wide Web site and in other areas of the online world. Syndication through the New York Times News Service, which offers Times articles to 650 client newspapers and magazines worldwide, also yields no income to writers under the Times plan.

   No go, say freelancers, who hold as a cardinal principle that they must be paid for each secondary use of their material.

   Nearly 600 freelance writers, including some of America's most famous, now have added their names to a statement denouncing the Times. The statement, which has been sent to Times editors, department heads and management, criticizes the Times for demanding secondary publishing rights to freelance articles for no extra pay.

   The latest on the anti-Times protest was released under the names of five major writers' organizations. The three groups that launched the action, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union, have been joined by the National Association of Science Writers and Washington Independent Writers.

   Among the latest signatories are former Times food critic Mimi Sheraton, novelist Jane Smiley and critic Jacques Barzun. They join the owners of other well known bylines who signed on earlier, including Ken Follett, Erica Jong, Garrison Keillor, J. Anthony Lukas, Alvin Toffler, Heidi Toffler, Fay Weldon, Isabel Allende, Nicholson Baker, Susan Cheever, Vivian Gornick, Gael Greene, David Halberstam, Kitty Kelley, Norman Mailer, Jessica Mitford, Jane O'Reilly, Nan Robertson, Garry Trudeau, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Dan Wakefield and Alice Walker.

   The writers' statement declares: "This policy represents a profound break with publishing tradition .... [The Times'] justification for this drastic action--that it needs to fully control all of the works on its pages to be a leader in electronic journalism--is specious. Additional rights may be acquired, and paid for, by normal contractual means."

   "We strongly urge the Times to choose a more equitable course," the writers' statement says, "and to become a responsible leader in electronic journalism."

                                -

American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA): 212-997-0947 Authors Guild (AG): 212-563-5904
National Association of Science Writers (NASW): 516-757-5664 National Writers Union (NWU): 212-254-0279 Washington Independent Writers (WIW): 202-347-4973

                [Names of participating writers follow.]                
        
 

David Abrahamson
Lowell Ackerman
Carole S. Adler
Donna G. Albrecht
Paul Alexander
Isabel Allende
Lisa Alther
Billy Altman
Suzanna Andrews
Judith Angerman
Joseph Anthony
Leon Arden
Mari Ari
Helen Arney
Ina Aronow
Stanley Aronowitz
Bernard Asbell
P.M.H. Atwater
Roz Avrett
Karen Back
Ben Bagdikian
James Bagley
Deirdre Bair
Nicholson Baker
Sheila Ballantyne
Ann Banks
Russell Banks
Martha Barnette
Anita Bartholomew
Jacques Barzun
Tomas Bass
Marion Dane Bauer
James Beck
Stephen Becker
Beryl Lieff Benderly
Laurie Benenson
Diana Benzaia
Ivan Berger
Carol Bergman
Peter G. Bergmann
Claire Berman
Phil Berman
Anne Bernays
Louise Bernikow
Marian Betancourt
Charlotte K. Beyers
June Bingham
Caroline Bird
Larry Birnbaum
Gwenda Blair
Mary Kay Blakely
Mary Blocksma
Richard Blodgett
Murray Teigh Bloom
Stephen G. Bloom
Mimi Bluestone
E. Sue Blume
Carol Bly
Richard Bode
Charles Boeckman
Lady Borton
Patricia Bosworth
David Bouchier
David Bradley
Kathleen Brady
Maury M. Breecher
Peter J. Brennan
Jane E. Brody
Wil Bryant
William J. Buchanan
Michael Burke
Khephra Burns
Linda Burum
Teresa Byrne-Dodge
Karen Rosenberg Caccavo
Marialisa Calta
Philip Caputo
Valerie Scho Carey
Jenny Carless
Dan Carlinsky
Ted Carroll
Liane Kupferberg Carter
Maria Carvainis
Maxine Cass
Dana K. Cassell
Kay Cassill
R.V. Cassill
Julie Catalano
Victor D. Chase
Susan Cheever
Melanie Choukas-Bradley
Karen Christensen
Frank Clancy
Leigh Clark
Elizabeth Cohen
Marcia Cohen
Sherry Suib Cohen
Annemarie Colbin
Allan Cole
James M. Cole
A. D. Coleman
Clare Collins
Phoebe Conn
John Conroy
Jeff Coplon
Scott Corbett
Joseph Andew Cox
Roger Cox
Ruth Crew
Tom Crider
Joe Cummings
Mary Cummings
Jane Louise Curry
James Curtis
Stan Cutler
Laura Daily
Alzine Stone Dale
Robert V. Daniels
Mark Davidson
Neil Davidson
Nancy Raines Day
Wendy De Giglio
Stephanie Denmark
Mark Dery
Joan Detz
Deborah Diamond
Edwin Diamond
Eleanor Foa Dienstag
Muriel Dimen
Stef Donev
Crescent Dragonwagon
Paula Dranov
Lynne Dumas
Katherine K. Dunn
Barbara E. Echols
Lee Edson
James Ehmann
Barbara Ehrenreich
Arlene Eisenberg
Gerson G. Eisenberg
Howard Eisenberg
Monro Engel
Kenneth F. Englade
Toni Eubanks
Susan Ewing
Shirley Sloan Fader
Julie Fanselow
Moris Farhi
Karen Feld
Jay Feldman
Anne L. Finger
Mitch Finley
William Finnegan
Leonard Everett Fisher
Katharine Davis Fishman
Corey Flintoff
Ken Follett
Morton Freedgood
Barbara W. Freedman
Mark L. Fuerst
Alice Fugate
Lynn Grisard Fullman
Betty Fussell
Howard Gardner
Laurie Garrett
Fred Gebhart
Martha Gelhorn
Curt Gentry
Lois Gilman
Philip E. Ginsburg
Todd Gitlin
James Gleick
Shirley Glubach
Grace Glueck
Thomas Glynn
Vicki Goldberg
Toni L. Goldfarb
Diane Goldner
Marilyn Goldstein
Edwin Goodgold
Barbara Goodheart

Michael Levin
Judith Levine
Charlotte Libov
Grace Lichtenstein
David Lida
Robert Liebman
Saul Lockhart
Georgene Lockwood
Paul Loeb
Bill London
Polly Longsworth
Iris Lorenz-Fife
Carey Lovelace
Barbara Lucas
Carol Lufty
J. Anthony Lukas
Kristin Luker
Sandy MacDonald
Suse MacDonald
Karen MacNeil
Axel Madsen
Rosalie Maggio
Norman Mailer
Carole Mallory
Charles L. Mallory
John Mandel
Fran Manushkin
Howard Marchese
Richard A. Marini
Judy Markey
Bill Marsano
Catherine Marx
Jean Marzollo
Philip Mattera
Mary Maxwell
Charlotte Mayerson
Lee Maynard
Fred W. McDarrah
Michael J. McDermott
Robert McGarvey
Thomas McGuane
Pat McNees
James Meade
Barry Meadow
Roland Merullo
Holly Metz
Dia L. Michels
Margot Mifflin
Betty Miles
Matthew B. Miles
Heather Millar
G. Wayne Miller
Russell Miller
Tom Miller
John Milward
Stephen Minot
Morton Mintz
Gene Mirabelli
Greg Mitchell
Jessica Mitford
Bea Mitz
Nancy Monson
Lilian Moore
S.E. Moore
Sally Moore
Jefferson Morgan
Jinx Morgan
Kimberly Morris
James Morrison
Lillian Morrison
Irvin Muchnick
Dave Mulligan
Carolyn Mullins
Doris Muscantine
Randy Myers
Donna Jo Napoli
Maryann Napoli
Valerie J. Naso
Debbie Nathan
Muriel G. Nellis
Barbara Presley Noble
Barbara Norman
E.L. North
Jane O'Reilly
Shepherd Ogden
Sally Wendkos Olds
Jack Olsen
Tillie Olsen
Barbara Ostmann
Dennis Overbye
Rosemary Hall Page
Ellen Pall
Sara Paretsky
Jay Parini
W.B. Park
Charles Patterson
Bob Payne
Mickey Pearlman
Susan K. Perry
Margot Peters
Franklynn Peterson
Mark J. Petracca
Jan Pierson
Helen Pike
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
James Polk
William Poole
Joan Price
Ann Purcell
Barbara Raskin
Freda Bright Reaser
Dick J. Reavis
Margaret Hayden Rector
Betty Polisar Reigot
Alvin (Skip) Reiss
Edward J. Renehan Jr.
Elaine Reschke
Richard Rhodes
Adrienne Rich
B. Ruby Rich
Jerome Richard
Leigh Riker
Lawrence S. Ritter
Linda M. Roberts
Nan Robertson
George Robinson
Maxine Rock
Joanne Rocklin
Lee Roddy
Elyse M. Rogers
Ginna Rogers-Gould
Phyllis Rose
Andrew Rosenbaum
Roger Rosenblatt
Alan Rosenthal
Abraham Rothberg
Randall Rothenberg
Elizabeth-Ann Sachs
Claire Safran
Verna Safran
Charles Salzberg
Dario Santamaria
Luc Sante
Barbara Sapinsley
Lorna J. Sass
Nora Sayre
Anne McGovern Scheiner
Orville H. Schell
Miriam Schlein
Bill Schneider
Regina Schrambling
Le Anne Schreiber
Norman Schreiber
Roy Schreiber
Arlene Schulman
Sarah Schulman
Dodi Schultz
Gwen M. Schultz
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Paula Schwartz
Robin Schwartz
Brenda Seabrooke
Kathy Seal
Ruth Winter
Elizabeth Winthrop
Bernard Wiseberger
Patty Wolcott
Jennifer Wolfe
Diane Wolff
Joyce Wolkomir
Richard Wolkomir
John M. Woram
Helen Worth Joyce Gregory Wyels
Stan Wynett
Linda Yang
Wilbur M. Yegge
Heidi Yorkshire
Minda Zetlin
Sam Zuckerman Received on Mon Mar 25 1996 - 14:39:30 GMT