Huffington Post Contributors Demand $$$$

Following the $315 million sale of Huffington Post to AOL, some HuffPo contributors are demanding to be paid for their work.

Bill Lasarow, Publisher and Co-Editor of Visual Art Source, announced that his organization is “now going on strike. For now, at least, no more content from us will appear on the Huffington Post.”

Lasarow wrote, according to the Daily Caller.,that his organization has two demands. The first, that the Huffington Post develop a system for paying writers and bloggers. The second, for the site to differentiate between paid promotional content and writers’ work.

The group, says Daily Caller, proposes a system of collective bargaining for contributors, expressing hope that they band together to “form a negotiating partnership with Huffington/AOL in order to pursue these and other important matters so as to professionalize this relationship.”

Huffington dismissed the strike Thursday at a conference hosted by PaidContent in New York City. “Go ahead, go on strike,” Huffington said, ridiculing “the idea of going on strike when no one really notices.”

This could get interesting for the clueless left. The best argument that Arianna has is that HuffPo provides a platform for contributors. The platform helps advance a contributors name, cause, web site, book sales, whatever. My guess is that enough contributors want to take advantage of that platform that pay will stay at, or near, zero.

Further, someone with a hot story knows that you have other outlets. If you think you have a hot story take it to TMZ, they'll pay you. Philip Anschutz media entities will pay you based on hits.