So here are five questions about the WGA strike, why it matters, and what it might mean for you and for the future of entertainment. But they’re significant moments in cultural history, and often have to do with different aspects of the business trying to figure out how to deal with the giant technological advances that drive Hollywood.ĪI should scare Hollywood writers - and everyone else At most, we have hazy memories of strikes from years past, maybe wondering why some seasons of The Office seem shorter when we stream them. Writers strikes are something the average person doesn’t have to think about most of the time. The WGA membership had previously voted to authorize a strike, by a historic margin: 97.85 percent voted yes. Spending on original streaming content grew from $5 billion in 2019 to $19 billion in 2023 - the lion’s share of it by Netflix, which reported $6 billion in operating profits in 2021 and $5.6 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, according to the WGA’s calculations, industry profits have ballooned from $5 billion in 2000 to $28-$30 billion from 2017-2021. The AMPTP’s counter-proposal is an increase of about $86 million per year. According to the WGA’s proposals chart, the guild’s proposals would gain the writers about $429 million in total per year. The last time there was a writers strike, in 2007-2008, work stopped for 100 days and cost $2.1 billion to California’s economy alone. The WGA’s contract with the AMPTP ended at midnight on May 1.Ī strike carries profound economic implications. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.” “Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal - and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains - the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the negotiating committee wrote to membership in a letter. Vox Media says it will “help listeners make sense of the moment through spirited, agenda setting conversations with leaders in business and tech, as well as other industries.After six weeks of negotiation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the Writers Guild of America - which represents approximately 11,500 people who write the Hollywood shows and movies we watch in theaters and at home - announced that its membership would walk off the job starting at 12:01am PT on May 2. Not to mention the Silicon Valley cameo and official Succession podcast for HBO.Īnd here are some details on what Swisher will be doing next, from a press release that landed in my inbox after we published: She’s going to create a new interview show for the Vox Media Podcast Network that will be a sibling to Pivot. She’s gone from churning out relentless, granular web scoops about the inner workings of places like AOL and Yahoo, where she was the company scourge for a good stretch of time, to making news via freewheeling, no-holds-barred interviews with big shots, both onstage and on her podcasts. Sources tell us she’s leaving the gig and, true to her M.O., “wants to be more entrepreneurial.” She’ll be staying with Vox Media to pursue a new project, someone with knowledge of the plans told me.Īfter cofounding the influential websites and conference businesses AllThingsD and Recode, Swisher became something of a one-woman business in her own-right, spreading her wings-and her market value-as a singular, independent brand. Alas, it appears that Swisher’s run with the Times is coming to an end. She’d been splitting her time with Vox Media’s New York magazine, where she cohosts another buzzy podcast called Pivot with Scott Galloway. It’s been four years since the fearsome, prodigiously sourced tech journalist and all-around media star Kara Swisher has been contributing to The New York Times, both with writings for the Opinion section, the hit podcast Sway, and, most recently, a weekly newsletter.
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