What’s behind the strike at Wirecutter

Choire Sicha of New York Magazine writes about the impending strike a tech site Wirecutter.

Sicha writes, “The reason the union is asking readers to not buy through the site is that the company’s main revenue base has always been from referral fees from sales on sites like Amazon. Recently, Wirecutter has become part of the Times’ subscription offerings, and also, the future of affiliate revenue is always cloudy, as much of it depends on the whims of Jeff Bezos. Subscribers and their retention is the most important thing to the business side of the Times, according to its chief executive. Wirecutter recruited 10,000 subscribers in its first month behind the paywall.

“Today, before their departure, staff are trying to set Wirecutter up for success, setting up management and freelancers to cover the holiday that has somehow become synonymous with online plundering. ‘Ideally we will reach a deal — and we want to be setting ourselves up to succeed if we do reach a deal,’ said Guy on Wednesday morning. (Technically, he had a long-scheduled day off and would not be working himself.)

“The points of dispute between the union and management have been fairly par for the course — pay bands, annual increases, health-care costs, and the end of nondisclosure agreements, so as to not muzzle people in harassment or discriminatory situations. And the union and management are not so far apart, already largely in alignment on health care and on ’30 topics,’ according to Perpich.”

Read more here.