EXCITING TIMES FOR THIS WEBSITE – BUT ARE THERE ANY OFFERS YOU’D LIKE US TO REFUSE?
The Graduate Fog community includes tens of thousands of unpaid interns, underpaid juniors, and graduates struggling to get by on benefits from the State and hand-outs (accepted reluctantly) from your parents.
So we don’t need to go through the basic reasons why people – including this website’s founder – need money to survive in this brutal, capitalist world (!). Just as unpaid interns find you can’t pay your gas bill with experience, bloggers like Graduate Fog’s Tanya de Grunwald can’t pay her rent with website traffic (20,000 visits per month), SEO points (Google page rank 5) or media mentions (thank you the Guardian, Telegraph, Evening Standard, Sky News, etc).
But the time has come when we need to get serious about what’s happening here. In the true Graduate Fog spirit of “telling it like it is”, we hope you don’t mind us saying it: this website rocks. We’re not tooting our own horn here – a huge part of the energy of Graduate Fog comes from you, the readers.
It is your anger that keeps us battling for you, challenging the people with political and economic power to offer you a better deal as you struggle to join the world of work (we hate bullies as much as you do).
It is your comments that generate the in-depth, intellectual discussion we are proud to host on our pages.
And it is your enthusiasm that spreads the word about Graduate Fog. In the nearly four years the site has been running, we have not once had to worry about ‘marketing’. We just keep producing the stories that you love, knowing you’ll tweet and share them if you think they’re worthy of your friends’ attention. (Thank you – again – for continuing to do this).
Most people who visit Graduate Fog can see its value – and its potential. We can see it too. But to take it to the next level, we’re going to need a bigger boat. Or at least a bit of cash. So it’s really exciting that several companies have asked to meet us to talk about our plans to offer sponsorship on Graduate Fog.
We don’t really want to sell Graduate Fog – or even a stake in the site (for one thing, we’d have no idea what to charge!). So but the idea of sponsorship and advertising is something we’d like to explore. What would that look like on Graduate Fog? What is naff and horrible – and what is fair enough? We already have two small sponsors – you may have seen the discreet adverts for The Big Choice and Career Player – but now lots of other people are interested to. Whose calls should we take? And is there anyone we should refuse to meet? It’s an exciting time for Graduate Fog, but we need to think carefully about how to proceed.
We only want to work with organisations that share our values. Obviously, we would never accept cash from anyone who continues to profit from the work of unpaid interns. So that cancels out the fashion, music, film, TV, journalism and PR industry. Art galleries and museums too (not that they have any money). We’re not mad about energy companies either. Or pay day lenders. Or gambling companies.
But probably the worst idea of all would be to accept Government money. That would mean we’d have to delete most of the content on Graduate Fog and scrap the brilliant investigations and reports we’ve got coming up in the next few months.
And we’d find it impossible to bite our tongue the next time David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Boris Johnson, George Osborne or Iain Duncan Smith say something dumb about interns, graduates or youth unemployment. Which happens pretty regularly.
What makes Graduate Fog powerful is that we can say anything we like (well, Inspiring Interns’ lawyers permitting). A partner who wanted to curb that freedom would be no partner at all.
So now we’ve crossed dozens of companies off our list, who is left? We’d like to ask you – Graduate Fog’s users – what you think. Would it upset you to see a big bank sponsoring this site? What about the ‘Big Four’ consultancies? A law firm? Companies who have unpaid interns are off-limits, but what about those who hire staff on zero-hours contracts? Or supermarkets with iffy supply chains? Or retailers whose garments are manufactured in unregulated factories in Bangladesh?
We’d genuinely love to know what you think, so if you feel strongly please comment below. That way, we can take your views into account in the next few months, as we make important and exciting decisions to secure the future of Graduate Fog. Thank you for reading – and for supporting the site!
*SHOULD GRADUATE FOG ACCEPT MONEY FOR SPONSORSHIP?
Or should we just keep this website small – or find some other source of finance (suggestions please!)? If we did accept funds from a sponsor, what sort of company would that be? Is there anybody you think we shouldn’t work with?
I think its you who have placed yourself in this position TdeG. You’ve effectively grown a blog into a business. Which is what many online people do, and now its grown out of hand.
You need to decide, are you and your blog a business or a hobby? That’s the problem that a many journalists are confronted with when dealing with the relentless march of the unpaid web.
Sure I read your ‘content’ for nothing, but you chose to put it out there for nothing, that was your ‘business decision’. The unpaid activist who’s now run out of steam and the nice furry animal they have created has now turned into a fully grown beast that needs constant care and feeding.
I’m sorry I’m not short of sympathy but we see it sooo many times on the interweb, well meaning individual on a mission realises that its all become too much and has to sell out on their ethical stance.
So what am I saying? The choice is yours, there are plenty of free facebook pages all supporting the similar causes. Interns only have a limited life and perhaps your ‘consumers’ are transitory, changing yearly.
If you start charging for content, I’ll be off. If you take on a sponsor, that’d be a sell out. You really should have thought of this earlier, but you didn’t, your concern was activism and getting the message out. Now you’ve matured and responsibilities beckon, sometimes you gotta let things go, or pass them onto others.
Your call, but if you want to be a serious career journalist, unpaid work just doesn’t pay – isn’t that what we tell the interns? #shootyourselfinthefoot
@Peter F
Thanks for your comments – wow, that’s told me!
Sorry if I wasn’t clear but I wasn’t asking for sympathy. Nor am I wrestling with my conscience. I view this as an exciting time for Graduate Fog, and there could be an opportunity to bring the site that I love and am proud of to a wider audience. But I want to make sure that I do that in a way that stays true to the values that underpin this site.
You are right on one thing though – when I started Graduate Fog I didn’t give much thought to where I expected it to go. Initially, I thought it would be primarily a careers advice website. But very quickly it became clear that the blog was by far the most popular aspect to it, so it made sense to develop that and I’m really proud of what we (not just me, but also GF’s users, plus friends at Intern Aware and the Guardian, etc) have achieved, particularly on the issue of internships.
As you say, “the choice is yours” (mine) but as Graduate Fog’s users are such a huge part of the success of the site, I would be foolish not to ask for your opinions before I make decisions that could affect how you all feel about the site.
You make an understandable assumption on your point about GF’s users being “transitory, changing yearly” – but actually that’s not true. I assumed that too – but I have been surprised that many people stick with GF long after their period of unpaid work ends. It seems that working for free as an intern is something that people don’t forget and it still niggles them long after they start being paid for their work, and they still support the fight for a fairer deal for young workers, as they have seen for themselves why it is so important. I find that surprising and heartening in equal measure.
I hope this helps explain a little more what I was trying to get at in my original post?
From your comment, it seems that you think that selling any advertising or sponsorship at all would be “selling out” – is that correct? Are there any companies that would do this to any greater (or lesser) extent, or doesn’t it matter to you whose money it is?
I’m genuinely keen to hear what you think, so do comment again if you have the time.
Thanks again
Tanya
PS Rest assured that whatever I decide to do with Graduate Fog, the main website will always be free to use! I know better than to do a Murdoch and start setting up ridiculous paywalls!
Assuming they pay their interns…
Would it upset you to see a big bank sponsoring this site?
No.
What about the ‘Big Four’ consultancies?
No.
A law firm?
No.
Companies who have unpaid interns are off-limits, but what about those who hire staff on zero-hours contracts?
I have a big objection to zero-hour contracts, so I would not want to see them advertised to those who are already finding their search for work difficult.
Or supermarkets with iffy supply chains? Or retailers whose garments are manufactured in unregulated factories in Bangladesh?
Let’s not go too carried away.
@peterf – perhaps you read this whole blog post wrong and just jumped to conclusions that GF is going to become an alleged “sell-out?” If you read the article properly, GF asked the readers what kind of companies they would like to see sponsoring and providing examples of the sectors which would go against the voice of the website.
It seems like you’ve got the wrong end of the stick entirely “If you start charging for content, I’ll be off.” Where is this option suggested?
“If you take on a sponsor, that’d be a sell out.” Why? If it’s a partnership with an industry/company that has paid/structured internship schemes which help young people get onto the first rung of their career what is wrong with them sponsoring the site which echoes their values?
“Your concern was activism and getting the message out. Now you’ve matured and responsibilities beckon, sometimes you gotta let things go, or pass them onto others.”
Well personally I’m really glad that GF did have a serious concern about the internship issues and not one for monetary gain (like other so called websites that would allegedly “inspire” interns). Unless you haven’t noticed the situation for youth and graduate employment was in a dire state, where so many of these companies were exploiting individuals with unpaid internships which wasn’t leading into full-time employment. Finally there was a voice which represented the real issues that faced this generation of graduates.
Seems your stance is pretty unclear, and by the looks of things you need to read things more thoroughly before criticising others who are trying to decide how to help and increase awareness about the internship issue.
@Emily
“It seems like you’ve got the wrong end of the stick entirely “If you start charging for content, I’ll be off.” Where is this option suggested?”
Please forgive me I didn’t realise that I wasn’t allowed to have a contrary opinion and that censorship is now the order of the day,
“If you take on a sponsor, that’d be a sell out.” Why? If it’s a partnership with an industry/company that has paid/structured internship schemes which help young people get onto the first rung of their career what is wrong with them sponsoring the site which echoes their values?
Perhaps you should look further beyond that well meaning sentiment. Any sponsorship link carries with it an inevitable linkage that one can’t criticise that hands that feeds it. That’s the basis of a free press.
Furthermore there are plenty of charities and short term internships and ‘steps’ to work out there. What’s needed are NOT MORE short term work experiences and their associated loss of rights and precariousness. What’s needed are full time jobs, with permanency, pensions and employee rights. Not an endless succession of leg up jobs pretending to be real work. Charities and training companies (and websites) have created an entire (previously unheard of) industry based on how to get you the job rather than creating real jobs. We already have to many necessary steps to real work, we don’t need more internships, we need real work.
There are plenty of other sites doing similar things to GF, each website has to earn its place and prove its worth. That doesn’t make this one more worthy than any other or have any more right to exist than any other. Just because it exists doesn’t mean it has a right to. Stop being naive.
Perhaps you should think it through more. Just sayin’
@CostaDel – Thank you, really useful : )
@Emily – Thank you for the support!
@Peter F – I agree with you 100% re the high number of precarious, short-term ‘pre-job’ jobs that seem to be creeping in – that’s definitely something I want to keep reporting on in 2014. But I can’t do the in-depth investigations I want to do without money to fund my time and grow the website to what I want it to be, so this work is seen by a wider audience (GF’s users tend to be pretty clued-up, but too many grads are still quite badly informed about the issues that are affecting them – I am keen that we reach them too and involve them in the debate). That’s why I am considering my options re funding. I really do hope whatever I decide to do won’t mean losing you as a user, but my need to earn a crust may mean that’s a risk I’ll have to take. I really like the fact that we have a range of opinions on GF (by the way I don’t think Emily was saying you couldn’t have an opinion that differed from hers, I think she was just wondering where the idea came from that I was about to start charging for content, which I’m definitely not!
Also “There are plenty of other sites doing similar things to GF”. Really? Like who? And what is their business model? If they have no income from their site, do you have any ideas what their plans are to expand and / or secure their site’s future financially? I am always interested to see what else is happening in the graduate space but I have not yet come across anyone who’s built anything similar to GF. (I suspect this is because nobody else is crazy enough to spend their spare time ranting about internships for four years, ha ha!)
Most definitely, I think this could be your opportunity to do more… Go further… You could work with various recruiters and big companies to grow graduate fog. In short, get sponsorship but ONLY from companies related to the Graduate Fog cause… Hope that helps! 🙂
@Usman – Thank you!
If you can get sponsorship then do it, just make sure you know what you’re signing for but I’m sure you know that already.
As far as sponsorship might affect editorial, I guess that’s up to you. I don’t personally care who you accept sponsorship from at all though the internet can be joyfully judgemental so taking money from say, a careers website that has at some point dealt with employers who offer zero hour contracts could mean you get some nitpickers. Still, overall it’s a good idea – especially since this website could help promote your book (which I personally found very useful when I was jobhunting).