freelancers confront Time4 media
When the corporate suits at Time4 Media, the name now used by AOL Time Warner for its stable of magazines, sent out contracts to the veteran freelance writers at Ski and Skiing magazines, they may not have expected the hornets’ nest they found themselves in. There was indignation and outrage over terms the writers characterized as “horrific,” “disgraceful” and “odious,” among other adjectives. Surprisingly, their response got an immediate reaction from Time4 and revised contracts were sent out. At presstime, it was uncertain what will happen next.
In the past, the previous owner, Times Mirror Magazines, like most media companies, bought “First North American Serial Rights” to material written by freelancers. This gave protection to the magazine, but also preserved the rights of the writers to be paid for secondary uses of their work, such as use in electronic media. A recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (Tasini v. New York Times) specifically affirmed that right. The move by Time4, which many thought might be a carefully calibrated challenge to the law, using the ski journalists as the test case, involved the use of “work-for-hire” contracts. This means that the copyright to a freelancer’s work is held by the publication, which can do whatever they want with it. Time4, by the terms of such a contract, could take an article written by a freelancer for Ski and run it in a travel magazine or an online e-zine they might own, and with no compensation to the writer. Another example: Jon Krakauer, on assignment for Outside magazine on a different story, found himself drawn into a mountain rescue story on Mt. Everest. Under a work-for-hire contract, the magazine, not the writer, would have gained the proceeds of the enormously successful book and equally rewarding movie. Ditto for the circumstances of “The Perfect Storm.”
The revised contract sent to these freelancers was still a work-for-hire one, but called for a 90-day embargo on the article in question, after which the author could sell his work in the secondary market. Though an improvement, it still gave the media company control over the author’s output. The writers involved in this confrontation include all the heavyweights, including Warren Miller, Claire Walter, Peter Shelton, David Goodman, Peter Oliver, Steve Cohen, Dick Needham and others. The respective editors, Andy Bigford (Ski) and Rick Kahl (Skiing) are in the middle: clearly they don’t want to lose the writers who make their publications what they are, even though they know they can always work with a host of minor leaguers just waiting outside the fence to make it in the majors.
How does it all end? At presstime the journalists were hanging tough, feeling a responsibility to others in the precarious world of freelancing.
crested butte on the cusp
This prodigiously complex land swap took seven years to pull off: Calloway and Walton, owners of Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CB) in Colorado, bought the 2,020-acre Ochs Ranch and gave it to the State Land Board. That entity then turned over some 5,500 acres of land to the Forest Service which did its part by giving CB some 550 handsome acres abutting its base area. The move could restore the resort as a major player.
And now the familiar dance begins. The sale of expensive slope-side sites will fund the construction of 300 condos and a $250 million base village. “It’s a play taken straight out of the Intrawest Corp. playbook,” commented the Denver Post. The timetable? It’s all ready to roll.
But the resort wants to stand apart from the others by pledging a percentage of the proceeds from home sales to local land trusts dedicated to preserving ranchland, view corridors, wetlands and access to wilderness areas across the Gunnison Valley, according to a report in the Denver Post.
weather nerds are partially defanged
We all know how much great skiing and great fun is interdicted by the alarmist weather nerds of the National Weather Service and their media mouths. But now their favorite truncheon has been softened a bit. They have long known that the wind chill factor they use is a phony, based on rinky-dink research conducted in 1945 in Antarctica. But they used it anyway. This winter, however, wind chill will be based on a new and more moderate formula. Whereas a 5 deg F temperature with a 30 mph wind resulted in a minus 40 deg F wind chill, under the new formula it would (only!) be minus 19 deg F. But it’s still a silly index——only slightly less so.
…And then there were two
The story on page 22 of the Doppelmayr/Garaventa merger has enormous implications to the North American industry, especially as it comes on the heels of the parallel merger of Poma and Leitner. Setting aside Riblet and Partek, there are now just two places for a North American resort to buy its next detachable or gondola; a year ago there were four. That might be sufficient to guarantee competition. On the other hand, it could be a tacit invitation, without a third-party spoiler around, to divvy up the market.
There is no innuendo in such a remark——just a recognition of the fact that selling lifts in North America is not a happy business. So brutal has been the competition that no one’s making money. (The same lift is so much less expensive in America than in Europe that some European resorts are wondering if they couldn’t contract with, say, Poma of America!) And the volume is way down, too. This year’s total looks to be around $51 million. In the four previous years, going backwards, that figure was $70M, $90M, $120M and $140M. There just isn’t much more room for maneuvering any more without compromising safety, and none of the players is about to do this.
lake tahoe summit redux
In the summer of 1997, both President Clinton and Vice President Gore attended a Lake Tahoe Summit Conference designed to focus attention on how major environmental issues such as forest health and water quality can and should be managed in a partnership between federal and state agencies and the private sector. As a high-profile tableau, it worked. Now, again largely orchestrated by the ski industry, a new tableau, featuring governors, senators, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth, EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman and others was held August 22, perhaps ensuring our white-hatted presence in the outdoor recreational world is not forgotten.
The little giant to watch
When Tim Boyd, president of Peak Resorts, Inc. and his merry band of banana belt operators finalized the merger with North Peaks, owners of Mad River Mountain (see page 24), it not only added a successful Ohio operation to Peak’s mix (two areas in Missouri, one in Indiana), but also some 150,000 skier visits, putting Peak in the 400,000 range. Impressive, not just in numbers, but in the expansionist mode they are in. Look for more acquisitions and mergers, and don’t be surprised if they materialize in the East.
The Peak operation is bottom-line driven. Their old-fashioned secret is to succeed through a vibrant beginner business. To this end, their big investments are in quality rental equipment and in exuberant snowmaking. While the high-profile giants make it on market share tactics and real estate, Peak is making it on the most valuable commodity of all: new, warm, enthusiastic skiers and boarders. A couple of years down the road, when Peak has say, a million or so profitable skier visits. . .well, you get the drift. Could this retro scenario be an alternate path to salvation?
elf’s elves at play at Heavenly?
A 16-inch length of tree branch was wired to the haul rope of Heavenly’s gondola in July and other booby traps designed to trip safety circuits were discovered. No damage, no injuries. But a silent message came through: at the base of one of the towers were the letters ELF spelled out using spare cable ties. No one’s surprised the feds and sheriffs are empty-handed.
at presstimE. . .
So much is just about to happen right after this issue closes! The tire-kickers at Steamboat will have made their offers and the folks at ASC and Oak Hill will have decided which, if any, to accept. The Steamboat Springs community is nervous: they want a winner capable of bringing the sort of funds needed to bring the creaking infrastructure of this wonderful mountain up to par. Oak Hill is keeping its fingers crossed that they will get reasonably close to the numbers they are counting on to pay down the debt on the rest of the empire. EBITDA for the past years suggest there may be gaposis between what they need and the best offer. . .Another ASC resort, Sugarbush, Vt., is also said to be in play with a local bidder as suitor. . . The resolution of the rather messy bankruptcy of Charlie Locke’s Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (see page 18) looked resolved on August 17 when creditors overwhelmingly approved Charlie Locke’s plan over the rival bid.
