Features
Colleagues.
We are in the middle of what looks to be one of the most impressive democratization efforts in history.
Page by electronic page, the act of disseminating public information is being ripped from the hands of professionals by unwashed basement dwellers whose qualifications seem to include little more than passion and free time. And, before we go any further, we’d like to say that there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing. Really: Nothing.
Still, the whole situation leaves us with a growing feeling of emptiness: As the ranks of self-proclaimed writers continue to swell, and so many formerly brilliant print media outlets keep struggling with this new information paradigm, the resulting landscape has proven itself to be a barren one — at least for those of us who were trained to write long and write well. And as freelancers everywhere face reality and apply for those veggie burger-flipping jobs we always feared were waiting for us, the editorial staff here at Unfit wonders whether something can’t be done about this impending colossal waste of talent.
So we’d like to ask you to swallow hard, run down the street, and tell your would-be manager that you’ve given it some thought and that you think you’ll try writing for just a bit longer. That 15,000-word defense of Tattoo You? Break it out. Clean it up. Send it to us. We’ll run it — along with just about anything else you can think up — so long as it’s well-constructed, thoughtful, and … well, brilliant. We think there’s space for good writing on the Internet, and we’re out to prove it.
But we need your help.
The good news? We’re probably the only publication around whose freelance budget has room for growth. The bad news? At the moment, we can’t pay you. But we’re working on that. In the meantime, you can take solace in the fact that we here at Unfit know where you’re coming from — Mike Kanin used to edit for the Washington City Paper, Josh Rosenblatt used to write for The Austin Chronicle, and now they both depend on the kindness of strangers and nonprofit lefty political magazine editors to keep them from having to get real jobs – which is to say we know your pain, and we’re going to do our best to alleviate it.
While we’re working on that, you should dust off a few of your orphaned pieces and send them to us; we’ll give them a home. Help us show your editors that there is still a need for great long-form journalism and intelligent criticism, even on the Internet. Help us prove that real writers aren’t going the way of the American autoworker. Help us inject a little iron-fistitude into the blogosphere. We’re willing to bet that, even as you play credit card roulette to get through next month, it’ll beat the crap out of flipping burgers.
Declaration of Principles
I.
We will provide a forum for professional writers whose work too often goes unpublished as a result of the precipitous decline of print journalism.
II.
We will also provide writers the opportunity to engage in thoughtful long-form profiles, critical pieces, and essays free from the stylistic expectations of the Internet, which is making a joke of our profession with its focus on timely updates, 140-character blurbs, amateur shouting matches, and celebrity-gossip fetishism.
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III.
At Unfit, writers will be kings.
IV.
Poorly paid kings slaving away in almost total anonymity but kings nonetheless.
Signed,
Unfit
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