[box type=”info”] This editor’s note was published in the February 2015 issue. At the time of writing, we had not received the cheque for the first 50 per cent of our fall levy. However, when the magazine was at the printer, our treasurer John picked up the cheque and deposited it in our account. So we now have enough to print several more issues, although we still have not received our full levy.[/box]
By now you may have heard about our eloquently named “money troubles.” We’ve survived this year on the remains of the 2013-2014 levy; after the printing of this issue the bank will be empty.
Our problem arose primarily from the discovery of a 2001 document outlining how we should receive our levy. This document, which Alex Bryant found last school year, is substantially different from the way we have traditionally received our levy. The 2001 document was brought up at the last publishing board meeting of the 2013-2014 school year, and both sides agreed to look into changing it.
This year, the KSU has followed the 2001 agreement while we followed our constitution – as we have done for many years.
The result was that we did not receive the money students had already spent on us.
According to the 2001 agreement, we were to receive half of our fall levy before Sept. 20. This did not happen. In an email from Michaela Sam, she said “the first 50 per cent of the fall levy should have been released by the KSU directly without a vote of the Publishing Board, we were unclear about this fact as it had not been made clear to us by the Watch executive. This is an error on our part and we will release this sum as soon as possible.”
At the Jan. 26 council meeting, Sam’s report said that the Watch’s cheque for that initial 50 per cent has been written. We just received the cheque on Feb. 5.
Rachel has called another publishing board meeting to vote on whether we will receive the rest of our levy, as well as look at the possibility of an external committee to draft a new agreement so this doesn’t happen again. The vote passed with the quorum defined by the 2001 agreement.
But really, why does this matter?
Grace was asked by a family friend how important the levy really was. Do we really need to publish a print issue? Do we really need to pay our contributors? Does the Watch really matter at King’s when there are already the j-school publications?
We would like say yes to all of these.
The Watch matters to us – we wouldn’t have given up our honouraria this year if it didn’t. It is something special and separate from the journalism school. Our contributors are not only journalism students; they are also CSP, EMSP and HOST students. King’s people who only take courses at Dal. Students who spend hours in the library or in the gym. Rugby players, poetry weavers, photography junkies. We get to be the publication that brings all these people together.
King’s is more than just deficit – no matter how frequently that topic comes up in our articles and conversation. It’s more than just KSU rallies and meetings. It’s something special that comes together only when you have people from different parts of the school working together.
This is why we think it’s important that we actually pay our writers and photographers. You are the people who make the Watch what it is (no matter what design we decide to try out). The content is yours and it is unique. And it is undoubtedly worth something.
There is a trend in the writing world to avoid paying people for their work. The abundance of unpaid internships is staggering.  They offer you the opportunity to increase your portfolio and pad your resume, to get your byline on the internet. They seem to say that your work has value only to you.
We want to pay our contributors because your time and effort and words have value to everyone. We can’t pay you what your work is worth – not even close – but we can pay you enough to show you that your labour is appreciated by more than just your resume.
The same trend that is pushing our writers towards unpaid work is also pushing the media towards what some people call the death of print. The online world is more lucrative, faster breaking, more interactive – in short, the experience more readers want.
We think that Peter Preston, in an article for the Guardian, said it best: “We don’t know whether news on paper and news on screen are the same or subtly different.” We would like to believe that news on paper is subtly different. There is something special about holding your article in a newspaper. There is something unique about seeing your photo on the cover of a magazine. Somehow, in some way, having it in print is different.
Of course, we could be just kidding ourselves. Our print edition could be a useless extravagance. Our contributors could be just as happy as volunteers. The Watch could be irrelevant to life at King’s.
But we believe the things we do matter. Even if it is only for one person, our existence means something. And that is why our levy is so important to us. It’s not because we want to get paid. It’s not because we want to create waves with the KSU. It’s because we care about this magazine, and we think it is something worth fighting for.