Unlocking the mysteries of the Robertson settlement payouts
A number of magazine veterans have been scratching their heads about the reports circulating that former Globe and Mail freelancers are receiving the maximum allowable payout – $55,000 – from the Heather Robertson settlement with Thomson Reuters Canada, CTVglobemedia, and the Gale Group.
The veterans are wondering how their many feature-length stories garnered much more modest sums from the settlement.
The answer can be found on page 25 of the agreement, which explains how stories were awarded points to determine payout amounts. In a nutshell, a medium-sized story of, say, 800 words, in a “major print media” publication such as The Globe is worth the same as an 8000-word story in Toronto Life, which, along with magazines such as the Presbyterian Record, was placed in the “intermediate print media” category.
