Michel Vézina, the former ICI columnist who quit in January when he wouldn’t sign a contract that would allow his work to be republished freely in other Quebecor publications (including the Journal de Montréal), has resurfaced at Transcontinental, where he will be writing about the arts for MontrealExpress.ca and the various Transcontinental-owned community weeklies.
I’ll note the irony that he will now be writing what is essentially a syndicated column after having objected to syndication.
I’m not sure I see the irony. Freelancers have nothing against syndication per se. We have something against non-retributed syndication that benefits only the paper.
I am not familiar with Transcontinental weeklies’ contract, but it is quite possible that he receives additional money for the syndication, which was not the case with Quebecor’s contract at the ICI.
Plus, that contract requests all rights, including moral rights, which meant articles could be re-used in Archambault’s website to sell merchandise. This goes against journalistic ethics.
Oh, and we also have something against our articles being reused in a newspaper in lock-out!