To the editor:
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From that vantage point, I can say that if the Trib’s travel editor thinks he has lost only one writer, he is wrong. I’ve heard from other travel writers who have pointedly declined to sign even the proclaimed “better” Trib contract, and from a gaggle of freelancers who haven’t spoken to a Trib editor but have simply crossed the paper off their submissions list and gone on to other ways to make a living.
The editor says he and others fear losing the cream of the crop. They have reason to fear. Even among those writers who buckled and gave up their rights to the Trib with little more than a whimper, awareness is setting in, and with it, resentment.
The savvier, better writers are quickly learning to vote with their feet. Others will take just a bit of time to gain the confidence and the new markets for their skills; then they’ll desert without so much as a glance over their shoulders. Oh, the Trib will find writers to sign their contracts and fill their pages. But are they the ones readers, editors, and even–yes–the B-school guys want?
