Jewish Living magazine / zspublishing.com

[angelahoy]

Subject: COMPLAINT about Jewish Living magazine / jewishlivingmag.com / zspublishing / zspublishing.com / Daniel Zimerman
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:29:13 -0400
To: dzimerman@zspublishing.com, info@jewishlivingmag.com, lgoldstein@jewishlivingmag.com, cmoskot@jewishlivingmag.com,

March 16, 2009

Daniel Zimerman - dzimerman@zspublishing.com, info@jewishlivingmag.com
Laura Goldstein - lgoldstein@jewishlivingmag.com
Carol Moskot - cmoskot@jewishlivingmag.com
Jewish Living magazine, zspublishing - zspublishing.com
17 Prescott Avenue / 9 Cedar Springs Grove
Montclair, NJ 07042 / Toronto, ON M3H 5L# Canada
P(416)910-8565

WritersWeekly.com has received a complaint about:
Jewish Living magazine / jewishlivingmag.com / zspublishing /
zspublishing.com / Daniel Zimerman

WritersWeekly.com is a publication that publishes information for
and about freelance writers and other creative professionals.
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As part of that information, WritersWeekly.com publishes a Warnings
section on its website and in its newsletter. This warning section
contains reports about publications that are unprofessional in
dealing with writers, haven't paid writers money that is owed to
them, who have not abided by their contracts, or who have unfair
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subscribers
to decide which publications they should and should not work with.

Your firm has been submitted to us for inclusion in the
WritersWeekly.com Whispers and Warnings section.

Step one of our investigation of this report is to gather all
relevant correspondence between your publication and the person
submitting the complaint so that we can piece together that person's
side of the story. Step one of our investigation has been completed.

-------------
THE COMPLAINT
-------------

[JJ] (name not published here but was, of course, provided to the publisher)
alleges you owe her $750. See allegation under my signature.

-----------------
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
-----------------

The second step in our investigation is to send this communication
to your firm to get its side of the story. If you have evidence
disputing these allegations, or would like to make your own
statement about these allegations for publication in our report, please
email angela@writersweekly.com within two business days.

***All correspondence for our investigations must be in writing and
is subject to publication.***

If you do owe this person money, we strongly suggest you read
this article before responding:
http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/003628_09132006.html

Our report on your firm is scheduled for inclusion in our
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If there is no response to these allegations, WritersWeekly.com will
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read your side of the story.

We appreciate your prompt response in this matter.

Angela Hoy
Publisher
WritersWeekly.com

~~~~~~~~~~~
ALLEGATION
~~~~~~~~~~~

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: help with getting paid
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:31:19 +0000 (UTC)
From: [JJ]

Hi Angela,

I was in touch with you about the first one back in October. It involves
Jewish Living magazine, which accepted an article from me in August 2008
and asked me to invoice near the end of that month, and then folded a
few weeks later in September. The agreed-upon fee was $1,000. The
publisher responded to an e-mail from me by sending $250 at the end of
December, with a note saying that he was still collecting from
advertisers. I have e-mailed five times since then and left two phone
messages regarding the $750 balance, but have not received any reply.

Many thanks,
[JJ]

~~~~~

PUBLISHER RESPONDS TO WRITER, NOT TO WRITERSWEEKLY

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: dzimerman@zspublishing.com
Sent: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:02:54 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: Jewish Living payment

[jJJ] - as you know, the magazine shut down and ceased publication in September 2008. As such, the Nate Berkus article did not run and was never published. Nonetheless, we did send a check for 25% of the total.

Since closing, we have attempted to compensate writers, stylists, photographers etc to the best of our abilities with what little monies were left after our investors unexpectedly pulled out.

You have received 25% of your fee which in many cases is much more than others.

Of course you are free to pursue any course of action you deem appropriate, however, pls know that if there were any more funds we would - as we have to date - distribute them to the free lancers that worked with us. There are no additional funds and ZS has shut down.

Though I realize that 25% of your fee is not idea, these are not ideal times. The magazine folded. Investors abandoned the project. The Berkus piece was not published. Etc etc.

[JJ] - we do appreciate your work for the magazine and hope this note resolves the mater.

Dan

~~~~~

WRITERSWEEKLY CONTACT PUBLISHER

Subject: [Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: Jewish Living payment]
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:42:19 -0400
To: dzimerman@zspublishing.com

Hi Daniel,

Per [JJ]'s note below, a kill fee was never part of the contract she
had with your firm. She did the 100% of the work and it is our opinion
she deserves 100% of the pay that was promised her. When can she expect
payment of the $750 you owe her?

Angela Hoy
WritersWeekly.com

~~~~~

THE PUBLISHER DID NOT RESPOND TO WRITERSWEEKLY.COM.

THE WRITER IS CONSIDERING SUING THE PUBLISHER IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT.