Case 1:13-cv-04347-AJN Document 32

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UNITED STATESDISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICTOF NEW YORK

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AULISTAR MARK, HANCHEN LU and ANDREW HUDSON,Individually and on Behalf of AII Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiffs, -againstGAWKER MEDIA LLC, and NICK DENTON, Defendants. Civil ActionNo. I :13-cv-04347-AJN

AFFIDAVIT OF CHARLIE JANE ANDERS CHARLIE JANE ANDERS declares, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 51746,that the following is true and correct: 1. I am of legal age and am competent to make this Declaration. I have

personalknowledgeof the facts setsforth in this Declaration.or I have learnedsaid facts to speakon behalf of Gawker Media, LLC. 2. I currentlyam the ManagingEditor of Gawker Media, LLC's

("Gawker's") website,io9.com,a daily publicationthat coversscience, sciencefiction, and the future. Previously,I servedas the AssociateEditor and News Editor of io9. 3. 4. I personallysupervised many of the internsmyself. AnnaleeNewitz (the Editor-In-Chiefof io9) was in chargeof acquiring

the intern applicantsto interview, and I helped interview applicantsfor the entertainment sectionof the blog from early 2008 until we endedthe intern programin January2013. 5. Usually there were two interns at any given time that would learn the part

of the website that covered entertainment. Sometimesthere was one additional intern that learnedthe part of the websitethat coveredscience, which Annaleesupervised.

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Intems were only responsible for contributingto a few postsper week, which is not a significanteffort. If we did not have internsto contributeto theseposts,our employees would have been able to write them during their regular workday, or we would simply not have written them at all. We would not have had to hire additional paid staff. We initially told internsthat we requiredthem to contributeten hoursper week, but I would if any of them put in more than five hoursper week. We encouraged be surprised them to write as much as they liked for us"but it was not required. 6. Sincedifferent internssoenttime on different sections of the site for

different editors,most of them contributedremotely. Meredith Woerner,currentlythe Entertainment Editor of io9, has also supervised interns.At times shehad internscome into the office, but I did not interactwith them. 7. Sincethe intems mostly contributedremotelyand were only requiredto

complete a few hours per week, the interns contributed on their own time and had no set schedule.An individual internshipcould last up to four or six months,but often interns would ask if they could continueinterningwith us for longer. 8. None of our internships that it was were paid, and the intems understood

an unpaidposition. We had one or two paid internsat the launchof the site,but we stoppedpaying the next internsthat arrivedin 2009. None of the subsequent interns complained that they were not paid sincethey understood that it was an unpaid internship from the beginning. If I usedany of their writing in an editorial post,they would of coursereceivea byline or a sharedbyline. 9. The training programwas not a formal process. We explainedthe

required tasks when the interns first arrived and then gave them lots of feedbackover the

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hrst month or two to make surethey were on track. For example,when interns carried out research, they would often come back with insufficientresults. I would tell them how they missedimportantthings that were necessary to make the research truly complete enoughfor a story. After giving them research tips, I would sendthem back to try the research again. 10. I also spentsomeof my time with io9 internsteachingthem how to be

betterwriters. i would edit piecesof intern writing and tell the internswhat they needed to do differently in terms of formattingand tone. When they successfully researched and contributedto articles,I would give them a co-byline. We alwaysencouraged them to try to pitch their own articlesand to write themselves.The goal was to teachthem enoughso that they would be able to curatea site themselves. 1i. This type of supervision contrasts with my supervision of regular

employees.The full-time employees know how to curatea site,and how to pitch, research, write, and edit posts. I do not havetime to hold their hands. With interns,I hold their handsmore. Sincewe usually only hired experienced writers as employees, the intems requireda significantlylargeramountof guidancefrom me as their supervisor. Someinternswere betterthan others.but thev all requiredme to take more time with them than I would with a full-time writer. 12. internship. 13. I gavemany references for both graduate schoolandjob applications. Therewas nevera promiseof a full-time job at Gawker at the end of any

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\4.

If we did not have interns,io9 would not have hired additionalemployees.

The interns did a very small amount of simple tasks that employeescould have easily handledthemselves.

I declareunder the penalty of perjury under the laws of the Stateof New York and the United States of America that the foresoins is true and correct.

Executed this I ?

dayof Janu ary.2014 rn

S-^ F ^ --,J ' o

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS