I think I should have phrased this more strongly

Several months back, I blogged about journalist Nate Thayer’s discovery that Atlantic magazine doesn’t pay freelancers, except by giving them the rare privilege of “exposure” in the magazine. Thayer, a professional, decided exposure was worth less than money, and declined (and then vented about it).
In discussing the merits of getting published for exposure, I think I was a little too soft on the Atlantic, so let’s take it again shall we. The default position should always be that if you’re good enough to publish, you’re good enough to get paid.
I say default because as noted at the link, there are exceptions. A lot of small specfic magazines don’t pay anything and genuinely can’t afford to pay anything. I’m fine with that (okay, not fine, I wish I were selling more frequently to paying markets, but I accept it). And someone may reasonably decide that contributing a no-pay article to Atlantic that promotes her upcoming book is a good trade-off.
But those are exceptions. Those are times the writer’s getting something out of it, or nobody’s really getting anything out of it. That’s different from a blanket policy of not paying people who do work for you. And that’s what Atlantic does (though I presume it pays staffers).
It feels reasonable, probably because the image of the struggling writer getting no money is a familiar one. But it’s no more a sound business strategy than if someone says “Hello, we’d like you to contract to work for us for a month. We won’t pay you, but at the end of the month, you’ll be able to list us as an employer on your resume!”
Nobody would take that deal (as noted at the link, unpaid interns are beginning to revolt against being used as unpaid temp labor). We should be similarly skeptical about the Atlantic. The editor explained it as “money gets sucked upwards” but that’s not a feature, it’s a bug: A company that sucks up so much money for the owners it can’t afford to pay workers has a shit business model.
I think that’s strong enough, yes?