Grumblings at Naked Eye by ALASTAIR SUTHERLAND Lots of word of mouth lately about the Montreal-based magazine Naked Eye--unfortunately, a lot of it is bad. For example, there were the protest posters, which had a picture of the mag and were tacked up at Concordia: "DON'T BUY NAKED EYE. Naked Eye magazine was produced on the backs of poor students, journalists, photographers and designers. Many people who worked to produce the issue you see here were not compensated for months of time and effort. Others were not even recognized for their work. Don't work for them. Don't buy it. INFO: nonakedeye@hotmail.com." Naked Eye came out mid-October, a month after the announced publication date. Actor Dave Foley, formerly of Kids in the Hall, was on the cover. The magazine, distributed across the country and geared towards the potentially lucrative 18-30 market, was 74 pages thick with lots of colour photos and 14 pages of advertising. Originally, the plan was to come out with a second issue this month, but that's now been put forward to the spring. Complicating the situation is that most of the full-time editorial team who worked on the last issue have quit or been fired. Editors, art people, freelancers--many of whom also do work for the Mirror and Hour--are grumbling about not being paid in full. Teena Aujla, 23, says she worked as art director at Naked Eye for three months, under contract, and claims they still owe her $1,300. At one point, she says, she was issued a cheque for $900, but by the time she got to the bank, Naked Eye had put a stop payment on it. She sent the publication a "letter of demand" and says that if nothing happens soon, she and several other former staffers will be taking their case to small claims court. She also points out that her name was not on the magazine's masthead. Craig Silverman, 22, a freelancer who writes for Hour, says he worked for the magazine for 2 1/2 months (a month full-time) as the managing editor. He says he was fired under dubious circumstances and is owed $540. "The offered to pay me $300, I said okay just to get it over with," says Silverman. "But I never got the money." Fomer Mirror writer Dominique Ritter, now the managing editor at Adbusters magazine in Vancouver, was the mag's second managing editor. She says she was paid on a bi-weekly basis and got most of her cash. "I think I did the best of anyone," she says, "but that's only because I fought with the publishers every step of the way." Anyway, I called up the magazine to get their side of the story, and finally got through to publisher Burton Rice. He said that the allegations were "gossip" on the part of a few disgruntled people who "were incompetent, so we fired their ass." "Everyone got paid in full," he said. "We're not here to take advantage of people, we're here to help people. We've paid everybody to the best of our ability. We're here to stay, and we're putting out four more issues regardless of what anyone says." He also says that Teena Aujla was simply a designer, not an art director, and that Craig Silverman never worked for the magazine--"he just came in and made some phone calls." "I think people saw that we were young publishers, and they thought they could milk us for all we're worth," said an irate Rice. "It's bullshit, and the story you're gonna do is bullshit." Nevertheless, I've heard tales of woe from eight people who worked on the premiere issue of Naked Eye. Certainly it's never easy starting a magazine, and rapid turnover and slow cash flow are not uncommon. But nothing heals old wounds and bruised egos like cash payment. Let's hope the issues get resolved. Media comments? circus@cam.org