McGraw-Hill Author Sues Business Magazine

In a suit that addresses the always tricky issue of repurposed material, freelancer Russell Wild has sued startup Jungle Media for interfering with his McGraw-Hill book contract. Jungle runs niche magazines MBA Jungle and JD Jungle and had contracted with Wild to write some business tips for the former. Each party fulfilled its terms and parted amicably. But when Wild then sold a book to McGraw-Hill that proposed to contain many of his MBA Jungle columns, the magazine, according to the complaint, intervened with the publisher. The book, entitled The Instant MBA, is now in limbo as Wild and Jungle lock horns.

Wild, who brought the suit in Lehigh County, Pa., is asking for $50,000 and compensatory damages from Jungle for acting "maliciously" and "fraudulently." He also wants the matter to be cleared up so McGraw-Hill, currently in a wait-and-see mode, can move forward with publishing the book.

Jungle cites a clause in Wild's freelance contract that prevents him from running the material "in any publication, Web site or other means of distribution by any business-oriented Web site or publication" without permission from Jungle. "It's an open-and-shut case [of breach of contract]," said Jungle publisher and defendant Jon Housman.

Wild said he thinks it's open and shut, too—the other way. He called the description of McGraw-Hill as a business-oriented publication specious. "It's like saying a sardine is a member of the whale family," he said. The suit's underlying question is how authors can benefit from repurposing material without offending publishers' rights to protect what they've bought.

To bolster his case, Wild alleges that when Jungle heard about his book deal, they tried to persuade him to publish with them, and later called McGraw-Hill to try to work out a co-pub.