Bottom-Of-The-Barrel Pricing

I imagine a few of you guys have thoughts about this:

It's a dream tucked in the backs of many journalists' minds: the article they write becomes a blockbuster movie and they reap a healthy share of the profits, a walk on the red carpet and — who knows? — maybe even an Oscar.

At Condé Nast magazines like Wired, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, that wish has become reality for a small but steady number of writers. Condé Nast articles led to the movie "Argo," which so far has generated $166 million in worldwide box-office sales, "Eat Pray Love," which made $204 million in global sales and "Brokeback Mountain," which brought in $178 million.

But now, Condé Nast, whose magazines are battling a…