(image from Wikimedia Commons:  the Power of Free Content Media)

When you've got several to hundreds of bargaining partners, there is always a moment where the optimal negotiating move is to cut separate deals with those who are weaker (less well-equipped to continue the battle); stronger (better equipped to take a negotiating loss); more favorably disposed to your position or less fixed in their bargaining posture than other members of the opposition coalition.

No one wants to be the last man standing.

In this town of hyphenates (actor-producer-director) it makes sense for the embattled WGA  to cut separate deals with those whose hyphenated descriptions include the word "writer."  So it is that Forbes.com reports via Reuters in Striking writers union reaches deal with Letterman -- and the New York Times reports in Letterman and Writers Guild Reach Agreement -- that Letterman's "writer-friendly" company gave the writers "what they are asking for [because] they deserve it, and we’re happy to give it to them.”  (quote from NYT)

Forbes.com excerpt below:

Negotiations between the WGA and major studios on a new contract covering 10,500 striking film and TV writers broke down Dec. 7, but the union has been pursuing separate talks with smaller, independent production companies.

The WGA's Hermanson told Reuters that talks between the union and Letterman's company had produced a "full, binding, independent agreement" that includes provisions for paying writers for work distributed over the Internet.

Compensation for Internet content has been the main sticking point in talks aimed at ending the WGA strike, now in its eighth week.

Several other late-night television hosts, including Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien of NBC and Jimmy Kimmel of ABC, are planning to resume broadcasts of new episodes on Jan. 2 without their writers.