Newsbreak Is Kicking Writers Off The Platform
Are you affected? Should you care?
So, I woke up to news that Newsbreak is deactivating my account.
I am shocked, but not very shocked. To a point I’m not surprised because I have been barely using it. I’ve done some local reporting but the payouts were notoriously low. So it became my “bottom of the barrel” attempt at keeping my work online.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. Newsbreak lost the vast majority of their contributors once payouts shriveled up. The only groups that seem to be making a decent income off the current payout system tend to be mega-corps like ABC News 12 or the Asbury Park Press.
So, what gives?
To a point, Newsbreak was overdue for a change. There were a lot of writers (myself included) who were not contributing as much as we should have. Many of the top writers were also just…not very good at what they were doing, to be honest.
There were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around, a lot of faux news, a lot of viral stories that were just clips from WorldStarHipHop, and it just didn’t look good for a company that was getting scarily close to being called unreliable.
So, I get it.
I really do.
But with Newsbreak, they often forget they get what they pay for—up to a point. They had an open door policy for ages and it bit them in the butt. A lot of amateurs ended up bilking the site for all that it’s worth until Newsbreak kinda crashed out.
Unfortunately, that often means that writers like yours truly get caught in the crossfire. So now the site has to recalibrate who they let on there in order to ensure they remain profitable.
Is it worth reapplying to Newsbreak?
Honestly? I don’t know, but I’m doing it anyway because I want to see if payouts will increase, if the overall behavior of readers will be better, if my writing will be given airtime there, and if my writing will get a decent following there.
For the most part, my experience as a Newsbreak contributor was not a good one. I mean the payouts averaged less than $3.00 per hour on most months. In fact, most recent months, I only made pennies.
So it’s not like I would start off doing exclusive work for this platform. I’ve been burned by them and so have most other writers I met who contributed. But if things go well, I could see that becoming the new home of more of my writing.
With that said, I’m not sure I’d actually be accepted in. I don’t really know what they are looking for anymore.
I was a Newsbreak writer for years and for a while, making really good money. Then June 2024 hit, and everything went off a cliff. It was as if all new management took over.
They started burying contributor stories in favor of reposting stories from local media outlets. If you DID see contributor stories, they were clickbait and poorly written.
I was actually encouraged in April when they announced they were scrapping everything and we would have to reapply. I reapplied immediately. The form said something about them being in touch within a few days. But no confirmation, no email follow-up, nothing.
Since then, I reapplied a few more times and I noticed at the last screen there was no confirmation of the form even being submitted.
I emailed them three times before I finally got a response. A woman wrote back and said they received my application and I would know something in a few months. ????
I’m not sure why they’re making writers go through all of this if they’re not actually going to consider and use them. I mean, just tell people that the contributor program is done, right?
Forgive any typos. It’s late at night and I’m typing this on a tiny screen.
By the way, I found this thread while checking to see if anybody actually reapplied and got accepted. I have yet to find anyone.
People don't seem to understand. First off newsbreak makes their money with ads and NOT ads through their writers. They cut off their writers views and now mostly use AI. IF A PEOPLE writer does an article there are no barriers and they get tons of views. A regular writer gets put to the side and gets no views. They don't need writers anymore. They will do some for local stories but getting views will be very hard. That's why you notice National publications articles in the forefront and not regular writers. Ai is killing writing too