Holy Crap, I Cracked a News Break Payment Code They Didn’t Tell Us About

Well, they kind of did; we just ignored it

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my first three and a half months of writing for NewsBreak, is that math and analytics are going to be required for success. There’s no way to earn big on the outlet without constantly analyzing your numbers. While doing that today, I realized an important thing that has not been publicized.

I’m sure some of my fellow NB writers have already seen this and simply aren’t sharing, but I think it’s an important factor in determining our success — important enough to share. So here goes.

Start with what they’ve told us about the CV scores and payment

In the first set of FAQ’s from February 11:

“$4 per 1000 PVs is the minimum for CV Scores 1–4, and $10 per 1000 PVs is the minimum for articles with CV Scores 5–10. The higher CV Scores can earn you a higher rate, and the ad share revenue is not capped.”

And this:

“If an article has 900 PVs for the month, does that mean zero thousands? Are all PV values truncated to the thousands place? We will still calculate your ad share revenue if your article has less than 1000 page views, but the rate will be multiplied by < 1. For instance, if your article received 900 PVs, the payment rate would be multiplied by 0.9.”

Followed by this from the newest set of payment FAQ’s shared March 12:

“While every qualifying article will get revenue from page views, articles with a higher CV Score will receive a higher rate and the payment is calculated on a rate per thousand page views. So, the higher CV Score articles with higher page views will earn you the most money.”

Does anything stand out?

The information repeated in both sets of information is this: “The higher CV Scores can earn you a higher rate…”

But the most important word is minimum. Read the top set of payment information from February 11 again. See the word. It’s there twice. The $4 per 1000 and $10 per 1000 are the minimum page view payments.

Run your own numbers

I thought I had looked at my payment numbers pretty closely until today when I started pondering why the money on a handful of my stories was outperforming others, even compared to other stories in the 5–9 CV range.

There’s only one mathematical solution to the problem. The higher the CV score, the higher the pay rate.

Here’s how the payment code actually breaks down in page views:

Stories with a CV of 1 would theoretically earn the minimum payment of .004 per single page view, but my only story with a CV1 is too old and only has 2 views under the new terms, but it is showing payment of .01, so that means it essentially rounds up to .005 per view.

I don’t have any CV2s, so I can’t give you a verified amount, but it would seem likely that they pay .006 per page view.

I have multiple CV3s, all of them calculating out at .007 per single page view.

My CV4s are earning .008 per view.

My CV5s are earning the minimum of .01 per view.

Here is where it gets fun

I don’t have any CV6s, but you can deduce from the 7s, 8s, and 9s how much they pay.

My CV7s are earning .012 per page view.

My CV8s are earning .013 per view.

And my CV9s are earning .014 per view.

When you break it all the way down to the individual page views it feels like a pittance for the work we put into these stories, but at these rates, it is possible to earn decent money, even after the sign-on bonus pay disappears in the fourth month.

Those fractional pennies can add up

I have a story with a CV7 and currently with 8,060 page views. At the rate for a CV7 of .012, it has earned $96.72. Had I worked a tiny bit harder to get it to a 9, those earnings would add up to $112.84. That’s a difference of $16.12.

Should I change it now? That’s always a possibility on News Break and I’ve had it work for me a couple of times. I am always hesitant to fix something that is not broken though, particularly when so many have had issues with edited stories. I have primarily limited my edits to those stories that fall under the CV5 mark.

Takeaways:

Work hard on your stories. They are earning more than you think they are. Reread News Break’s own post about content value. Then, in light of what you now know was hidden in plain sight in their previous information, maybe even read it a third or fourth time.

I also wrote this about News Break a while back. Some of it is still quite relevant under the new payment terms.

If you aren’t yet a News Break creator but would like to be, here is my referral link. Full disclosure: I get a bonus if you sign up and stick with it.