I Got Rejected from News Break

Everyone is raving about the new writing platform News Break.

For those who don’t know what News Break is, it is the multiple Number #1 rated app in the “News” category in America (currently Number #3) founded by Jeff Zheung in 2015. It currently has 23 million users and lord knows how many viewers per day (source).

What has captured people’s attention recently is their new Creator Programme; $1,000 a month for twelve pieces of writing, three to be published a week, and 500 followers in the month.

This offer goes on for three months and then I am not too sure what happens after. No one has been writing for it long enough to know.

What do you write about? Turns out you can copy and paste your Medium stories and not just write about local news. Yes, copy and pasting for $1000 a month. Creators have openly admitted to doing this and not been sent to the naughty step as of yet.

How do you become a Creator? Simply go and follow the link below and fill in a small application form. I actually signed up via a Facebook group referral link, thinking it would give me a little boost. I even signed up with a second email address just in case my first application got lost in the world wide web.

A confirmation email was sent stating that I would receive a response in 5–7 days. Within this time, a Facebook group had been set up for those that were fresh out of Medium and looking to jump ship or manage two ships at a time. The vast majority of members were waiting for responses.

Four days went by. Seven days. I chased by responding directly to the confirmation email, I chased via the help links on their website and I chased via Facebook Messenger. Members of the Facebook group were also waiting a while and I had no heard of anyone being rejected yet so there was hope.

Two nights ago, I received an email from them stating my rejection. Rejected? Why? I need that $1000! For me it’s not even 1000, it’s around 750 when converted to my currency.

The email didn’t state why I was rejected. Instantly I thought it was because I lived in the United Kingdom. This website very much seems like a USA based thing and the app isn’t even available in my country.

I went onto the Facebook group and it seems a few others got rejected the same time as well. Some had been writing for Medium for a while, some a short while like me. Some members did not even get a rejection email, they received nothing at all. Who cares, we are all in the same boat. Or should I say lost at sea because the boat rejected us.

It turns out that 50+ of us who signed up through the referral link got rejected. There was no reason why. I can confirm the application from my second email address did get lost in the world wide web as I have heard nothing back.

Am I pissed? Hell yeah, I’m pissed! No one likes rejection. I reapplied yesterday and I am still waiting for a response. I won’t chase this one as I am already expecting to be rejected. Again. Maybe they won’t bother to respond this time.

At the end of the day, the only incentive that grabbed people’s attention for News Break is the money incentive. If Quora and Vocal Media and however many other platforms there are, offered us a similar incentive, I’m sure there would be a surge in applications and hype about them too.

I am still waiting to find out if it’s all too good to be true. A lot of creators have not been paid yet as their month is not up, but if you abide by a contract I guess they have no choice but to pay you.

To all those who got accepted and are currently within their first month, I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

Just in case you were wondering, I left that Facebook group pretty quickly. Damn it! I really could have done with that money…