avatarKristi Keller

Summary

The author expresses confusion and skepticism about News Break, a platform where their article unexpectedly went viral, despite a previous lack of engagement on the same piece on Medium.

Abstract

The author, initially unfamiliar with News Break, admits to using the platform only to follow other writers like Jordan Fraser, Sherry McGuinn, and Kim McKinney. They find the platform perplexing and compare it to a labyrinth, only managing to post previously written articles. Surprisingly, one such article garnered nearly 200,000 views within 24 hours, contrasting sharply with its poor performance on Medium. The author speculates on the potential earnings from this viral success but criticizes News Break for its lack of community and the low quality of engagement, with many comments appearing to be from trolls or racists. Despite the potential financial gain, the author doubts they will invest genuinely in News Break due to the absence of meaningful interaction and community.

Opinions

  • The author is bewildered by the News Break platform and its user interface.
  • They question the value of the platform's viral potential without a sense of community or meaningful engagement.
  • The author perceives News Break as potentially profitable but lacking in substance and interaction.
  • They are critical of the comments on News Break, suggesting they are of low quality and contribute to a negative environment.
  • The author implies that News Break might be highly lucrative for the owners, possibly through affiliate links, without offering much in return to its writers.
  • Despite the financial incentive, the author is not inclined to engage sincerely with News Break due to its impersonal nature.
  • The author hints at a preference for platforms that foster community and direct communication with readers, such as Medium or their personal newsletter.

News Break: Where Readers Love White Privilege

You can truly go viral in 24 hours

Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash

I must admit I don’t even know what I’m doing on News Break. I’m just there because Jordan Fraser and Sherry McGuinn are.

I don’t understand the platform at all. I had to publicly ask on Twitter how to even find people to follow over there. Now I follow Kim McKinney too, because she answered my Twitter post.

Those are the only three writers I know that I could find and even if I found more of you, I wouldn’t read you over there because you write here.

News Break is like a labyrinth to me, I’m not joking…I have no idea how to use it except to copy and paste previously published articles.

Then I go to bed and wake up to see I’ve gone more viral than Coronavirus.

It was a bit of a shock to the system considering I published the same story on Medium a year ago and it tanked so badly I unpublished it. Yet, there it sits on News Break with nearly 200,000 views.

This better mean I’m getting a paycheck because I might only earn a single one of those. I don’t think I can hold out longer than a month over there.

I think it’s great for some people if that’s the kind of platform they like writing for, but it has a complete absence of community. If you like getting to know who reads you, good luck with that.

That story highlighted above has a whopping 1812 comments on it and 1810 of them are assholes. Just kidding. I haven’t read all 1812 comments because they appear to be written by first graders and racists.

To me, News Break is probably run by one or two nerds sitting behind the scenes making a trillion dollars off affiliate links. That’s it, nothing more.

There is zero sense of community, zero camaraderie. I haven’t even received a single email from News Break.

So is it worth a thousand dollars? Yup. I’ll keep copy/pasting until I run out of paste in hopes to earn that first thousand because hey, $1000.00 USD is worth a lot more in CAD.

But would I ever give News Break an honest shot?

Nah. There’s no one to talk to over there and I don’t write to be lonely.

PS: Dog stories do really well too.

If you enjoyed this story, here’s my non-intrusive way of ushering you toward my newsletter. When you subscribe, I’ll know you’re cool with hearing from me once in a while.

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