The Brutal Truth About News Break for Writers

What nobody is saying about the platform. This is a must-read for any writer looking to make money on News Break.

A lot of writers are fleeing from platforms like Twitter and going to News Break — for the money.

Many writers are going to get caught with their pants down.

I applied for News Break and got accepted. I have spent lots of time analyzing the platform from the perspective of a writer with six years’ experience, who has made six figures. I don’t say that to impress you. I tell you that so we can cut the crap and get to the point.

News Break will not make you a successful writer. Sorry.

However, News Break is a platform worth understanding because it can help you earn a living. I’m going to go deep on all things News Break and mention many parts about the platform that have not been written about. Pay attention if you’re a writer. You will learn a lot.

A Large Audience Helps You Experiment

News Break has 45M active users and over 1.5 billion views. That’s a great size audience to test your content with.

Data about your writing helps you write better. It’s why every writing platform has a stats page. Even if the thought of News Break makes you vomit, you can’t ignore an audience that large which is open to you.

What to do if your application has been rejected?

Many writers are saying their application has been rejected. Mine went nowhere, too, despite me providing enormous social proof.

The answer was simple. Email News Break support and pitch them like a startup would pitch a VC. Show your passion. Show you understand their audience. Mention how you can drive traffic to their site with your existing social media channels and your email list.

How to Evaluate a Writing Platform like News Break

When I look at a platform to write on, I look at it from many different angles. The brutal truth is many writers jump ship from a platform without mastering it or even understanding it. This is my evaluation criteria.

What sort of platform are they?

News Break is a news app, not a blogging platform.

They are trying to be more than that but their branding is incredibly confusing for an already exhausted reader just trying to find helpful content to assist them with their everyday lives.

This is a problem for writers. The chance of them pivoting with their current branding will be tough.

Does the platform understand writing?

News Break isn’t built for writers or content creators. That was an afterthought.

The best platforms I have found to write on are obsessed with writers. They lose sleep at night thinking about how to make writers successful.

I don’t think News Break loses sleep over writers based on all the content they have published about their creator’s program and the platform itself. That’s OK. It’s nothing to be angry about; they’re a business.

Look at the ethics of the platform

News Break is a VC funded company from the U.S. Their goal is to make money any way they can. They don’t seem to have a secondary goal to speak up about important topics or shine a light on injustices they can help change. A goal beyond money is key as a writer. It gives a platform purpose.

Without purpose, money takes over, and writers become whipping objects.

Pay close attention to the incentives

News Break is clear about how writers make money (see here).

A minimum monthly payment is a clever idea in my opinion. It gives writers certainty about their income. This is a crucial detail many writers are missing: be careful with cash incentives.

The monthly payment offered by News Break is generous and thrives on writers’ insecurities. It does come across as a little get-rich-quick, which is never good for writers. If you’re only motivated by money as a writer then you will give up. I see it every day.

There is a network marketing element too. This is something I dislike. Network marketing with referral links becomes exhausting. It breeds fake influencers who try to lure readers into their trap for their own financial benefit. Many network marketing companies are giant Ponzi schemes. I hope this feature is removed.

Generous incentives might seem good on the surface, but they encourage bad behavior.

What is the writer’s KPIs?

Writers have KPIs on News Break when it comes to followers and pageviews.

I don’t think the KPIs are achievable for most writers. This could pose a problem for writers real fast. There’s no such thing as a free payday as a writer. Remember that. If you don’t deliver, you don’t get paid.

So your ability to deliver good content, consistently, will always be the key to every writing platform.

Is the future clear for the platform?

News Break doesn’t have a clear future.

They’re just trying stuff on to see what sticks which I admire. Writers are an experiment. This can end badly if you bet your life on News Break.

When I assess a platform I look at the founders, where they get money from, their experience of publishing high-quality content, how long they’ve been around, and what their mission statement is. News Break is an “I don’t know” in response to pretty much all of these questions.

News Break is based in Mountain View, California. They have three main investment companies that funded the business. All of them are from China. The founder, Jeff Zhang, is originally from China and so is the COO, Vincent Wu. In the current economic environment and with what happened to TikTok, this could become an issue in the future.

Their senior leaders all have good media chops. Jeff oversaw algorithm improvements when he worked at Yahoo, so it’s no wonder News Break has grown enormously and understands viral content.

What’s the writing editor like for writers?

It’s passable. It has the basics you need, although nothing fancy. I like that when you copy and paste the content into the editor there is virtually nothing else you need to do.

News Break content is designed to be consumed on a smartphone so the images are quite small. Stripping out links from your content is one issue with the editor. The only way to remove links is to copy your content without any formatting, and then go back and format everything from scratch. This is time-consuming. I leave links in my articles unless they contain something News Break wouldn’t be OK with — like a link to me selling my eBook.

You must add a follow widget to every article too, otherwise, you won’t meet the follower count KPI.

What’s their support like?

I emailed support several times. They were kind, friendly, and knew their stuff. They even gave me advanced tricks on how to use the editor.

What are their content guidelines like?

I find them great. They don’t limit your voice or tell you how to write. There are a few topics you can’t write about like conspiracies, which is expected.

Does the platform limit low-quality content?

Unfortunately not. Low-quality content can end up on the platform. News Break gets around this by having an aggressive algorithm that doesn’t let low-quality content be seen.

It looks as though they use clicks and reading time as data to determine whether readers find the content helpful, and therefore, whether they should promote it. I like this.

The algorithm speaks on behalf of the reader, not the platform.

Can you take users off the platform?

This is the most important criteria of any writing platform. You want to take users off the platform so you can own them — your way.

In other words, you want to be able to collect users’ email addresses so you’re not reliant on an algorithm to show your content to readers, and so you can build a deeper relationship with your audience.

Followers are useless.

You can have 100,000 followers and still have your story read by less than 100 people. I wish writers all understood this truth.

News Break does not allow you to have a call to action in your article or to insert links that make you money. I think that’s fair. You can’t double-dip as a writer and it’s greedy to try.

News Break does allow you to have a link in your bio which you can use to send readers to a landing page and capture their email address. I like this feature. It works extremely well on Instagram, as an example.

How much money can you make?

Writers need to eat, I get it. We’re in a global recession, I get that too.

So what’s the financial opportunity of News Break? Based on writers I’ve spoken to and the publicly available data I’d say $1,000-$2,000 a month.

You can’t quit your 9–5 job on this sort of money but it can help you live with less stress and pay a few bills, so it’s worth exploring.

Practical Lessons From Publishing on News Break

I have been publishing on there for a few weeks. I studied writers such as Shannon Ashley, Matt Lillywhite, Ash Jurberg, Tom Kuegler, and Vanessa Torre. I even emailed a few writers directly to ask them questions.

Here are my highly curated findings to help you write better on the platform.

Clickbait thrives on News Break

The headlines on the platform are clickbaity. If anything, you need to edit your safe headlines to be a little more clickbaity to get your articles read.

The quality of the reader is extremely low

The comments look like they were written by pre-schoolers. I haven’t read one intelligent comment on an article yet. You might think this doesn’t matter but it does. If the readers treat the platform like dirt and don’t take it seriously either, then that won’t be good for the long-term future.

A high-quality audience spends money on a writing platform. It’s one reason I spend so much time on LinkedIn. The users are educated, respectful, and happy to spend money on a solution to a problem they have.

A low-quality audience treats a platform like dirt. I wouldn’t want to build an email list full of News Break subscribers based on my experience so far. I’d be better off luring subscribers from YouTube who publish comments that degrade innocent people trying to achieve their goals. YouTube comments are the worst. News Break comments aren’t far behind.

The comments section says a lot about the quality of a platform.

Most of your articles will flop

By flop, I mean that most of your articles won’t get a single view. Have low expectations and you’ll do well. It’s a shame though because it means a lot of what you write won’t be suitable for the platform.

This means moving your entire writing life or blog to News Break isn’t currently an option.

News Break isn’t your blog.

You can have a random viral hit

When articles pop on the platform, they explode. The ability to go viral on the platform is possible because it’s still early days.

I had three so far that have performed well. I don’t care too much about virality because it has never changed my life. It’s fun to experiment though.

4 types of content do well

1. Weird content. Things that are strange. A headline where you go “what the hell is this story about?” Sean Kernan would be a god on News Break.
2. Life content. Readers seem to love anything about life. The topic of life is subtlety different from self-help.
3. Relationships as a niche do well. It’s bizarre.
4. Newsworthy content. No surprise here — it’s a news app, remember?

Critical Tips for Writers

Be driven by long-term goals and incentives

I value consistency, quality, and putting in the work above everything else. When you choose a platform to write on you need to be focused on these skills or you will get distracted by semantics.

What has made me successful as a writer isn’t any one platform. It has been showing up every single day, ready to write, using flow states, treating readers right, engaging with the audience, trying to be a decent human being, speaking nicely to critics/trolls, writing for six years straight, repurposing content on different platforms, and loving the art of writing.

Jumping from platform to platform will screw up your life

The biggest problem writers face is jumping from writing platform to writing platform looking for a golden goose.

Making money as a writer isn’t the meaning of life.

If you keep trying to “be early” to every social media platform that pops up out of nowhere, you’ll be forever chasing unicorns and rainbows. I started writing again on Twitter recently. I’m very late to the game, and I love it. Being late to something in life forces you to be humble and prioritize learning over gimmicks, hacks, and shortcuts that don’t exist.

There is no shortcut to being a writer other than writing a lot.

Choose one platform as your primary place and then write your life away. Readers are addicted to high-quality content and they will share it like crazy if they find it, no matter where the content is published.

Betting your life on social media metrics you can’t control will ruin your life and destroy your self-worth.

Writing can become gambling at the casino if you’re not careful.

When writing becomes a game like Fortnite, it loses its magic. It becomes addictive, unhealthy, and turns your fellow writers into competitors you want to beat to death, rather than be friends with and learn from.

News Break is just another writing platform. Use it or don’t use it.

The Verdict

Another income source is a good idea. Just don’t bet your life on a new app that is centered around news, not a blogging platform.

News Break is just extra data. Don’t take it too seriously until you see them taking it seriously. They’re playing around to see if they can find a way to support creators and expand their business. You should have the same attitude. Respect a writing platform and they will respect you.

You can never go wrong experimenting as a writer. Just don’t prioritize your ego, vanity metrics, and income over readers — that’s the fastest way to mediocre writing that will force you to give up.

Write for the reader. Let the platform you write on be invisible — or even irrelevant.