Update on My Experiences with News Break: Numbers, earnings and links.
News Break is still trying to find its way with new creators.
I have developed a I won’t say “love/hate” but maybe just “love/don’t always love” relationship with News Break. I find I really like the challenge of coming up with local material to write about and it pays off since these articles by far get more views than anything else I’ve published on the site.
This is material I wouldn’t publish elsewhere since most sites aren’t focused on breaking news. When you spend so much time trying to come up with material that is “evergreen,” writing about transient topics not because you have nothing else to write about but because it’s part of your daily “job” can feel like a release.
It’s also helped me move back towards getting on track with my other writing. I have found it has woken up my interest in writing fiction and poetry and the “differentness” of the kind of writing I do for New Break has opened me up to different kinds of projects like creating different types of writing journals. For all of this, I am grateful to News Break.
At the same time News Break is a platform that has little to no transparency and this has led to a number of problems for its creators. A set of guidelines wasn’t provided until a month after the program began, and some of the statements in it are unclear and difficult to understand.
For example, many of our contracts require us to publish three articles a week for a total of 12 a month. Most of us assumed this meant from the first of the month to the last day of the month. We were sent a schedule for January which defines the months as follows:
- Week 1: Jan 3rd — Jan 9th
- Week 2: Jan 10th — Jan 16th
- Week 3: Jan 17th — Jan 23rd
- Week 4: Jan 24th — Jan 30th
However, the guidelines state, “If a week spans across two months, whichever month Saturday falls on, will be the month that is counted.” So, given that Saturday would be the second of January 2nd is Saturday so the week from including the last four days of December would be counted as January.
However, it counts as the last week of December. This is a big deal because you only receive the guaranteed payment if you meet the conditions of your contract. So, for those of us required to publish 3 articles a week, what month each week belongs to is important.
As News Break only started their creator program in November, it’s understandable that there would be a few bumps along the way. However, many of the bumps that creators have encountered so far could have been avoided if there had been better with communication.
Nowhere in the guidelines does it mention what types of articles we should be writing. It says use trend analysis to determine this, but from my own experience and that of a number of others on the site who belong to the Facebook groups, the topics that get the most views are those related to local topics. However, it took me much of the first month to determine this. Trial and error is not always the most productive way of learning.
Plus, they only waive the follower and page view requirement for the first three months in order to earn the guaranteed payment. After that you have to meet both criteria. I contacted News Break about earnings to see if writing on the site would be worthwhile in terms of revenue share but if you don’t earn the guaranteed payment you can possibly make a very small amount of money from your overall views. The only problem is they still require you to have 500 followers before you’re eligible. Otherwise, they keep everything.
There’s also an issue for me regarding the links they are adding. All of my articles have links to other pieces or indexes on News Break which have nothing to do with me or my article. The first of these is placed in my subheading the second in my first sentence. It’s not unusual for them to add 18 to two dozen links in my articles which are 1000 to 1500 words. Along with the ones I add which are references to what I’m talking about. There are often over 30 internal hyperlinks in each article.
I have asked them to please stop doing this, and if they have to add links that will pull readers away from my article if it could be done by linking to relevant stories. In my last article on places in Chicago you could order last minute New Year’s meals from, they created links for every mention of New Years, and every ingredient or food item I mentioned including black pepper. They added a dozen internal links and I had another 15, one for each restaurant I listed. So, in my just over 1000 words article there were 27 internal links.
I think this is frowned up by google and that their algorithm penalizes you for doing this. (I’m not sure about this but am going to check it out. Anyone who knows something how this works, please include a comment below.)
If there is something to learn from all of this it is that communication is everything. Sometimes we start something up too quickly without thinking everything through. We may suddenly remember something we should have done and enact it, or put changes in place to reach the goals we aspire to.
When others are involved in our endeavors, it’s important we stay in close communication with them, explaining the reasons what appear to be sudden changes are necessary. Otherwise, it can appear that we are changing the contract that we have with them, written or otherwise.
What may make perfect sense to us doesn’t for others who don’t have access to our thoughts. The best way to ensure our own success as well as those who work with us is to ensure that we clearly communicate the intent of the project, guidelines for achieving it and explain any changes that need to be made for it to be more successful.
Natalie Frank has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She specializes in Pediatrics and Behavioral Medicine. Her collection of poetry, Disguised I Breathe, In Love I Hold, can be found here on Amazon.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you also might like these:
Newsbreak Update: Show Me the Money. | by Natalie Frank, Ph.D. | Dec, 2020 | Medium
You can find links to my other work on Medium and follow me here. Thanks for reading!
