On Monday, the Wall Street Journal published details of a plan by AOL for a 21st century news system that depends as much on computer algorithms as it does editors to decide which news is fit to print and which, well, isn’t.
You’ll have to subscribe to the paper in print or online or borrow a copy from a friend to see AOL to Produce News, Video by the Numbers in its entirety. But here are some of the relevant details:
- AOL will rely on a new digital newsroom system that uses computer algorithms to predict what types of stories, videos or photos will be popular, then assign articles accordingly.
- Here’s where freelancers come in. Stories will be assigned to freelancers via a new Web site called Seed.com. According to the story, AOL already works with a network of 3,000 freelancers but is looking to increase that number through Seed.com, “which is open to anyone looking to submit a story.” In other words, not necessarily professional writers. Note: The Seed.com website isn’t much to look at just yet, but they will take your email address and promise to get back to you after they launch, if you’re so inclined.
- Under the new system, AOL’s freelance fees will range from nothing up front and a share of ad revenue to more than $100 per story.
- According to the WSJ story, AOL will offer advertisers “the chance to work with its editorial team to create custom content.” In other words custom publishing. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not exactly journalism, and hopefully won’t be labeled as such.
The WSJ story used the recent baby crib recall as an example of how AOL’s new system would work. If the new system had been up and running, according to the article, the company’s number-crunching wizardry would have determined that people were interested in seeing more stories on the subject, which would have prompted editors to assign more stories.
To which I can only say: no duh. Any editor worth their salt would have come to the same conclusion, and wouldn’t have needed a lot of computer algorithms to do it.
All this is being directed by Tim Armstrong, the former Google advertising exec who’s slated to take over as AOL’s CEO when Time Warner completes spinning off the Internet company in December.
Some of my freelance friends are already up in arms over the whole situation. They’re ready to put AOL into the same group as Demand Studios, Associated Content, Helium, Studio101 and other sites that I’ve called content aggregators but other freelancers have dubbed content mills for the paltry amounts they pay, whether to professional writers or hobbyists, to churn out how-tos and other articles based on topics that are more prized for how high they’ll turn up in keyword searches than for their reportage.
But other freelancers I know who work on AOL’s blogs and other news enterprises have nothing but good things to say about the working conditions, including friendly editors and decent money.
For now, it remains to be seen whether AOL’s new endeavor will turn out to be a legitimate new market for freelance work, or give new meaning to the term bad seed.
Whatever happens, it’s also worth noting that AOL is the latest in a string of companies that most people would identify as technology ventures getting into the media business, a growing list that includes Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. As newspapers continue to struggle, are these tech giants the real future of the news?
AOL blogs and “decent money” is in the eye of the beholder. I used to write for them and wouldn’t agree.
Let’s hope AOL pays writers the $100 more often then not, but even that is not great pay.
And I do think print newspapers are in big trouble. They will continue to lose readership as people get more and more news online.
Pay cuts are coming to everyone not working for the government.
I’m over it.
While the concept does sound similar to a site like Demand Studios, I’m not going to make the leap and call Seed.com a “content mill” just yet. If the “$100 or more” a write can make on an article turns out to be true, it’ll certainly be a step up from the current $10-$15 article sites.
I’m a journalism major, and all my internships are unpaid. I’m just starting to look for freelance work, besides the above mentioned sites, could you tell me of any other sites that pay minimum $10?
Also do you know any freelance site where people send you questions and you can answer, more specifically and advice opining? even if it’s unpaid.
I appreciate it.
Seed.com is a huge waste of freelance writers time. This is how it really works. They put up an article, for example “Best iPhone Apps For Business” they then put a deadline, lets say 25 days, then they accept as many articles about that article until the deadline then choose the best to publish. This means a writer at the start could wait 5-7 days past that time to find out if their article is published or rejected, so over 1 months for a 25-150 dollar article. It takes less time to pitch an article and write it for a major publication sometimes! On top of it all they have the option to only pay rev share for your article if they choose, instead of the amount they offer to own the article. DS at least gets articles up fast, even if the top articles are 15 dollars a pop.