News Break $1000 Fixed Payout Contract Is Now Only a Dream

When Newsbreak announced its creator program in Oct ’20, no one believed it was real. Everyone was in doubt and skeptical of the offer. The offering was too good to be true.

In a world with battered economies, pay cuts and job losses, Newsbreak seemed to be out of its mind to offer a fixed $1000 per month contract to writers for 12 articles.

The offer was a cakewalk for the more established writers on platforms like Medium, Vocal and Substack. With just 15–20 minutes of copy-paste, their old articles were being posted on Newsbreak and enjoying a certain amount of views, helping them qualify for the monthly payout.

The offer was too good to resist, so I applied for it in November, only to be shown the door on the 10th day of application. While I was disappointed and wrote a story on it, it didn’t surprise me to be rejected. With a profile of 9 articles in two months on Medium, it was no surprise that they kicked me out for being over-ambitious.

Just as I was thinking of reapplying for the program, the new policy update from Newsbreak shattered my dream. The $1000 payout offer had ended, and the new updates made it difficult for a beginner like me to achieve that amount of cash.

Why did News Break change its policy? Was it a wrong strategy and did they suffer losses?

The grapevine is full of rumors about News Break’s failed strategy and that some suggest that Newsbreak has gone bankrupt because of huge payouts and hence changing the policy to cut their losses.

There is also skepticism on whether News Break will survive against the old competitors and should writers continue writing on this platform.

In reality, there has been no such official announcement from News Break. It is a big player in the News space and is trying to leverage its existing user base to grow in the future.

It doesn’t seem to be a strategic mistake. On the contrary, it looks like an excellent marketing plan to gain some instant publicity. News Break wanted to stand out from the other prominent players in the market and grow fast.

The $1000 may have led to a fair amount of cash outflows, but these can be considered marketing expenditures as an investment. What News Break achieved was a name in an overly crowded market. It attracted established writers from various fields and generated a lot of quality content for its viewers.

The experiment would also give News Break a fair amount of data with critical insights, and this will help them design their future strategies for the growth of their platform.

What are the key changes in News Break’s new policy?

In simple terms, Newsbreak is scrapping its $1000 fixed payout contracts from 1st April 2021. The existing writers on the old contract will get a pop-up to accept the new terms.

You are allowed to skip this invitation till 31st March 2021 and continue with your old contract. But post 1st April 2021, you will have to accept the new terms or write for free, i.e., you will not be paid for your content if you have not accepted the new contract — continue if you want to do some social service.

So what happens to writers who have not completed the 3-month term on the old fixed payout contract? As per Newsbreak support, the old contract will cease to exist for all creators post 1st April. So if you were lucky to sign the contract in Feb ’21, you would only get two payouts

(Feb’21 and Mar’21) provided you complete the requirements of the old contract. You can only get paid for the 3rd month of April ’21 as per the new terms.

What are the monetization terms of the new contract?

The new monetization policy has a new structure. The $ 1000 fixed payout goes out of the window. Instead, the writers will earn a minimum base pay for each accepted article for the first three months. This base payout will range from $25 to $60, depending upon your content quality.

So while you used to get $1000 for 12 articles a month, you now need to submit 40 articles to earn the same amount from April onwards. Also, there will be a monthly cap of $1500 on the base payout.

Does that mean I need to submit more than three times the stories to get my $1000?

The simple base pay calculation may suggest this to be right, but other revenue generation methods may increase your earning ability.

No. Because, other than the base pay, you also get paid for views. Depending on the CV score your story gets, you can be paid upwards of $4 per 1000 views. So while a CV score of 1–4 may get you around $4, you may earn upto $10 for CV score ranging between 5–10.

The new contract’s silver lining is that there is no weekly or monthly terms on the number of articles to be submitted for being eligible for a payout.

What is this CV score being referred to in the new Newsbreak policy?

CV refers to Content Value score. The CV score is an essential parameter in defining your earnings, and so its important you understand it.

As per the News Break Creator program, “The CV score was developed to help feature and reward quality, original, diverse and local content.”

The CV score is directly related to the base pay and revenue share (views) of your articles on News Break. The higher the score, the better is your earning potential from your stories.

How to increase your CV score on News Break?

CV score is dependent on multiple parameters with varied weightage to each of them.

Local Content- As per the current algorithm, localized content will get you the highest CV score. News Break’s mission is to connect local users to local news, local content creators, and local businesses. Since News Break is currently operating in the US, local US-related topics will gain you the most significant boost in CV score.

Length and Readability- News Break suggests articles with 600+ words are considered better for CV scores. A well-written article with 600+ words will help you achieve a higher CV score than the shorter ones.

Precise and Accurate articles- You need to attribute the content owner for your inspiration. But this doesn’t mean that you are allowed to copy the story word to word. You still have to provide originality in your content.

Unique Content- Any writing platform appreciates the originality and uniqueness of articles, and News Break is nothing different. You will get a good CV score if you have an original topic and content.

Writing Style- Similar to some publication rules on Medium, News Break wants you to use quality images and multimedia in your stories. Using the text formatting and breaking your stories into smaller paragraphs will help you gain more views and a good CV score.

Do we still earn for Referrals under the new policy?

Referrals are one place where the new policy scores overs its precedent.

You no longer need your referrals to complete 100 articles and 500 followers to get paid for them, which was a significant barrier.

As per the new terms, you will get paid $50 for every referral who writes at least 1 article or upload a video. Any referral who contributes 50 articles or 30 videos would earn you a bonus of $200.

Isn’t it more rewarding and exciting!

Key Takeaways

Will I continue to contribute to News Break? Now that we know the new policy terms, the big question is whether one should continue on News Break -or say bye-bye and return to your old love — Medium, Vocal, etc.

I would decide to continue on News Break as a side hustle. There is no harm in spending 10–15 minutes copy-pasting your old articles from other platforms and blogs on News Break.

We writers spend a lot of time and effort in drafting stories, and it’s heartbreaking when it fails to generate any audience.

News Break can help here. Writers who have published on News Break have received some viral views for articles lying idle in their old profiles. Mostly, topics like life experiences and learnings, which rarely succeed on platforms like Medium, have been doing well on News Break.

Good opportunity to earn from the simplified referral program- The new referral program has a simplified approach. If you have an existing audience or follower base, it will get you some good moolah. So get your referral link and start sharing right away.

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