What’s up with the News Break App Writers Keeps Talking About
By: Jessica Lynn
Tags: Newsbreak, Writing, Creativity, Money, Social Media

Last week I had the opportunity to join News Break. The platform is recruiting writers to increase their readership and fill out their “Creator Program.” The offer had been sitting in my spam box for two weeks. Luckily I saw the “hey didn’t you see our first email” email, and I signed the contract that came with the offer.

What is News Break?

News Break is a media app by China’s media veteran Jeff Zhen and Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc., with teams in Beijing, Shanghai, Seattle, and Mountain View, CA.

“Positioned as a news aggregator focused on local reporting, the platform surged to be the third-most downloaded U.S. iOS app across the board in mid-March this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.” according to Techcrunch.com

Jeff Zheng, the CEO, headed up Yahoo Labs, where he oversaw algorithm improvement in search, media, advertising, and mobile. He left in 2011 and started News Break in 2015 after he found success with Yidian Zixun, “the Beijing-based startup seen early on as the main rival of Toutiao, the hit news app that made ByteDance a household name in China before Douyin emerged. Together with other algorithm-driven news apps, the duo changed the habits of hundreds of millions in China from consuming human-curated news to machine-recommended content with minimal human oversight.”

News Break is Zheng’s effort to replicate Yidian Zixun’s success in foreign markets.

Basically, News Break is a popular app for iPhone and Android that aggregates local news based on the user’s location. News can also be selected in different categories such as politics, health, entertainment, science, culture, etc.

News Break is now adding content creators to their “Creator Program”

According to their about page, under the headline, “Local Content Creators,” it reads,

We work with thousands of local publishers and content creators to ensure you have access to the best local news sources and perspectives.

You have to apply to be a writer

You can’t just join the program. You have to fill out a ten-minute application form that is really simple, and then you must be accepted. I linked a couple of my viral Medium stories, my Twitter account, and my Medium profile where I have hundreds of stories.

Once accepted, you sign a contract. I was approved within a couple of days, but I have heard it can take up to 5–7 days to be approved.

What can you publish?

Nearly anything. Except for poetry and fiction. Articles must be 1000 words plus, and photos and accompanying research cited properly. No gratuitous sexual content, violence, conspiracy theories, or hate speech.

Since I was accepted to the program, I’ve been doing a lot of cutting and pasting. I can use the “command C” and “command V” keys now without even looking (adding a few tweaks and modifications to my previous work and headlines to fit the News Break app and content they are looking for). I’m playing around with the app and experimenting to see what resonates with readers of News Break.

You can find News Break’s content policy here.

Payment potential

You have to meet specific benchmarks laid out in the contract. Once you do, you are guaranteed payment of $1000 per month. I don’t know of anyone who has been paid yet; the program just started on October 15, 2020.

For most creators, the criteria consist of writing three articles per week for a total of twelve a month. They must be approved and remain on the site. You must have 500 followers by the end of the month and average a specific number of views per article by the end of the month (for now, it is 500 views per article).

The differences between Medium and News Break (they are both social media platforms)

#1 Payment

Payment on Medium is determined by the viewer’s read time.

Payment on News Break is based on how many page views and followers you get at a set amount.

There is a referral program and, thus, full disclosure, I include my referral link here.

If you want to be a creator, you can use the link here. If you do, I earn money! Yay.

If you want to check out News Break by downloading the app and see if you like what they offer, click here. I earn money! YAY.

As a contributor, you earn money when a reader downloads the app or when you bring talent (creators) to the site. I like how they refer to their program as the “Creator Program.” I’ve considered myself a writer since I could hold a pen, but in the last year and a half, I’ve called myself a creator as well.

We are all creators, whether we know it or not.

#2. Advertisements

I’ll publish on News Break, as well as posting on Medium regularly, but I’ll read on Medium and most likely won’t on News Break.

The beauty of Medium is there are no ads, which allows for a pleasant and visually stunning experience.

As someone who has a mild case of OCD, is a slow reader, and is distracted easily by pop-ups, I cannot stand ads of any kind, even embedded within the text. It is why I read actual books. When I’m reading online, if I click a link that takes me to Forbes.com (the most offensive site when it comes to the number of ads they bombard us with), I have to resist the urge to hurl my computer across the room. I can’t get off Forbes fast enough. I will continue to read here.

#3 The audience

I have heard from other writers that the comments from the audience on News Break are mean and rude. That’s OK. I have trouble keeping up with the comments from readers on Medium. In the year and a half I’ve been writing here, I have had maybe 10 negative comments. I enjoy writing back to my audience because if someone has taken the time to write something on a post I wrote, they deserve a comment back. I’m not always great at this, but I make an effort.

During the lead up to the 2016 election, I was on Twitter. I’ve read the most horrible, life-threatening comments. I have thick skin because of it.

When it comes to negative comments, don’t play. There is a difference between constructive feedback (which I welcome) and a nasty comment for the sake of being nasty. I usually do not respond at all. Here is the thing, in my experience, if some A-hole is going to leave a negative comment on your work that took you guts and balls to write, they’re not worth the time to respond to or give any mental bandwidth to. Usually, they’re a person who would never dare to put their thoughts and work into the world.

I will have no problem ignoring comments.

#4. Clickbait headlines!

You can use clickbait until your heart is content; in fact, News Break encourages it.

My take on clickbait: I didn’t know I was using clickbait when I started writing on Medium. My best performing piece on this platform is titled The One Book That Will Change Your Life. I wrote that headline because it was the one book that changed my life. I don’t overpromise and underdeliver when I choose a headline like that one. I prove the case in my article with opinions and observations. I don’t just want you to click. I want you to stay and read — that’s the point — and that starts with a great headline.

The strictness with which Medium is cracking down on clickbait is a little extreme. There is such a fine line. My early work on Medium with sort of clickbaity titles will work well on News Break and have thus far.

#5. The editor

In News Break, the editor is not as friendly as it could be. It is a little glitchy, especially when inserting an image. It doesn’t have ease of use yet, and not many options.

I also found a few errors in the information packet writers can download when accepted to the program. I thought it comical because it is a document talking about writing and not making errors.

Final thoughts

There is something satisfying about posting on a new website you have never been on before, and your second published post gets 14 shares and 126 page views — for a writer, that’s pure satisfaction.

The stats News Break offers are well detailed and fun to look at; when an audience reads your work when they don’t even know your name, it is a creator’s dream.

Upshot

I’m going to keep writing on Medium and taking writing seriously. I want to improve. I’m also going to try News Break on for size and see what comes of it.

Stay tuned, I’ll let you know about the payout.

More eyeballs are more eyeballs, and News Break has a lot of them. That is what we want as writers — to be read. If anything, it might grow my readership.

Thank you for reading. Write on.