The Canadian Business article, “The Rise of Churnalism” by Cindy Waxer is a fantastic article about content mills, specifically Suite101. Although the writer takes a balanced approach to the topic, it’s hard to read the article without being concerned about Suite101′s business model.
Most concerning to me, both as a writer and a reader, is this closing paragraph (I’m side-stepping the part about the full-time freelancer who makes $90 a month from the site, but feel free to focus on that, too):
“Berger says that while Suite101.com’s articles aren’t fact-checked for veracity or correctness, editors rely on readers to alert them to errors. He points to the time a relative of Henry Heimlich contacted Suite101.com to point out that an article on the Heimlich manoeuvre contained outdated information that is ‘now actually considered dangerous’.”
Consider this statement from two angles.
First, as a writer: Do you really want to write for an organization that relies on readers to point out inaccuracies? Sure, inaccuracies happen in writing, even with the best fact-checkers. But the audience shouldn’t be relied on to find errors. That’s the job of the writer/editor/fact checkers. An article should be as accurate as possible before it’s published, not kind of accurate until the readers notify the site that the information is incorrect.
Second and possibly more concerning: In the above example of the Heimlich manoeuvre, what if someone had followed the advice on Suite101 and harmed someone else doing an improper Heimlich? Who would have the liability in this case? As a writer, I’d be terrified of writing for an organization that so willingly allows information that could be incorrect to be published, especially when I’m probably the one who will be sued in the end.
Now, consider it from the reader’s perspective: Do you really want to read articles from a site that doesn’t care if the information is accurate? If you don’t want to read the site, why would you write for it?
You might read the closing paragraph and think, “So? I’m very careful about checking all my facts and ensuring my writing is entirely accurate. That won’t affect me.”
If this is true, then why would you want to write for an organization that doesn’t appear to care about having accurate information in the articles? You’re better off to align yourself with a company or organization that cares about getting all the facts straight.
Furthermore, you may start off being an incredibly conscientious writer who ensures all her facts are straight all the time. But can you keep that up if you’re required to write 100-150 articles a month? Writing that many articles on tight deadlines can lead to missed words and inaccurate information, both of which decrease your credibility as a writer.
The above article shows that not only are content mills not paying writers nearly well enough, they’re also lowering standards for how articles are researched and written. If you want to be a highly-regarded professional writer, you must adhere to high standards of researching and writing; and you can’t be seen to contribute to lowered standards for either.
