This is another Demand Studios blog post. If you’d rather not read about them, feel free to move on. We won’t be upset, we promise. I do feel this is important news, otherwise I wouldn’t bombard you with two DS posts in the same week.
Full disclosure: Demand Studios is a sponsor for this blog. However, I am in no way required to blog about them, comment about them on other blogs, Tweet about them or promote them beyond some basic advertising and conference promotion. However, they’ve been sharing some great news with me and I feel like sharing it with you today.
Whenever I read articles against Demand Studios, I get a little perturbed by some of the inaccuracies. I mean, I get how some writers will be upset about the pay or the algorithm model, but it bugs me that they take it out on the writers and suggest the writing isn’t “quality.”
As someone who knows a lot about what goes on behind the scenes at Demand Studios I can tell you the The Powers That Be at DS hear what others are saying about them and they’re working to change for the better. For example, they began raising rates for their writers. More than 50 writers have been accepted into a higher earning program and more have received invitations this week. This is an ongoing program so DS’ top writers are receiving a significant pay increase for their effort.
Demand Studios is also working to dispel the myth that their writers churn out crap. Anyone who works for Demand Studios knows that all writers must undergo a rigorous screening process and most writers aren’t accepted into the program. Moreover, all articles go through an editorial process and those that are grammatically and/or factually incorrect are sent back for revision or rejected outright.
Demand Studios took one more step in ensuring quality, they appointed an editorial advisory board. From the press release:
One of the Internet’s largest publishers of original text and video content, announces the formation of its Editorial Advisory Board to provide counsel on the ongoing development of the company’s content and programming efforts. The company will leverage members’ insights, expertise and strategic guidance in all matters related to the ways the company’s content is created, experienced and shared by consumers. The Board will also work closely with company executives and Demand Media’s community of thousands of professional freelancers to further pioneer innovation in new media.
The advisory board includes:
Charter members of the company’s Editorial Advisory Board include: UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Dean Teri Schwartz; Society of Professional Journalists President Kevin Z. Smith; Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, Ernest James Wilson III, Ph.D.; and former President and CEO of Lifetime Networks, Andrea Wong. Guided by the Editorial Advisory Board, Demand Media will further harness and expand the intelligence gained over the last three years in creating content that is “unequivocally useful,” to consumers in its growing business online and beyond.
Stay tuned for more good news from Demand Studios
Good for them! I so dislike it when people bash any of these sites…each writer must find his own best set of clients, and if writing for Demand Studios works for his goals, I say go for it.
My point exactly. Especially if they enjoy what they’re doing.
I’m ok with DS, but I know all about those kinds of committees, having worked at a University under a prestigious scientist who was on those kinds of committees. I hope they get more done that the ones my boss was on!
cool about the promotions.
.-= allena´s last blog ..Multiple Streams of Income =-.
I was invited to participate in a board of advisers for one content site but turned it down. I often wonder if the advisers really advise or if they’re looking for the name. In the case of DS they will be meeting once per month to discuss content, etc., so I’m hopeful.
This is Jeremy from Demand. Give me the advantage of speaking not on behalf of Demand, but on behalf of myself. Fair questions were brought up above re: creating a ‘vanity’ Board. Like everyone we work with, we wanted people we could learn from but also that felt they could learn from us. Deb, though not on the Board, is a prime example. Just two weeks ago, I threw out questions about blogging to Deb because we wanted to improve the look, feel and tools of our own blog. And, I respect her blog as a model.
Here’s one example re: the Board selection process. We had several emails/conversations with Dean Wilson of USC. Fascinating conversations about what we were doing, what his department was doing … and where we both wanted to go. I learned so much, in so little time. Today, he’s involved in one of our editors going to speak to potential interns on the USC campus. My hope, and the way that we are structuring it, is that our writers, filmmakers, copy editors will get to learn from these thinkers/doers. And, in turn, it will inform them as they influence students, other educators and people in general.
(Plus my fiancee graduated from USC’s program. So, I hoping to get some extra points at home.)