"Valnet is one of the few digital media conglomerates that seems to be doing
well for itself in 2026. We recently learned it paid $20 million to acquire
Polygon from Vox last year, to run it like a ”digital media sweatshop,” just
like all their other niche news sites. Now, it’s trying to figure out ways to
stiff its writers entirely.
Kotaku reports that contractors for their site
TheGamer were presented with
new contracts that would pay on a sliding scale based on the performance of the
articles they wrote for the site. The scale pays out better for high performing
articles, but it bottoms out at zero. If the piece doesn’t get enough clicks
(meaning less than 1,000) the writer isn’t paid at all.
The site’s staff — or their contractors, who make up almost the entirety of the
site, meaning they’d all be subject to these new contracts — are reportedly in
“open revolt”. One speculated this is really a “soft-layoff” to shut the site
down entirely."
At
Garbage Day: Brooklynites posted their way to a new bus, kinda
<
https://www.garbageday.email/p/brooklynites-posted-their-way-to-a-new-bus-kinda>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
