writing news articles for websites

Writing News Stories for the Web

Learn how to write for online news

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• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.S., Journalism, Columbia University
• B.A., Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Journalism’s future is clearly online, so it’s important for any aspiring journalist to learn the basics of writing for the web. Newswriting and web writing are similar in many ways, so if you’ve done news stories, learning to write for the web shouldn’t be hard.

Here are some tips to help you learn how to get started writing for online news.

Keep It Short

People generally read slower from a computer or phone screen than on paper. So if newspaper stories need to be short, online stories need to be even shorter. A general rule of thumb: Web content should have about half as many words as its printed equivalent.

So keep your sentences short and limit yourself to one main idea per paragraph. Short paragraphs look less imposing on a web page.

Break It Up

If you do have an article that’s on the long side, don’t try to cram it onto one web page. Break it up into several pages, using a clearly visible “continued on next page” link at the bottom.

Focus on SEO

Unlike newswriting, writing for the web has to take into consideration search engine optimization (SEO). You put in the work to write a great article, and you want people to see it online—this means following SEO best practices.

Research and apply Google’s content and technical guidelines for inclusion on the Google News page to ensure that your site’s articles pop up with other reputable publications. Incorporate relevant keywords and link to other articles within your site as well.

Write in the Active Voice

Remember the subject-verb-object model from newswriting? Use it for web writing as well. S-V-O sentences written in the active voice tend to be short, to the point, and clear.

Use the Inverted Pyramid

Summarize the main point of your article right at the start, just as you would in the lede of a news story . Put the most important information in the top half of your article, the less important details in the bottom half.

Highlight Key Words

Use boldface text to highlight especially important words and phrases. But use this sparingly; if you highlight too much text, nothing will stand out.

Use Bulleted and Numbered Lists

This is another way of highlighting important information and breaking up chunks of text that may be getting too long. Bulleted and numbered lists can help you organize details in a story in a way that is easily digestible for readers.

Use Subheads

This is key to the standard online journalism format. Subheads are another way to highlight points and break up text into user-friendly sections. Keep your subheads clear and informative so a reader can navigate the story or skim the page.

Use Hyperlinks Wisely

Use hyperlinks to bring readers extra, contextual information to your story. Keep in mind that it's best to hyperlink internally (to another page within your own site), and that if you can summarize the information succinctly without linking elsewhere, do so.

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How to Write a News Article

Last Updated: April 28, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,403,815 times.

Writing a news article is different from writing other articles or informative pieces because news articles present information in a specific way. It's important to be able to convey all the relevant information in a limited word count and give the facts to your target audience concisely. Knowing how to write a news article can help a career in journalism , develop your writing skills and help you convey information clearly and concisely.

Things You Should Know

• Outline your article with all the facts and interview quotes you’ve gathered. Decide what your point of view on the topic is before you start writing.
• Your first sentence is the most important one—craft an attention-getter that clearly states the most important information.
• Proofread for accurate information, consistent style and tone, and proper formatting.

Sample Articles

Planning Your Article

• If you’ve ever written a research paper you understand the work that goes into learning about your topic. The first phase of writing a news article or editorial is pretty similar.
• Who - who was involved?
• What - what happened?
• Where - where did it happen?
• Why - why did it happen?
• When - when did it happen?
• How - how did it happen?

• 1) those that need to be included in the article.
• 2) those that are interesting but not vital.
• 3) those that are related but not important to the purpose of the article.
• This fact list will help prevent you from leaving out any relevant information about the topic or story, and will also help you write a clean, succinct article.
• Be as specific as possible when writing down all of these facts. You can always trim down unnecessary information later, but it’s easier to cut down than it is to have to beef up an article.
• It’s okay at this point to have holes in your information – if you don’t have a pertinent fact, write down the question and highlight it so you won’t forget to find it out
• Now that you have your facts, if your editor has not already assigned the type of article, decide what kind of article you’re writing. Ask yourself whether this is an opinion article, an unbiased and straightforward relaying of information, or something in between. [2] X Research source

• If you’ve ever heard the term “burying the lead”, that is in reference to the structure of your article. [4] X Research source The “lead” is the first sentence of the article – the one you “lead” with. Not "burying the lead" simply means that you should not make your readers read several paragraphs before they get to the point of your article.
• Whatever forum you’re writing for, be it print or for the web, a lot of readers don’t make it to the end of the article. When writing a news article, you should focus on giving your readers what they want as soon as possible.
• Write above the fold. The fold comes from newspapers where there’s a crease because the page gets folded in half. If you look at a newspaper all the top stories are placed above the fold. The same goes for writing online. The virtual fold is the bottom of your screen before you have to scroll down. Put the best information at the top to engage your readers and encourage them to keep reading.

• Ask yourself the “5 W's” again, but this time in relation to your audience.
• Questions like what is the average age you are writing for, where is this audience, local or national, why is this audience reading your article, and what does your audience want out of your article will inform you on how to write.
• Once you know who you are writing for you can format an outline that will get the best information to the right audience as quickly as possible.

• Even if you are covering a popular story or topic that others are writing about, look for an angle that will make this one yours.
• Do you have a personal experience that relates to your topic? Maybe you know someone who is an expert that you can interview .

• People usually like to talk about personal experiences, especially if it will be featured somewhere, like your news article. Reach out through a phone call, email, or even social media and ask someone if you can interview them.
• When you do interview people you need to follow a few rules: identify yourself as a reporter. Keep an open mind . Stay objective. While you are encouraged to ask questions and listen to anecdotes, you are not there to judge.
• Record and write down important information from the interview, and be transparent with what you are doing and why you are doing this interview.

Writing Your News Article

• Your lead should be one sentence and should simply, but completely, state the topic of the article.
• Remember when you had to write essays for school? Your lead is like your thesis statement.
• Let your readers know what your news article is about, why it’s important, and what the rest of the article will contain.

• These details are important, because they are the focal point of the article that fully informs the reader.
• If you are writing an opinion piece , this is where you will state what your opinion is as well.

• This additional information helps round out the article and can help you transition to new points as you move along.
• If you have an opinion, this is where you will identify the opposing views and the people who hold them.
• A good news article will outline facts and information. A great news article will allow readers to engage on an emotional level.
• To engage your readers, you should provide enough information that anyone reading your news article can make an informed opinion, even if it contrasts with yours.
• This also applies to a news article where you the author don’t state your opinion but present it as an unbiased piece of information. Your readers should still be able to learn enough about your topic to form an opinion.

• Make sure your news article is complete and finished by giving it a good concluding sentence. This is often a restatement of the leading statement (thesis) or a statement indicating potential future developments relating to the article topic.
• Read other news articles for ideas on how to best accomplish this. Or, watch news stations or shows. See how a news anchor will wrap up a story and sign off, then try to emulate that.

Proofing Your Article

• Be sure to double check all the facts in your news article before you submit it, including names, dates, and contact information or addresses. Writing accurately is one of the best ways to establish yourself as a competent news article writer.

• If your news article is meant to convey direct facts, not the opinions of its writer, ensure you’ve kept your writing unbiased and objective. Avoid any language that is overly positive or negative or statements that could be construed as support or criticism.
• If your article is meant to be more in the style of interpretive journalism then check to make sure that you have given deep enough explanations of the larger story and offered multiple viewpoints throughout.

• When quoting someone, write down exactly what was said inside quotations and immediately cite the reference with the person’s proper title. Formal titles should be capitalized and appear before a person’s name. Ex: “Mayor John Smith”.
• Always write out numbers one through nine, but use numerals for numbers 10 and up.
• When writing a news article, be sure to only include one space after a period, not two. [12] X Research source

• You shouldn’t submit any news article for publication without first letting someone take a look at it. An extra pair of eyes can double check your facts and the information to ensure that what you have written is accurate.
• If you are writing a news article for school or your own personal website, then have a friend take a look at it and give you notes. Sometimes you may get notes that you want to defend or don’t agree with it. But these should be listened to. Remember, with so many news articles getting published every minute you need to ensure that your widest possible audience can easily digest the information you have provided.

Expert Q&A

• Start with research and ask the “5. Asking these questions will help you create an outline and a narrative to your article. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Interview people, and remember to be polite and honest about what you are writing. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Put the most important information at the beginning of your article. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing an article, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

• ↑ https://libguides.mit.edu/select-topic
• ↑ https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/writing-resources/different-genres/news-writing-fundamentals
• ↑ https://libguides.southernct.edu/journalism/howtowrite
• ↑ https://spcollege.libguides.com/c.php?g=254319&p=1695313
• ↑ https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/cm360
• ↑ https://mediahelpingmedia.org/basics/how-to-find-and-develop-important-news-angles/
• ↑ https://www.northwestern.edu/brand/editorial-guidelines/newswriting-guidelines/
• ↑ https://tacomacc.libguides.com/c.php?g=599051&p=4147190
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/journalism_and_journalistic_writing/ap_style.html
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation/space-after-period
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

To write a news article, open with a strong leading sentence that states what the article is about and why it’s important. Try to answer the questions who, what, where, when, and why as early in the article as possible. Once you’ve given the reader the most important facts, you can include any additional information to help round out the article, such as opposing views or contact information. Finish with a strong concluding sentence, such as an invitation to learn more or a statement indicating future developments. For tips on researching your article, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Oct 21, 2017

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How to Write Online News Articles

By NBCU Academy

Learn story-writing tips from the NBC News Digital team.

How do you write great online news articles? Learn about writing style and the elements of a news article from Julie Shapiro, assistant managing editor for NBC News Digital Enterprise. 

Journalistic writing should clearly inform the reader about a noteworthy event or development. Reporters should write online news stories in a way that’s engaging enough to keep the reader’s attention while also delivering the important facts. The following are the essential elements.

The story should begin in an interesting way that is directly tied to the main point. This is usually referred to as a “lede” or “lead.” Readers have a lot of competition for their attention, so the story needs to grab them immediately. Use a dramatic anecdote, a surprising fact or an important breaking news update. 

The nut graph     

The nut graph is the heart of the story. It explains what the news is about, why it’s timely and why readers should care. The nut graph can be one sentence or several paragraphs and should include the answers to who, what, when, where and why. It often places the new developments in context by describing the bigger picture. 

The body       

After the lede and nut graph, the rest of the story should start to fall into place. Rely on expert voices, analysis and key details.  

Quotes       

Quotes can be powerful, but use them sparingly so that they stand out. In general, a writer can paraphrase a point better than a character can. A good quote does more than just convey information — it can add color, drama and depth. 

Selective details   

The rest of the story expands on the points made in the nut graph. Informative details could include examples, scenes and background information or sensory descriptions of the news scene. But choose wisely — too much detail can make the reader lose interest.

Clear writing       

Write without jargon, and keep sentences clear and direct. If a sentence needs to be read more than once to understand its meaning, trim it down or take it out. Don’t include words or phrases that would be unfamiliar to most readers. 

The kicker  

End with something memorable. A short breaking news story may not need a formal ending, or kicker, but most stories should end with something memorable. A punchy quote is a good option. Other options include a forward-looking line on what’s next for an issue or character, or one last memorable takeaway for the reader. 

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Copywriting

How to write an article for website publication

Read Time 11 mins | Written by: Gill Fernley

If you’re not familiar with content writing, you might not realise that there are completely different approaches depending on whether you’re writing a press release, sales copy, a website page, or an article for a website.

There are many reasons for that, but one of the main reasons is that every piece of content you write should have a particular content goal. For example, the goal of a press release will be very different than the goal of an article.

In fact, you really shouldn’t write any content at all for either a client’s site or your own until you know what the aim is for the piece. Which brings us nicely to the first point in this article on how to write an article for website publication.

Follow these steps and you will have a professional article to pitch or submit:

1. Follow the brief and house style

If you don’t get a brief and you’re not sure what to do, check out Copify’s blog post on how to write the perfect brief . Take a look at the post and then you can work out what questions to ask your client. Some companies you're pitching to or writing for may also specify a house style in their submission guidelines. 

Once you have your brief, pay particular attention to the goal the client has for the article, and keep that in mind as you write. You’ll write a whole different article if it’s aimed as a promo article to get the client’s audience to buy than you will if you’re writing epic content to establish your client as an expert in their field.

Top Tip: If your potential client doesn’t give you a proper brief and won’t sign a contract that covers your fee, how many edits, and other important terms and conditions, consider very quickly dropping them like a particularly dodgy, hot potato!

2. Keep the target audience top of mind

After establishing the goal of the article, the most important thing is who the target audience is. The more you know about the audience for the piece, the more you can shape what you write to suit them.

Think that doesn’t matter? Imagine writing an article that’s aimed at millennials who are into rap music and think about what language you’d use and what popular references. Then imagine the same article but this time it’s aimed at retirees who are downsizing.

You’d use completely different language, wouldn’t you? You’d know that both of those audiences have a different outlook, different problems and different aims in life, and you’d write accordingly.

That’s why knowing your target audience thoroughly really matters. You need to know what their problems are, their likes and dislikes, what kind of language they use, what solutions they want, and what really matters to them.

3. Think about language and tone of voice

They might cover that in their brief, or they might give you a copy of their brand manual so you can follow their guidelines.

If you look at the content on Ash Ambirge’s site (language warning!), for example, you can see it’s vibrant, fun, humorous, and definitely not shy and retiring. If you wrote for that site, you know you wouldn’t get away with sounding like a stereotypical accountant with the word ‘procedure’ stamped all the way through him like a stick of rock!

The contrast in tone of voice between different sites and types of business can be marked, so you really do need to stick to the client’s preferences.

4. Write a great headline

There are almost 2 billion websites on the internet right now. And counting!

That means you need to get attention in a very crowded arena, and the way you do that is by writing an amazing headline that your target market can’t ignore.

We’re back to knowing your audience as you’ll need to know exactly the right language to appeal to them. But there are some other tips to consider when writing an eye-catching headline:

• Use active voice, rather than passive voice, and use strong and emotional verbs and words. You’ll give your writing more energy that way, and your audience is more likely to click.

• Put a benefit in your headline. Why should your audience click through?

• Don’t use a ridiculous click-bait headline to get attention, unless that’s the type of thing that will appeal to your audience. And if you do that, make sure the content matches your headline or your audience will feel cheated and click away.

• Use at least one keyword that you want your article to rank for in the headline. It’s great for SEO!

• Numbers written as digits are very eye-catching, and more likely to make people click. You can use them to highlight benefits, such as ‘15% off today’, or to tell the audience exactly what they’re getting, for example, ‘7 steps to baking the perfect cake’. That way, they know the article isn’t going to be pages and pages long, and they know exactly what it will do for them.

5. Have a linking strategy

Internal linking is when you link to other posts and pages on your own site, and external linking is linking to other websites.

Internal linking is brilliant for your search engine optimisation as it helps the search engines find their way around your site and map it. They also look at how many internal links a page has to weigh how important it is.

External linking also helps with SEO. Linking to helpful material on another site is a good way for you to come across as an authority, both to your audience and the search engines. And external links can also help the search engines work out what your content and your site are about. You can also tag sites that you’ve mentioned in your articles on social media, and you may get some likes and shares from that, and also start building a relationship with them.

6. Add an attention-grabbing call to action (CTA)

Remember that you have a goal for your piece of content? This is where you can guide the audience to take the action to meet that goal.

You might want them to sign up to the client’s newsletter, read more information, get a quote, download a freebie, or even buy something, and a call to action can make that happen, if it’s well written.

Writing a great CTA is similar in many ways to writing an eye-catching headline, so follow the tips above to create a strong CTA that will get attention.

In addition, make sure you allow plenty of white space around the CTA and use a colour that stands out on the page to draw attention.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to create attention-grabbing articles that deliver for both your client and their audience.

Image Credits

Main image credit: Tirachard Kumtanom

Internal image credits: rawpixel.com ,  meo ,  Vojtech Okenka

Gill Fernley

The director of her own copywriting firm, Gill writes B2B and B2C content for SMEs and digital marketing agencies. She has a background in performing arts and writes conversational, direct sales copy for businesses on a range of topics. She’s also a keen writer of chick lit.

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How To Write a News Article (+4 Tools, Examples & Template)

By Dmytro Spilka

Nov 6, 2019

By the late 1400s, the printing press had been perfected, and Germany began publishing pamphlets containing news content. Realising the power of printed news, several papers in London became popularised in the years following 1621.

Almost 400 years later, the transition from print to online has had a profound impact on the way we consume news and subsequently, how we create it. You’ve probably already noticed that the morning paper covers the news that was instantaneously delivered to your mobile device the night before.

The nature of online news reporting allows journalists to simultaneously watch an event unfold and update their readers in real-time. Both print and online news articles aim to discuss current or recent news in local happenings, politics, business, trade, technology and entertainment.

Typically, a news article on any topic and at any level will contain 5 vital components for success . This is what separates news-article writing from other forms of writing.

1. Headline

These 5-12 words should deliver the gist of the whole news. In most cases, it’s important not to play with words or to be too cryptic. A news article headline should be clear and succinct and tell the reader what the article is about. Should they find the topic interesting, they will probably read the article.

Whilst headlines should be clear and matter-of-fact, they should also be attention-grabbing and compelling. According to some sources, eight out of ten people will read headline copy and only two will continue to read the rest of the article (Campaign). So, if 80% of people are unlikely to ever make it past the headline, there is plenty of room to spend extra time in crafting the perfect headline for your news article.

This BBC headline definitely makes people give it a second look. At first glance, you probably noticed the words “Goat” and “Ronald Reagan” and wondered what on earth has brought this farm animal and 80s U.S. president to exist within the same sentence- let alone the same headline . Closer inspection lets the reader know that the article is about goats’ helping to save the Presidential library in the California fires. Most would want to know how, so they read on.

Put simply, this string of words tells people who wrote the article and is usually prefaced by the word ‘by’. This component really depends on the company you write for. Whilst most magazines and newspapers use bylines to identify journalists, some don’t. The Economist, for example, maintains a historical tradition where bylines are omitted and journalists remain anonymous. In such cases, the news article reflects the publication as a whole.

3. Lead paragraph

This is the section to get straight down to the facts and there is no time for introductions. A lead paragraph must be constructed to attract attention and maintain it. To do this, the basic news points and facts should be relayed without digressing into detail or explanation. Those are forthcoming in the next section of the article.

Included in the lead are what journalists refer to as the 5 Ws: Who, what, when, where and why. To some extent, by simply stating each W, some form of lead is automatically formed. For example; “ An off duty nurse and paramedic used a makeshift tourniquet to save the life of British tourist whose foot was bitten off by a shark in Australia on Tuesday”.

• Who – an off duty nurse and paramedic and a British tourist
• What – built a makeshift tourniquet
• When – Tuesday 29th October 2019 (article published Wednesday 30th October 2019)
• Where – Australia
• Why – to save the life of the British tourist

This should conclude your lead paragraph and have your readers engaged and interested to learn more about the news. Resist the temptation to include additional details about the event as they have no place here. Structure is everything and you wouldn’t want to mess up the flow of the overall piece.

4. Explanation/discussion

A good place to start when writing the paragraph that follows your lead is to jump into the shoes of your readers and think about what they might want to know next. What are the factors that seem obscure, or most fascinating and is there scope to delve into more explanatory detail to put it into the wider context?

To do this well, the writer must have access to the answers to these questions.

Expanding on the details of your 5 Ws is all about providing in-depth coverage on all the important aspects of your news. Here, you should reflect on your first-hand information. Add relevant background information that explores the wider context. In other words, consider whether this story has implications on anything else.

Include supporting evidence in this section. This can take the form of quotations from people involved or opinions of industry experts. Referring to credible sources in your news article will add value to the information you publish and help to validate your news.

Ensure that the use of your quotations add value and are informative. There is little use in providing a quote that doesn’t shed light on new information. If the point has been made clear in your lead paragraph – there is no need to repeat it here.

For example, “An off duty nurse saved the life of a British tourist’, said Police Chief John Adams.” This quote tells the reader what they already know as this is the information stated in the lead.

Rather, “It was a long way back to shore and if he continued to bleed that much all the way back I’m not sure he’d have made it” – said Emma Andersson, off duty nurse.’ The inclusion of this quote gives a deeper insight into the severity of the incident and adds value to the article.

5. Additional information

This space is reserved for information of less relevance. For example, if the news article is too long, get the main points down in the preceding paragraphs and then make a note of the trivial details. This part can also include information about similar events or facts that somewhat relate to the news story.

What makes a news article so powerful

The ultimate aim of a news article is to relay information in a specific way that is entertaining, informative, easily digestible and factual . For a news article to be effective, it should incorporate a range of writing strategies to help it along. It should be:

Active not passive

Writing in the active tense creates a more personal link between the copy and the reader. It’s more conversational and has been found to engage the audience more. It also requires fewer words, so shorter and snappier sentences can be formed.

For example “A British tourist’s life was saved by an off duty nurse” is longer and less colloquial than “An off duty nurse saved a British tourists’ life”. The latter is easily understood, more conversational and reads well.

Positive, not negative

Whilst it is true that certain publications might use language to swing the sentiment of their copy, news should give the reader the information they need to inform their own opinion . The best way to do this is to avoid being both negative or positive. A neutral tone reads well and draws attention to key issues.

It’s often more effective if your news article describes something that is actually happening rather than something that’s not. For example, rather than stating that “the government has decided not to introduce the planned tuition funding for university students this academic year” a more palatable account of the event would be “the government has abandoned plans to fund university tuition this academic year”.

Quote accurately

We now know that the use of quotations belongs in your explanatory paragraph. They validate what you’ve said and inject emotion and sentiment to your copy. But what makes a good quote? And how and when are they useful?

Writers should be able to differentiate between effective and ineffective quotes. They should also appreciate that a poorly selected quote placed in an inappropriate paragraph has the power to kill the article.

Consider who you are quoting. Is their opinion of interest to your readers? Quotes that are too long can grind on your reader’s attention. Especially if they are from bureaucrats, local politicians or generally just boring people with nothing significant to say. Rather, the shorter and snappier the quote, the better. Bald facts, personal experiences or professional opinions can add character and depth to the facts you’ve already laid out.

Direct quotes provide actuality. And Actuality provides your article with validation. Speeches and reports are a great source of quotes by people that matter to your story. Often such reports and transcripts can be long and tiresome documents. Great journalistic skill is to be able to find a usable quote and shorten it to make it more comprehensible. Second to this skill is to know precisely when the actual words used by a person should be quoted in full.

Remember, people ‘say’ things when they speak. They don’t “exclaim, interject, assert or opine”. Therefore, always use the word “said” when attributing a quote. For example, “three arrests were made on the scene” said PC Plum.

Sound use of adjectives

The golden rule here is that adjectives should not raise questions in the reader’s mind, rather they should answer them. Naturally, an adjective raises further questions. For example:

• ‘Tall’ – how tall?
• ‘Delightful’ – according to whom?
• ‘Massive’ – relative to what?

Unless followed by further information, adjectives can be subjective. However, this isn’t always bad. If they contribute to the relevance of the story, keep them. Just be sure to ponder each one as to whether they raise more questions in the reader’s mind.

Lastly, it’s always better to approach news-style writing directly and specifically. Use words like ‘gold, glitter, silver,’ instead of ‘bright and sparkly’. Being specific isn’t dull or boring. It allows readers’ to follow the article with a more accurate understanding of the news. Vagueness does not.

No Jargon or abbreviations

Those working in an organisation or specific industry will often take for granted the fact they’re surrounded by jargon. It’s a convenient and efficient way to communicate with those who also understand it. These terms become somewhat of a secret language that acts to exclude those on the outside. This must be assumed at all times when writing news. There’s no telling whether an article on a new medical breakthrough will be read solely by medical practitioners and scientists. In fact, it almost certainly won’t be.

If readers feel lost in your article or have to look elsewhere for explanations and definitions of acronyms and abbreviations, it’s unlikely they’ll return. The rule here is to avoid them or explain them.

Be cautious with puns and cliches

Over and over you hear them and rarely do they evoke any positive response; cliches have no place in your news article. Yet, as for puns, lots of headline writers find these neat little linguistic phrases irresistible.

The problem is, they can be just as exclusive as unrecognisable jargon. References to the past that are well received by readers over 55 years old, means risking a large portion of readers being left out.

Is there a tasteful and refined way to use puns, cliches or metaphors ? Yes, but one always bears the risk of some readers not understanding and abandoning the article altogether. Take the following example:

The Sun’s headline “Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious” echoing Liverpool’s earlier “Super Cally goes ballistic, QPR atrocious”.

In all fairness, both are great puns and will have had most readers humming the Mary Poppins anthem all afternoon. But to fully appreciate this play on words, it helps to know that ‘Cally’  is the former footballer, Ian Callaghan and ‘Caley’ is the team Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Those with no interest or knowledge of football would have been immediately excluded from this article. However, given the fact that the article was clearly aimed at football enthusiasts or at least, fans, the aim was never to produce an all-inclusive article in the first place.

Write in plain English (make it easily digestible)

Articles written in plain English are easy to digest. This is especially important what discussing complex or technological news. Most readers won’t have the time to decipher cryptic or overly elaborate writing styles whilst keeping up with the news story being told.

Clear and unambiguous language, without technical or complex terms, should be used throughout. As the amount of news we consume each day has increased with the internet, mobile devices and push notifications, it is important to keep things simple. We now have the pleasure and task of retaining more news than ever before. This is easier to do when the news we consume is clear, succinct and written in plain English.

Be timely and up to date

News gets old fast. Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. So, timeliness in the news industry is imperative to its success. Similarly to freshly baked goods – news should be served fresh. Once it’s old and stale, nobody’s interested in it. Don’t, however, take the risk of serving it before it’s ready.

There is great skill attached to being a timely journalist. Capabilities must range from gathering research in good time, to writing content at speed and editing accurately under pressure. There are a few things you can do to help stay on top of the latest affairs and find time to write.

First, a conscious effort to stay up to date with news on all levels is necessary. That is international affairs, governmental, regional and local levels. You should have a solid awareness of ongoing issues and debates across all mediums. For example, If there’ve been developments on ongoing peace treaties, you should be able to pick up the news story as it is – without the need to revise the entire story.

It’s likely that you’ll be under the pressure of several tight deadlines. Don’t just keep them in mind, write them down. Keeping a content calendar is an effective way to organise your time and make sure you’re hitting all deadlines accordingly. Whether it’s your phone calendar or an actual deadline diary, a visual representation of time can help you distribute tasks and stick to a schedule.

Always be available when a press release comes your way. If you’re not there to cover the story, someone else will. Organise a backup just in case you’re unavailable to make sure all necessary information reaches you in emergency situations. Having such a plan in place can save time when it comes to researching and writing news articles. The writing process becomes easier when all the material is at hand.

Make it entertaining

A good news article will entertain its readers. To do so, the article should contain some human interest. In general, it’s been found that people are interested in the lives of other people. An article that appeals to the voyeuristic part of human nature is immediately entertaining.

For example, a flood in an empty building doesn’t have nearly as much human interest as a flood in a building full of people and belongings. Sad, but true. Simply because we identify with each other, we are interested in reading about each other too.

If your story has an interesting or relatable person at the heart of it, it should fuel your article . Tug at the emotional strings of your readers and make a connection between them and your story. Look hard enough, and you’ll find human interest everywhere. Writing a business article about a new project manager with a passion for bringing tropical fruit flavours to toothpaste? There’s human interest here. We all use toothpaste – whilst some will be onboard with this idea, others will scoff and remain faithful to their dependable mint flavoured paste.

Prepare to tap into your inner literary comic. If the story you’re working on is funny, don’t hold back. Just as most journalists enjoy working on a story that hits their ‘quirky button’, most readers will be more inclined to read a story that plays on their humour strings.

Fact check everything

‘Fake news’ has become a familiar term, especially for journalists. Unverified facts and misleading claims have blurred the line between journalism and other content creation. It’s now more important than ever to fact check everything .

A good PR tip is to avoid a reputation disaster rather than repair one. You do not want to fall into the category of fake news. This might drive away potential returning readers and significantly reduce readership.

Using statistics, figures and facts are a great way to add validity and actuality to your article. They lend themselves to originality and make your article more credible when used correctly. Without checking the authenticity of these facts, you risk delivering an article that is grounded in fiction.

News article writing tools

To hit the nail on the head and deliver a news article that is well researched, well written and well-received; take advantage of some online writing tools to help you along the way.

1. Grammarly

This free and comprehensive writing tool is practically everything you need to craft grammatically correct and error-free copy. Not only does it check your spelling and grammar, but punctuation too. Grammarly uses context-specific algorithms that work across different platforms to help make your content flow seamlessly throughout.

2. Headline Analyzer

Analyse your headlines for free and determine the Emotional Marketing Value score (EMV score).  Headline analyzer analyses and scores your headlines based on the total number of EMV words it has. Headline Analyzer also tells you which emotion your headline most impacts, so you know whether you’re on the right track from the get-go. So, along with your score, you’ll find out which emotion your headline piques at, be it intellectual, empathetic or spiritual.

Writing for the web requires a distinctive set of skills than those required for print. The way readers use the online space and in particular, the search engines have changed the way they consume news. Ultimately, out of the millions of web pages, readers should be able to find yours.

Be mindful of the words you use in your article. Search engines assume that content that contains words or phrases that have or are likely to be searched by researchers, is more relevant content. As such, it bumps it up to higher-ranking positions.

You can easily find out which precise words have been in popular searches and which phrases you should incorporate into your article. Use Ahrefs Keywords Explorer tool to explore seed keywords, industry keywords, and generate keyword ideas.

You can also use Ahrefs Content Explorer to search for any keyword and get popular content that drives traffic.

4. Discussion forums

Online communities and discussion forums are a great source for journalists to broaden their network and keep up-to-date with the latest media news. Find useful tips and the latest news in the following groups:

• Journalists on Facebook, contains more than 1.3 million fans and over 9,000 journalists. It’s one of the most established journalism communities online. You’ll find inspiration and a place to find and discuss breaking news.
• LinkedIn for Journalists is a highly active community featuring a section dedicated to advice and discussion points for journalists. Take advantage of monthly free webinars that cover how to generate story leads, build sources and engage audiences.
• /r/journalism on Reddit, opens the door to nearly 10,000 members, posting questions, advice, interesting news stories and professional opinions on recent and breaking news. Not only is it a source of news stories, but also a place to find an extremely diverse mix of opinions and story angles.

A structural combination of the essential components of a news article , as noted in the first section of this post, will put you in the right direction. Once you have your framework – made up of a working headline, lead, preliminary explanation and additional notes – you can begin to pack it with all the elements that bring a news article to life.

Turn to Ahrefs and online communities for inspiration and make use of writing and editing tools like Grammarly for the entire process. This will save you time editing (crucial in the news media world) and improve the quality of your article to get it to the top of those SERPs.

Remember, there’s always a human interest, you just have to find it. It’s this element that will determine the level of engagement your article stimulates. Just keep in mind, most people are either interested in how a news story will affect their own lives or how another person’s life is being affected.

By the end of the process, you should have a news article that is in good shape and ready to entertain, educate, inspire or inform your readers. The last thing to do but certainly no less crucial is to fact check everything. A sub-editor can be handy when it comes to catching typos and picking up grammatical errors, but fact-checking is primarily down to the writer.

News Article FAQ

[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h3″ question-0=”How long should a news article headline be?” answer-0=”Headlines that are between 5-12 words (up to 65 characters) are generally more effective.” image-0=”” headline-1=”h3″ question-1=”How long should a news article be?” answer-1=”The word count is unlimited. It all depends on the nature of your news article. However, as a general rule, Google needs at least 300 words of content to grasp the context of the page.” image-1=”” headline-2=”h3″ question-2=”How to cite a news article?” answer-2=”Generally, you would need to add the name of the source, the name of the author and a hyperlink to the original source.” image-2=”” headline-3=”h3″ question-3=”How to fact check a claim, statement or statistics?” answer-3=”The claim, statement or statistics must be verifiable by a credible source. Context plays a massive role in fact-checking, hence, simply taking citing figures may not qualify as proper fact-checking.” image-3=”” count=”4″ html=”true” css_class=””]

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The Top 11 Free Article Submission Sites For New Writers

For new writers, free article submission sites are a terrific resource to help you publish your writing .

But another benefit is that writing and submitting your articles can also help you improve the off-page SEO of your new blog.

It’s challenging to find readers online, so it takes a bit of effort. Every new writer starts from scratch , but many find ways to succeed.

Publishing articles is one of the best ways to help you improve your writing, find readers and promote your blog.

What are free article submission sites?

These are sites where you can publish your articles for free and often with instant approval.

You can use them to publish articles to promote your brand, business, informational topics, or your area of expertise.

The biggest benefit for many content writers and bloggers is that you can include links in your articles.

For a new writer, understanding how links work is important.

There are two styles of links: dofollow and nofollow.

A dofollow link is of higher value because it can pass on some authority to your blog.

But a nofollow link still has some SEO value.

If you are using a free blogging platform, these links will help you a lot.

Experienced article writers look for free article submission sites that have a high Alexa domain ranking and allow dofollow links.

But if you only want to publish articles and don’t have a blog to promote, there is no need to worry about the SEO value of links.

No shortcuts to quality article writing

A great article incorporates all the features you need when you write a blog post .

You need to research your keywords and read some competitive articles to understand what you need to cover in your text.

As for your article title, you need to craft it to attract a reader’s attention.

You should also use paragraph headings to make your points clear.

Selecting relevant images, graphs, and screenshots can also add more value to an article.

Writing a quality article takes time. But it’s worth it because it will be online for a long time.

Can you publish an article on more than one site?

Yes, it’s possible. But it’s not a good idea.

When you publish the same article on different sites, it will diminish its value.

Google will not know which one is the authoritative article, so it will stand little chance of being indexed.

A better idea is to use links between your articles. If you write about fruit in one article, add a dofollow link to your other article about vegetables.

It’s the same as how a blogger uses internal links between blog posts.

When you have published ten or twenty articles, your links between them will help you get more readers.

The links will also assist in possibly getting your articles indexed by search engines.

How to select sites for article submission

One of the best criteria you can use is to do a quick check of a site’s Alexa ranking.

The lower the number, the more popular it is.

To do a check, go to Statshow , and enter a site’s URL.

Here is the result for Google.

If a site ranks in the top 100,000 sites in the world, it means that it has a high Alexa page rank.

Other factors you might want to consider are how easy it is to use, how suitable it is for your type of article content , and how many dofollow links you can use.

There are hundreds of submission sites, so you should choose carefully and make sure each one is right for you.

But to help you along, here are the top ten for you to consider.

1. Google Sites

If you make a selection by page ranking, then Google Sites has to be your first choice because anything Google ranks at number one.

On top of that, you can choose from a range of ready-made templates to help your content shine.

It’s one of the most popular sites for content and article writers.

2. Articlebiz

ArticleBiz gives you the opportunity for your articles to be picked up by online publishers.

You can submit your articles for free.

But you will need to fill in a resource box with a short bio. You can include your email and website address.

You can choose from a vast range of categories for your articles.

It has an Alexa ranking of 210,908. So it certainly does get traffic and readers.

If you are new to article writing, it is a great submission site.

3. Articleavenue

Are you writing articles about lifestyle, travel, marketing, or crowdfunding?

If so, Articleavenue is worth investigating.

The site is well-designed and user-friendly, with a clean masonry layout.

You will need an eye-catching image to make your article stand out.

Take a look and see if it’s a fit for you.

You might think that Tumblr is only a hobby blogging platform.

But, in fact, it is a terrific site for promoting your articles because you can use as many links as you think you need.

All you need to do is set up your free account, and you can write and publish or reblog as many articles as you want.

5. LiveJournal

It’s been around for a long time, but article writers often overlook LiveJournal .

However, with an Alexa rank of 426, it proves that it certainly gets a ton of traffic and lots of readers.

That makes it a site that you should definitely consider.

6. Linkedin

My guess is that you already have an account with Linkedin. That makes it easy for you to publish your articles.

All you need to do is follow the instructions for publishing Linkedin articles , and you are ready to submit.

There are millions of daily users on Linkedin, so you have an excellent opportunity to find readers for your professional articles.

Linkedin must be one of the easiest ways to publish your articles for free.

If you are into writing about software and technology, Dzone is a site you might want to investigate.

It is high-ranking and very popular. But you need to read the submission guidelines carefully before you submit an article.

Also, expect to wait between seven to twelve business days for an assessment and approval of your article.

You might be wondering why I have included Quora in my list of free article submission sites.

It’s an open forum, so why is it here?

Well, it has enormous benefits when it comes to promoting your articles.

All you need to do is search for questions people ask about your topics of expertise or interest.

Then answer the question as fully as you can. An answer of around 200 words is usually sufficient.

But the significant advantage is that you can include a link back to your published article on the topic.

If you answer perhaps five questions on a topic, you will gain five backlinks.

9. Sooper Articles

It might not look as attractive as some other sites, but Sooper Articles has an Alexa ranking of 20,850.

That means it gets a lot of traffic. You can choose from a whole host of topics, so you will almost certainly find a niche for your articles.

It’s a free service for all writers. But in the FAQs, it says that a new article takes around five days to be approved and published.

10. Bored Panda

If you are looking to submit lightweight or funny articles, Bored Panda could be a choice for you.

It started in 2009, so it’s been around for a while now. Its style is a little like a tabloid newspaper, so your writing probably needs to be a bit clever.

But there are a lot of categories to choose from, such as fashion, food, nature, and social issues, so it’s not only about being witty.

11. ArticleCube

If you are writing articles about business, food, health, home, or technology, ArticleCube might be for you.

The site is attractive, with a modern news feel and layout.

A great aspect is that all articles have a featured image.

You need to register, and it’s a good idea to read the submission guidelines before you get started.

Ezine Articles

For more than twenty years, EzineArticles has been a go-to site for free article submissions.

However, it has now closed down and no longer appears in search engines.

But if you arrived on this page looking for it, at least the list above gives you plenty of alternatives.

It can be a bit daunting for new writers when there are so many free article submission sites to choose from if you do a Google search.

But as always, it’s about the quality of the sites you choose.

While some might seem quick and easy to submit, a low-ranking site may not get you many readers.

On the other hand, a top-ranking site might take longer to approve your articles.

It’s a balance you need to find.

With the ten sites I have listed in this article, you can’t go too far wrong.

But you also have another simple option. You can publish your articles in PDF , which is free and only takes a few minutes.

Related reading: The Differences Between An Article And A Blog Post

About The Author

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• Tools and reference
• Digital skills training
• Web skills materials

Writing news articles

You can find lots of examples of good news articles on the main  College News site.

What is news?

A good news story, with good news values has one or all of the following:

• Human Interest – this matters to someone I know.
• New – we didn’t know this before.
• Timely – why are you telling me now?
• Quirky or surprising – doesn’t happen all the time.
• Controversial - causes debate.

Things to remember

The five ‘w’s of a news story.

All your news articles should include:

The inverse pyramid of news

Think about the structure of your story:

• Overall length of the article and page layout.
• Paragraph and sentence length.
• Plan your teaser and summary
• Constructing the story - what looks good, will you use; pull quotes, subheadings, the side bar content for background info, additional photos or multimedia, slideshows, and links?

Do's and don'ts

• Write your story in a word document first
• Quote an named person.
• Use pictures of something or someone.
• Use plain English.
• Stay active. Active -  Dr Jones is using this equipment to study malaria . Passive - ' Malaria was studied using this equipment ' or ' This equipment was used to study malaria '.
• Stay positive - say what you’re doing, not what you’re not doing!
• Link to external sites.
• Link to related Imperial stories.
• Go on too long.
• Use heavily detailed graphs and charts – keep it simple.
• Use jargon and abbreviations – or if you need to use them, explain what they mean.
• Too many adjectives. Avoid using  brilliant ,  excellent , etc. Use the quotes and facts in your reported text to demonstrate to the reader what is excellent about it – let them reach their own conclusion.

What if it’s not very newsworthy?

This is a legitimate question and it is OK to turn things down, otherwise news writing becomes overwhelming.

Ask yourself the question - Does it meet one or more of the news values? If you don’t know, ask the person who brought you the news and If they don’t know, you can safely turn it down.

Some stories you just have to write, even though they’re not that newsworthy. So, instead, of writing a non-news story, make it more exciting?

Seek more facts, e.g. Is it an impressive amount of money? Has someone important announced it, or is connected to a project?

And if all else fail add an attractive picture or video!

Content guidance

The next section of this skills module covers best practice and tips around article content including punctuation, media mentions, date references and using social and multimedia.

Read the news content guidance

2 column general block - uploading news/need more help

Need more help.

• Digital Image library  (photos).
• iMedia library  (audio and video).
• Add to social media .
• Get featured on the Homepage.
• Get featured on your Faculty theme page by contacting your  Faculty Web Officer.
• Is it worth external media attention?  Ask the Research Communications team.
• Find out how to  upload your news story .

Uploading news

You can find out how to upload news by following the instructions on the  Creating News Articles Web Skills module.

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The 50+ Best Writing Websites of 2024

The Internet is full of writing websites and blogs to help people reach their creative goals . If you’ve always dreamt of writing your own book, but don’t know how to get there — or if you’re in the process of writing, but feel unsure about what to do next — then it’s your lucky day! Here we have all the best writing websites of 2024 in one single place for your convenience. They’re also organized by category, and alphabetically within each of those categories, to make each one easier to find. Enjoy!

Best writing websites for writing craft and inspiration

1. Almost an Author

Offering up new content every day, Almost an Author covers a grand scope of writing topics. From genre-specific advice to emotional support on your writing journey, there's tons of useful info here for beginner and veteran writers alike.

2. Association of Writer & Writing Programs

Having just marked their 50th anniversary, AWP is one of the premier authorities on writing. The AWP website provides resources and ample opportunities for authors, teachers, and students at every point in their career. Here you’ll be able to find information about writing programs, career options, and conferences all over the world. Keep in mind, though, that access to some of these features is restricted to members only.

3. Creativity Portal

This is a wonderful hub for creative resources that has been around for a whopping nineteen years! Here you can find writing prompts , creative coaching, printable writing templates, and interviews with authors that will help nourish the right side of your brain.

4. Daily Writing Tips

As the name suggests, this site offers daily writing tips ranging from open-ended prompts and exercises to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary. It also covers all writing levels and professions, so it doesn't matter how far along you are in your writing career — DWT is sure to help you out.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a master’s degree, you can get your own "DIY MFA" right here! This site (founded by Gabriela Pereira ) aims to cover everything you would learn in a graduate program, while giving you the freedom to choose your own areas of concentration and allocate your time as you please. 

6. Electric Literature

While not exactly a craft-focused website — so no straight-up writing advice or prompts — this nonprofit digital publisher showcases literature-related essays, criticism, and recommended readings. If you're looking to brush up on both literary theory and recent literary trends, Electric Lit is the place for you.

7. Fiction University

This virtual university, run by award-winning author Janice Hardy, contains tons of advice and concrete examples to help authors build a strong writing foundation. It's full of blog posts by professionals who share their own processes and techniques, providing tips not just on what you should do as a writer, but on how  to make it happen.

8. Helping Writers Become Authors

Longtime author K.M. Weiland offers writing advice that ranges from outlining and structuring to characterization and dialogue — plus all the little details in between. She updates her blog faithfully with topical posts that would pique any writer's (or non-writer's) interest.

9. Insecure Writer's Support Group

Writing is intimidating for everyone , whether you're a multi-published author or you're just starting out. That's why getting support, guidance, and motivation throughout the process is vital! On IWSG, you'll discover a wealth of information on writing, publishing, marketing, and anything else you might need to ultimately overcome your insecurities.

10. Literary Hub

LitHub boasts a superb selection of content for all things literary. Here you can get all the latest book-related news, posts on design and the craft, your daily dose of fiction, and sparkling reviews of new works. One of this site's best features is its section on literature in translation — a great resource for those who want to read books and authors from around the world.

11. LitReactor

The LitReactor blog consists of writing classes, workshops, and a myriad of posts on writing and books ( some of which are even written by us! ). There’s also an online magazine that includes interviews, criticism and analysis, and seasonally appropriate reads and recommendations.

12. LitRejections

An unfortunate occupational hazard of with writing is rejection. This is where a site like LitRejections comes into play! It offers personal stories to help discouraged writers persevere through rejection, and maintain hope and motivation as they move forward in their careers.

13. Live Write Thrive

In this website by professional writer and editor C.S. Lakin, you’ll find plenty of nuanced writing anecdotes and tips. Lakin also supplies annotated critiques that can help you prep your book for publication.

14. NaNoWriMo

Besides serving as the official information hub for NaNoWriMo , this site also lends constant support for those struggling to "win" National Novel Writing Month. Make sure to check out the NaNoWriMo forums, which are chock-full of other people's personal writing tips and strategies to get you through November — and every other month of the year — as a writer.

15. Now Novel

This comprehensive website, founded by author Bridget McNulty , is a go-to for just about every writing-related question you might have. Here you'll also find advice, courses, and even an author dashboard where you can keep track of your own writing progress.

16. Positive Writer

If you often feel uncertain about your creative abilities, this is the site for you. Bryan Hutchinson created Positive Writer to encourage and inspire all those who want to write, no matter how much experience or confidence they have.

17. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid offers a fantastic manuscript editing software that analyzes your writing and creates reports for you to learn from! This tool also includes a thesaurus, grammar checks, style suggestions, and more — you can learn all about it on the ProWritingAid blog, or in our review of the app !

18. She Writes

A well-established writing website with a feminist bent, She Writes is "the largest online community and content site for women writers... all around the world." The site features thoughtful posts and resources to help writers on their journeys, as well as a personal She Writes blog page for every user who signs up.

19. Well-Storied

Here you can find recent articles, workbooks, tutorials, and fascinating discussions on writing. Kristine Kieffer has an extensive archive of posts as well, where you can procure information on just about any topic related to books and writing.

20. The Write Practice

Fulfilling the promise of their name, every single post on this site emphasizes putting theory into practice! There's simply no better way to become a writer than by creating a routine, and that’s exactly what The Write Practice helps facilitate.

21. Writer’s Digest

Writer's Digest is one of the most encyclopedic writing websites out there — after all, the print magazine has been around for almost a century now! Here you’ll find genre and vocation-organized articles, events and competitions, webinars, templates, tutorials, and so much more.

22. Writer Unboxed

Writer Unboxed features articles by authors and industry professionals, focused specifically on the craft and business of fiction writing.

23. The Writing Cooperative

Plain and simple, this is a group of people who want to help each other become better writers. On Writing Cooperative, you will find articles that cover just about every aspect of the writing life. They also have monthly writing challenges to keep you incentivized, and there’s even a space where you can submit your own article to the blog!

24. Writing.com

This is an absolutely all-inclusive community for writers . It’s open to all levels and provides a creative, supportive environment for all members, as well as portfolios to store and display their writing. Like most writing websites, it also includes a plethora of writing tools , contests, and rewards.

25. Catapult: Don’t Write Alone

Don’t Write Alone is a blog written by the Catapult team dedicated to helping writers grow their skills. As a publisher and magazine founded in 2005, Catapult has seen a lot of works and now they’re spilling all the details. From interviews, to craft essays, to writer lifestyle essays, Catapult covers it all.

26. Kirkus Review’s Writers’ Center

Kirkus Review is known for its prestigious $50,000 dollar annual prize and its bi-monthly issues where they critique hundreds of recently published books. But, did you know they also have a section of their website devoted to helping emerging writers grow their skills and navigate the publishing industry? They’re always up to date on the latest trends — if they aren’t creating new trends themselves.

27. Writers Write

An invaluable resource for creative writers, business writers, or bloggers, Writers Write offers over 1400 articles, courses, and workbooks to help you take your writing practice to the next level. Alongside their educational content, they offer book reviews, trivia on famous authors, and prompts. Sign up for their inspirational newsletters for regular hits of motivation that will keep you writing.

28. The Narrative Arc

Beginning as a home to Andie R. Cranford’s writing journey, The Narrative Arc is now a treasure trove of practical tips and prompts to inspire your creativity. Breakdowns of popular books are particularly handy for the budding author — but whether exploring writing for the first time or tightening the bolts on your Franken-novel, the site's ideas on craft are elegant and inspiring.

Best writing websites in the publishing industry

29. Agent Query

This database allows authors to perform in-depth searches for literary agents . You can narrow your search by genre and keywords, view agents’ full profiles, and see if they are currently accepting queries — all for free!

30. The Creative Penn

Besides being a bestselling author on various topics, Joanna Penn is also a leading voice in self-publishing . On her punnily named site, you’ll find abundant information related to writing, self-publishing, marketing, and everything else you mind need to make a living as a writer.

31. Digital Pubbing

Digital Pubbing provides industry news, interviews with indie authors, and resources for learning all about ebooks and the publishing industry. In accordance with the name, this is the perfect site for any author hoping to absorb some serious digital knowledge.

32. The Independent Publishing Magazine

We know it might seem like we're repeating ourselves, but this website really is all about publishing (both independent and traditional, despite what the name indicates). Whatever info you need about self-publishing, trad pub, or hybrid publishing , you’ll definitely be able to find it here.

33. Publishers Weekly

And if you have a specific question about the publishing world, you’ll most likely find the answer here. This weekly magazine is packed full of news, reviews, announcements, and many other resources on the industry. It has been dubbed as "the Bible of the book business" and with its extensive archive, it’s easy to see why.

34. Publishing Perspectives

Publishing Perspectives is another leading source of publishing info, specializing in industry news and topical articles. Aimed at publishers, agents , and authors alike, it features a variety of posts that cover book fairs, distribution, education, and much more.

35. Query Shark

Not sure where your query letter is up to snuff? Query Shark offers the opportunity to have your query critiqued, and to read detailed query critiques of other authors' letters, so you can get the best possible results for your book. Be warned, though, that this sharp-toothed feedback isn't for the weak of heart.

36. Writer Beware

This amazingly thorough site compiles information on schemes and scams that affect authors , especially those run through email and the Internet. It’s sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but obviously applies to authors everywhere. If you're a fresh-faced author trying to get published, definitely check it out — it could save you from losing thousands of dollars in an elaborate scam.

37. The Darling Axe

When the industry professionals at The Darling Axe aren’t working on manuscripts, they flock to the internet to share their hot takes on the publishing industry. They also host writing contests throughout the year to build a writing community and give unpublished authors the chance to get feedback from professionals.

Best writing websites for marketing and design

38. David Gaughran

An experienced author of historical adventures, short stories, and popular books for writers , David Gaughran is one of the definitive writing experts out there. His eponymous blog contains plenty of info on marketing and self-publishing, plus workshops to help aspiring authors. And similar to Writer Beware, he's the noble opposition of online publishing scams and scammers — so if you're frustrated by these issues, you'll discover a blissfully sympathetic voice on his blog.

39. Kikolani

Focused specifically on marketing, Kikolani offers tips and strategies for bloggers who want to grow their presence and attract more readers. Here you’ll find information on brand development , social media, customer retention, and other useful tips that you can put to good use as a blogger. (If you're just getting started, though, we'd recommend this course .)

40. Kindlepreneur

Dave Chesson is — in his own words — a “digital marketing nut.” His blog has all the information you could ever need about Kindle book publishing , how to write to market, increasing your rankings on Amazon, and lots more practical tips and advice.

41. Storiad

Storiad is a marketing platform that helps authors and publishers sell books. Go here for essential information on writing apps , databases, tools, and budgeting to help you run your own publishing campaign from start to finish.

42. Writers & Artists

Part of the distinguished Bloomsbury, Writers & Artists has quite a few articles on writing and the self-publishing process. They also offer editorial services and events on many different topics, like genre-specific writing courses and how to get connected with agents .

43. Your Writer Platform

Naturally, this site is dedicated to building your very own writer platform. There are tons of tips, resources, tools, how-tos, and even individual consulting services to help you build the platform that works best for you and your marketing needs.

Best writing blogs by industry professionals

44. Goins, Writer

Bestselling author Jeff Goins created this blog to share his thoughts on writing and to inspire others to chase their creative dreams. He's especially good at breaking complex topics down into digestible bits — new writers, go here for your primers.

45. Jane Friedman

With copious experience in the publishing industry, Jane Friedman offers online classes and articles on the entire process of book publishing. She's a real goldmine of business knowledge, so keep her in mind for when you're ready to publish your book.

46. Nail Your Novel

As a bestselling former ghostwriter who now publishes under her own name, Roz Morris provides advice about writing, self-publishing, and of course, ghostwriting . If you're interested in becoming a ghostwriter, be sure to check out her courses!

47. Nathan Bransford

Nathan Bransford is a former literary agent who posts all about the inner workings of publishing, as well and information on agents and self-publishing. He also does consultations, edits, and critiques . 

48. Rachelle Gardner

Skillful agent Rachelle Gardner has negotiated over 200 contracts with over twenty publishers and helped more than 100 authors fulfill their dreams of publishing. On her blog, she offers writing, publishing, and social media coaching, along with general writing and publishing tips.

49. Kris Writes

For regular insights from a New York Times bestselling author, look no further than Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog. On Mondays, she posts free short stories for authors to find inspiration in, and Wednesdays she posts in her “Business Musings” collection where she breaks down news from the publishing industry and offers her inside opinions. 

50. The Marginalian  

Maria Popova describes her site as “a record of my own becoming as a person — intellectually, creatively, spiritually, poetically — drawn from my extended marginalia on the search for meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy, and the various other tendrils of human thought and feeling.” She sends out a Sunday newsletter with thoughtful deconstruction of the week’s best liberal arts goings-on to help broaden her readers’ appreciation of the creative world.

51. John August

For all the screenwriters out there, John August co-hosts a weekly podcast with fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin discussing both the craft and business of screenwriting while breaking down popular movies. To help screenwriters really get a feel for the process of working with a studio, John has posted multiple versions of scripts from different stages in the production process on films and series he’s written, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Big Fish , and Chernobyl .

What are some of your favorite writing websites? Let us know in the comments below!

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10 Great Places to Find Articles Worth Reading on the Web

The Internet is arguably the best news morgue on the planet right now. And apart from that great collection of old articles, thousands of new ones are added every day.

The internet unquestionably has masses of content that is enjoyable to read. But there is also a fair amount of clickbait rubbish. How do you find interesting articles to read while avoiding all the low-effort ones?

Here are some of the best article reading sites to find thoughtful and engaging content.

1. Longform

Longform is an article curation service. It recommends both new and classic non-fiction articles from a variety of different online sources.

It encourages submissions from its engaged community of readers, thus giving rise to a diverse and delightful selection of interesting articles to read on any given day. Furthermore, it also accepts readers' own work, though the work has to pass through a strict editorial filter before it is recommended on the site.

The core focus of the Longform site is non-fiction, though a spinoff fiction service launched in 2012 has become perennially popular.

Although Longform retired its article recommendation service in September 2022, you can still check out the “Best Of” annual archive for a rich trove of suggestions from bygone years, or browse by sections to discover topics that interest you. The sections on this article reading site include Arts, Business, Crime, History, Politics, Science, Sports, Tech, and World.

2. Longreads

Another one of the most popular article reading sites is Longreads, a direct competitor of Longform. The different categories of articles you can dig into include food, crime, sports, current events, arts and culture, and more. On Longreads, a section called Shortreads if you prefer having short articles to read.

The site also produces its own stories (often revolving around gun violence, genocide, and environmental destruction), with the work funded by its membership pass. The membership costs $5/month and $50/year.

And in case you still doubt the quality of the work on Longreads, be aware that it has been nominated for four National Magazine Awards and has been highlighted as a quality source by both the Online News Association and the Peabody Awards.

3. The Browser

If you’re drowning from the mindless content on social media, finding interesting articles to read is one of the best things to do when you’re bored online . The Browser sifts through hundreds of articles every day to bring you the finest content from across the web in the form of a newsletter. All the content is handpicked.

The free newsletter itself offers five interesting articles to read per day, and subscribers will also get access to a daily podcast, a daily video, a daily quote, and more.

For this site, subscription plans start at $5/month and $48/year. It offers a free preview, so you can try out their service before you commit. The higher tier plans offer you a special letter from the editor every week, a unique merchandise item every year, and a spot on their London Amble Tour.

4. r/InDepthStories

Reddit has no shortage of enjoyable content posted across its thousands of Subreddits. But as any Reddit user will know, there is also an enormous number of poor submissions that you should not waste your time with. These tips to find your next favorite Subreddit will help you discover content you’ll love the most.

Now, to use Reddit as a good article reading site, you need to know where to look. If you are specifically keen on long-form journalism, you should subscribe to r/InDepthStories for interesting articles to read. It started life as a forum for investigative journalism, but has since grown to become a repo of all forms of high-quality long-form content.

Standards are kept high by the Subreddits mods, who rule with an iron fist. Anything that is not considered long-form will be removed, and they also do not allow political long-form articles. The ban on political content might seem Draconian, but it is done to keep the community civilized and make sure the comments on each article remain focused and thoughtful.

Pocket is best known as a read-it-later bookmarking service. By using browser extensions or mobile apps, you can save stories that pique your curiosity. Later, when you have the time, you can revisit these interesting articles to read and give them your full attention.

However, Pocket also offers a list of curated stories for you. Stories are partially sourced by the company's own editorial team, but are also pulled from the content that its users are saving most frequently on a given day.

The main section focuses on “essential reads”. However, there are also subcategories for topics such as business, career, education, self-improvement, tech, personal finance, science, food, health and fitness, entertainment, and more.

6. CoolTools: The Best Magazine Articles Ever

If you want to delve into some of the most iconic and memorable magazine articles of all time, check out The Best Magazine Articles Ever subsection of CoolTools. This article reading site is a great place to start your journey.

The list is based on suggestions by readers and is not vetted, but there is still a tremendous amount of fantastic and interesting articles for you to read and enjoy.

The best part is The Top 25 Articles list. It rounds up some of the best articles going back as far as the 1960s. Some of the pieces that have made the cut include 1996's Mother Earth, Mother Board: Wiring the Planet by Neal Stephenson in Wired, and 1971's Secrets of the Little Blue Box by Ron Rosenbaum in Esquire.

You can also use the filters to browse by decade. The 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 2010s are all available.

Medium is a social journalism platform that launched back in 2012. As one of the most popular article reading sites on the internet, it offers content from a mix of professional journalists and writers, as well as amateur writers who want to discuss a topic in which they are an expert.

Users can subscribe to writers or topics that they are interested in to curate their own feed of relevant content, but Medium also offers browsable sections in case you want to digest something that is outside of your usual wheelhouse when you’re looking for interesting articles to read.

Although you can read some content for free, Medium is designed as a paid platform. It costs $5/month or $50/year, and you get unlimited access to every story with no ads or additional paywalls. Check out our article if you want to get started on Medium today .

Aeon is digital magazine that covers philosophy, science, psychology, society, and culture. The majority of Aeon's articles today are long essays. However, you can still find short articles to read in its archive as the magazine used to publish a category of content called Ideas.

Aeon is a registered charity and all the articles are free for everyone to read. There are no ads, and the organization promises that its content will never have a paywall. Therefore, you don't have to worry about subscriptions. The site only asks you to consider donating if you enjoy the published work and would like to help support them.

9. Nautilus

Nautilus is a great site to get your daily dose of science . You'll find articles on anthropology, neuroscience, the environment, sociology, astronomy, and many more.

Don't worry about being bombarded with jargon or dry facts, though. The content is written in a vivid style, along with gorgeous illustrations, so it feels as though you're being drawn into story after story on the site.

As a free user, you can only read a limited number of articles. The digital membership costs $9.99/month or $59/year. If you like reading and collecting physical copies, you can opt to subscribe to the digital and print membership, which costs $89/year.

10. MakeUseOf

Come on; you've got to let us have this shameless plug! If you want to read the best how-to articles, reviews, listicles, buying guides, and more, you're already in the right place. We’re the trusted article reading site to cover all your tech needs.

Make sure you also check out MakeUseOf’s YouTube channel for the latest insight into the world's newest gadgets. We also release an episode every week on The Really Useful Podcast to discuss tech news, as well as other tips and tricks!

Find the Best Article Reading Sites to Read More of What Matters

If you only read articles from the sites we've recommended and never visit another site again, you can be sure that you're going to become more educated, understand the world more fully, and avoid wasting your time on content that does not deserve your attention.

With new stories suggested almost every day, you’ll never run out of interesting articles to read. So, what are you waiting for? Start reading more today.

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37 Sites That Pay to Write Articles Online

by Stanley Udegbunam | Dec 26, 2023 | Making Money | 0 comments

Are you looking for sites that pay to write articles online? Working from home as a freelance article writer allows you to do so. Every day, new job opportunities for article writers are posted.

Numerous opportunities exist for freelance writers to earn income while doing what they love. From content creation to blogging, there are countless websites and platforms that offer compensation for quality written content. 

In this article, we will explore 37 websites that pay writers for their articles. I’ve categorized them into three – niche platforms, freelance, and writing platforms.

Let’s get to it!

Table of Contents

Niche Platforms

Niche platforms cater to writers with expertise or a passion for particular niches. As a result, you can share your knowledge and earn income within the chosen niches. Below are some popular niche platforms.

1. Neptune 

Neptune is a metadata repository for machine learning researchers and engineers that includes experiment tracking and model registration.

Neptune is used for machine learning research. As a result, they are mostly anticipating data science and machine learning-related content. 

So, if you have a background in AI/ML, this platform is for you.

Payment ranges from $250 to $500 per tutorial.

Learn more about   Neptune

Food52 focuses on food and cooking. They allow food enthusiasts to write recipes, tips, and articles and earn money through their Partner Program. 

Payment: Depending on the estimated length and volume of work, Food52 pays flat prices as opposed to per word. This may be as little as $200 for a brief post or simple recipe (plus up to $50 for ingredient reimbursements). Or as much as $500 for bigger projects.

Learn more about   Food52

3. LogRocket 

Tutorials on React, Redux, Node.js, Wasm, GraphQL, Rust, Flutter, and other technologies are in high demand.

LogRocket combines session replay, error monitoring, and product analytics to enable software teams to build the best online and mobile product experiences possible.

The LogRocket blog is a well-known resource among front-end developers worldwide. 

Payment ranges from $250 to $400 per article.

Learn more about   LogRocket

4. Wellbeing

This Australian-based journal has a physical and online presence and covers a wide range of health and wellness subjects. 

Wellbeing accepts submissions based on four main article kinds. These include travel, special reports, and real-life experiences. 

Payment ranges from $150-$1700 (AU) for articles up to 2000 words.

Learn more about   Wellbeing 

5. The Krazy Coupon Lady

The Krazy Coupon Lady is a website that provides coupons and money-saving ideas. 

Their content is centered on offering helpful guides on how to save money using coupons and other tactics. 

You may check out The Krazy Coupon Lady’s writer’s standards and submission procedures on their website if you’re interested in contributing to their publication.

Payment:   This ranges between $50 and $100 per article.

Learn more about   The Krazy Coupon Lady

6. Tutorialspoint

Tutorialspoint is a website for all technical individuals since it provides step-by-step instructions for every technological issue.

Almost every techie has heard of this company. Their site is full of technical information. 

But as we all know, new technology is released every month. Thus, the need for writers never ends.

Payment ranges from $250 to $500 for each tutorial.

Learn more about   Tutorialspoint

7. English Island Journal

The English Island Journal addresses issues relating to the conservation of wildlife and land, scientific and technological advancements, environmental protection and public policy, energy, agriculture, and animal rights. 

Content that explores the connections between environmental challenges and other social justice and human rights concerns particularly piques their interest. 

They news writers to write news, articles, analysis, features, interviews, and reviews and not fiction or poetry.

Payment:   $0.25 cents/word for 1,200-1,500 words and longer investigative features (2,500-3,000 words). Expect to earn about $750-$1000 for an in-depth feature story (4,000 words).

Learn more about   English Island Journal 

VICE is a media firm that pays authors for their work and covers politics, culture, and news. 

They attract a large number of those who are interested in current affairs, social issues, and culture and have a reputation for their edgy and thought-provoking content. 

Your post must meet their strict editing standards and be well-researched, educational, and captivating in order to be published.  

Payment:   This ranges between $250 and $500 for each article.

Learn more about   VICE

9. Income Diary

Income Diary is a platform and website that offers various resources, articles, and guidance related to online business, entrepreneurship, and Internet marketing. The firm began as a graphic forum, with 1000 users signing up in just six months.

Income Diary operates profitably with 400 blog entries, 7 instructional courses, and software that sells and influences millions of users.

They require articles on SEO, startup business, social media, blogging, and more. 

Payment:    $200 for articles with a minimum of 1,500 words.

Learn more about   Income Diary

Auth0 is a versatile, simple-to-use solution for adding authentication and authorization services to an application. It is a user-friendly, extensible authentication and authorization framework. 

It is the world’s most-read developer blog. Here, developers talk about issues such as security, Python, and so on.

Payment:   Up to $500 per article.

Learn more about   Auth0

11. Cooking Detective

Cooking Detective is a website dedicated to studying various culinary and cooking-related subjects. 

Writers who want to share their culinary knowledge can write various articles. These topics can be on kitchen appliances, recipes, and other facets of the culinary industry. If you love food and enjoy writing about it, 

Cooking Detective gives you the chance to share your expertise while also earning money for your efforts. 

Payment costs up to  $75 for each article. 

Learn more about   Cooking Detective 

12. Transition Abroad

Transition Abroad is a travel magazine. it encompasses a broad variety of subjects relating to travel, work, schooling, living, volunteering overseas, and more. 

There are a ton of themes available in their writer’s handbook.

The pandemic caused this website to prioritize articles that highlight “your experience with virtual internship programs.

It includes virtual volunteering, virtual learning (including language study), online teaching and other international jobs, and online learning to teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). 

Payment:    From $75 to $150 for an article in the 1250-3000+ word range. The average payment is $100. 

Learn more about   Transition Abroad

13. Christian Science Monitor

Christian Science Monitor provides news from across the world and the United States. 

It also features individuals changing the world and a Christian viewpoint on science, literature, the new economy, and energy.

Payment:   $.036 cents/word for 1,100-word profiles 

Learn more about   Christian Science Monitor

14. Geeks for Geeks

This is a geeky computer science portal. It comprises articles on computer science and programming that are well-written, well-thought-out, and explained.

It is a website that provides blogs, articles, and tutorials on computer science topics. Other services include computer science courses and IT interviews to help individuals in studying.

Payment:   $50-$100 for each article and prize.

Learn more about   Geeks for Geeks

15. CSS-Tricks

CSS-Tricks is a popular website among developers. This is because it gives answers to complex CSS ideas, making the developer’s life easier.

This is an excellent platform for learning CSS. It also gives an opportunity for authors interested in authoring articles about web development, particularly CSS.

Payment ranges from $300 to $400 for each post.

Learn more about   CSS-Tricks

16. Writer’s Digest

For the writing community, Writer’s Digest pays writers for articles about writing tips and techniques.

Writer’s Digest is currently accepting submissions from freelance writers. They are a print magazine with a circulation of 110,000. They have readers all over the world, but largely in North America.

Payment:   Up to $1,200 per article. 

Learn more about   Writer’s Digest

17. FundsforWriters 

FundsforWriters is a website that helps writers with tools and support.

They provide details about employment, gigs, freelancing, writing grants, and competitions for writers.

Payment:   Between $50 to $ 150 per article

Learn more about   FundsforWriters

18. SitePoint

SitePoint is one of the largest online communities for web professionals. It has a huge, active forum and hundreds of lessons.

Also, it includes a diverse selection of books, kits, and other instructional items.

SitePoint is a community for web developers to share their love of creating amazing Internet content. 

Articles about   Jamstack ,   Gatsby ,   Figma ,   Rust , and current web technologies are in high demand.

Payment ranges from $250 to $500 per article.

Learn more about   SitePoint

19. FreelanceMom

This website is dedicated to motherhood and pursuing career dreams. 

FreelanceMom prioritizes real-life stories, case studies, advice, and personal articles. All of these come with lessons learned about motherhood. 

However, this website is not limited to women alone. Men can also apply. 

Payment:   Rangers between $75 and $100

Learn more about   FreelanceMom

20. A List Apart

This platform is dedicated to web designers and developers. It offers payment for insightful articles on web design and development.

The platform primarily publishes articles, essays, and tutorials that cover a wide range of topics related to web design, web development, user experience (UX), and web standards.

They often seek out insightful and well-researched articles from industry experts and pay for contributions.

This approach has led to the publication of many influential and thought-provoking pieces on various aspects of web design and development.

Payment:   $100 per article

Learn more about   A List Apart

21. The Write Life

The Write Life is a website that provides authors with resources and guidance and also compensates writers for their work. 

They are known for sharing educational and interesting articles on a range of writing-related subjects.

This spans marketing, publishing, freelance writing, and more. 

In addition, they provide an array of tools and services for writers, such as community forums, job boards, and courses.

Payment:   It ranges from $75 to $100 for each article.

Learn more about   The Write Life

22. Great Escape Publishing

Great Escape Publishing focuses on a specific niche, which is travel writing and photography. They provide resources, training, and guidance for individuals interested in pursuing careers in this niche.

Great Escape Publishing offers a range of resources, including workshops, courses, and events. 

This will help aspiring writers and photographers hone their skills and find opportunities to get their work published.

Payment:   $150 for interviews, personal stories, and any articles they request.

Learn more about   Great Escape Publishing 

23. Nutri Inspector

The blog Nutri Inspector focuses on diet, nutrition, and weight loss. 

They release fresh, educational content, product evaluations, recipes, and how-to manuals.

You should apply for this blog if you’re interested in writing about fitness, diet and nutrition, and weight reduction strategies.

Payment:   Ultimate how-to guides (3000-4000 words): $120-$180

• Informational articles (2000-3000 words): $120
• Product reviews (1000 words): $60

Learn more about   Nutri Inspector 

24. Copyhackers

For authors who appreciate writing about branding, marketing, and user experience (UX) design, Copyhackers offers a number of chances. 

They also welcome submissions regarding advice for freelancers and entrepreneurship. 

If you would like to contribute to Copyhackers, go to their website, read the submission rules, and select an area of expertise to begin writing about. 

Payment:   $300 to $1,000 in income per article

Learn more about   Copyhackers

Freelancing Platforms 

1. textbroker.

Textbroker is a well-known network that serves as a hub for freelance writers wishing to work on a range of writing projects for a number of customers. 

The site functions as a content mill. 

Textbroker is a realistic option for authors looking for flexibility and the opportunity to make money via their writing abilities.

Payment ranges from $0.07 to $0.10 per word.

Learn more about   Textbroker

2. WriterAccess

WriterAccess is a platform that serves as a bridge between skilled writers and clients in search of high-quality content. 

It offers a space for writers to showcase their talents and cater to the diverse needs of clients.

One of the distinguishing features of WriterAccess is its adaptable compensation system. 

Writers on this platform are categorized according to their performance and expertise, often represented by star ratings.  

Payment ranges from $0.10 per word.

Learn more about   WriterAccess    

Cracked is a well-known online platform popular for its humorous stories. 

Cracked, known for its distinct and funny style, allows authors to exhibit their wit and humor. It is a site worth considering if you’re an aspiring writer with a sense of humor.

Payment costs up to  $200 for each piece.

Learn more about   Cracked .  

4. Vocal Media

Vocal Media has a number of writing challenges and contests where you may enter your work for a chance to win money.

Furthermore, their Vocal+ program compensates authors with a monthly fee for unique material.

Payment varies according to the effectiveness of your submissions. Members of Vocal+ may earn around $6 for every 1,000 readings.

Learn more about   Vocal Media

One of the most often-used websites for writers to locate jobs online is Upwork.   

Writers, graphic designers, videographers, marketers, and other creative workers can choose from a wide range of jobs available. 

All you need to do is complete your profile and upload samples of your written work. You may look for jobs and submit bids for the projects you’re interested in after your profile is complete.

Payment:   $5 to $20 per hour or $0.01 to $0.03 per word

 Learn more about   Upwork

nDash is a website that mainly serves as a platform for freelancers and writers. 

It connects writers with companies or clients who want written content.

It gives them a place to promote their writing skills and work with customers on a range of content projects, including whitepapers, blog posts, and articles.

Payment:    $150 – $450

Learn more about   nDash

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. How can I find websites that pay for writing articles?

You can find websites that pay for articles by searching on popular freelance platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr. 

Additionally, you can explore dedicated platforms like Medium’s Partner Program, HubPages, Vocal Media, and Listverse, which pay writers for their content.

2. What types of articles are in demand on these sites?

The demand for articles can vary, but some popular categories include technology, health, finance, lifestyle, travel, and personal development. 

3. How much can I earn from writing articles online?

Earnings depend on factors such as your experience, niche expertise, and the platform you write for. Payment can range from a few dollars per article to hundreds of dollars, especially if you gain a reputation as an expert in your field. 

4. Do I need to have prior writing experience to get paid for my articles?

While prior writing experience is beneficial, it’s not always a strict requirement. Some websites and platforms are open to writers at various skill levels.

Final Thoughts

Remember, freelance writing is a competitive field. But with dedication and the right strategies, you can build a successful career and get paid for your articles. 

Try out the aforementioned platforms today and start earning when you write. Your determination and persistence will pay off in the long run. 

Good luck in your writing journey!

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I’m Stanley, founder of Website Hurdles and I curate high-quality guides geared towards making money online, profitable blogging and building passive income.

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Web publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers

The tech giant is rolling out AI-generated answers that displace links to human-written websites, threatening millions of creators

Kimber Matherne’s thriving food blog draws millions of visitors each month searching for last-minute dinner ideas.

But the mother of three says decisions made at Google, more than 2,000 miles from her home in the Florida panhandle, are threatening her business. About 40 percent of visits to her blog, Easy Family Recipes , come through the search engine, which has for more than two decades served as the clearinghouse of the internet, sending users to hundreds of millions of websites each day.

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As the tech giant gears up for Google I/O, its annual developer conference, this week, creators like Matherne are worried about the expanding reach of its new search tool that incorporates artificial intelligence. The product, dubbed “Search Generative Experience,” or SGE, directly answers queries with complex, multi-paragraph replies that push links to other websites further down the page, where they’re less likely to be seen.

The shift stands to shake the very foundations of the web.

The rollout threatens the survival of the millions of creators and publishers who rely on the service for traffic. Some experts argue the addition of AI will boost the tech giant’s already tight grip on the internet, ultimately ushering in a system where information is provided by just a handful of large companies.

“Their goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to find the information they want,” Matherne said. “But if you cut out the people who are the lifeblood of creating that information — that have the real human connection to it — then that’s a disservice to the world.”

Google calls its AI answers “overviews” but they often just paraphrase directly from websites. One search for how to fix a leaky toilet provided an AI answer with several tips, including tightening tank bolts. At the bottom of the answer, Google linked to The Spruce, a home improvement and gardening website owned by web publisher Dotdash Meredith, which also owns Investopedia and Travel + Leisure. Google’s AI tips lifted a phrase from The Spruce’s article word-for-word.

A spokesperson for Dotdash Meredith declined to comment.

The links Google provides are often half-covered, requiring a user to click to expand the box to see them all. It’s unclear which of the claims made by the AI come from which link.

Tech research firm Gartner predicts traffic to the web from search engines will fall 25 percent by 2026. Ross Hudgens, CEO of search engine optimization consultancy Siege Media, said he estimates at least a 10 to 20 percent hit, and more for some publishers. “Some people are going to just get bludgeoned,” he said.

Raptive, which provides digital media, audience and advertising services to about 5,000 websites, including Easy Family Recipes, estimates changes to search could result in about $2 billion in losses to creators — with some websites losing up to two-thirds of their traffic. Raptive arrived at these figures by analyzing thousands of keywords that feed into its network, and conducting a side-by-side comparison of traditional Google search and the pilot version of Google SGE.

Michael Sanchez, the co-founder and CEO of Raptive, says that the changes coming to Google could “deliver tremendous damage” to the internet as we know it. “What was already not a level playing field … could tip its way to where the open internet starts to become in danger of surviving for the long term,” he said.

When Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai announced the broader rollout during an earnings call last month, he said the company is making the change in a “measured” way, while “also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.” Company executives have long argued that Google needs a healthy web to give people a reason to use its service, and doesn’t want to hurt publishers. A Google spokesperson declined to comment further.

“I think we got to see an incredible blossoming of the internet, we got to see something that was really open and freewheeling and wild and very exciting for the whole world,” said Selena Deckelmann, the chief product and technology officer for Wikimedia, the foundation that oversees Wikipedia.

“Now, we’re just in this moment where I think that the profits are driving people in a direction that I’m not sure makes a ton of sense,” Deckelmann said. “This is a moment to take stock of that and say, ‘What is the internet we actually want?’”

People who rely on the web to make a living are worried.

Jake Boly, a strength coach based in Austin, has spent three years building up his website of workout shoe reviews. But last year, his traffic from Google dropped 96 percent. Google still seems to find value in his work, citing his page on AI-generated answers about shoes. The problem is, people read Google’s summary and don’t visit his site anymore, Boly said.

“My content is good enough to scrape and summarize,” he said. “But it’s not good enough to show in your normal search results, which is how I make money and stay afloat.”

Google first said it would begin experimenting with generative AI in search last year, several months after OpenAI released ChatGPT. At the time, tech pundits speculated that AI chatbots could replace Google search as the place to find information. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Google’s biggest competitor, Microsoft, added an AI chatbot to his company’s search engine and in February 2023 goaded Google to “ come out and show that they can dance .”

The search giant started dancing. Though it had invented much of the AI technology enabling chatbots and had used it to power tools like Google Translate, it started putting generative AI tech into its other products. Google Docs, YouTube’s video-editing tools and the company’s voice assistant all got AI upgrades.

But search is Google’s most important product, accounting for about 57 percent of its $80 billion in revenue in the first quarter of this year. Over the years, search ads have been the cash cow Google needed to build its other businesses, like YouTube and cloud storage, and to stay competitive by buying up other companies .

Google has largely avoided AI answers for the moneymaking searches that host ads, said Andy Taylor, vice president of research at internet marketing firm Tinuiti.

When it does show an AI answer on “commercial” searches, it shows up below the row of advertisements. That could force websites to buy ads just to maintain their position at the top of search results.

Google has been testing the AI answers publicly for the past year, showing them to a small percentage of its billions of users as it tries to improve the technology.

Still, it routinely makes mistakes. A review by The Washington Post published in April found that Google’s AI answers were long-winded, sometimes misunderstood the question and made up fake answers.

The bar for success is high. While OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a novel product, consumers have spent years with Google and expect search results to be fast and accurate. The rush into generative AI might also run up against legal problems. The underlying tech behind OpenAI, Google, Meta and Microsoft’s AI was trained on millions of news articles, blog posts, e-books, recipes, social media comments and Wikipedia pages that were scraped from the internet without paying or asking permission of their original authors.

OpenAI and Microsoft have faced a string of lawsuits over alleged theft of copyrighted works .

“If journalists did that to each other, we’d call that plagiarism,” said Frank Pine, the executive editor of MediaNews Group, which publishes dozens of newspapers around the United States, including the Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and the Boston Herald. Several of the company’s papers sued OpenAI and Microsoft in April, alleging the companies used its news articles to train their AI.

If news organizations let tech companies, including Google, use their content to make AI summaries without payment or permission, it would be “calamitous” for the journalism industry, Pine said. The change could have an even bigger effect on newspapers than the loss of their classifieds businesses in the mid-2000s or Meta’s more recent pivot away from promoting news to its users, he said.

The move to AI answers, and the centralization of the web into a few portals isn’t slowing down. OpenAI has signed deals with web publishers — including Dotdash Meredith — to show their content prominently in its chatbot.

Matherne, of Easy Family Recipes, says she’s bracing for the changes by investing in social media channels and email newsletters.

“The internet’s kind of a scary place right now,” Matherne said. “You don’t know what to expect.”

A previous version of this story said MediaNews Group sued OpenAI and Microsoft. In fact, it was several of the company's newspapers that sued the tech companies. This story has been corrected.

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Is dark matter’s main rival theory dead? There’s bad news from the Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics, University of St Andrews

Senior Research Fellow of Cosmology, University of Portsmouth

Disclosure statement

Indranil Banik receives funding from the Science and Technologies Facilities Council to test MOND using the dynamics of wide binary stars.

Harry Desmond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Portsmouth and University of St Andrews provide funding as members of The Conversation UK.

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One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newton’s law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those laws working well everywhere in the Solar System.

To prevent galaxies from flying apart, some additional gravity is needed. This is why the idea of an invisible substance called dark matter was first proposed. But nobody has ever seen the stuff. And there are no particles in the hugely successful Standard Model of particle physics that could be the dark matter – it must be something quite exotic.

This has led to the rival idea that the galactic discrepancies are caused instead by a breakdown of Newton’s laws. The most successful such idea is known as Milgromian dynamics or Mond , proposed by Israeli physicist Mordehai Milgrom in 1982. But our recent research shows this theory is in trouble.

The main postulate of Mond is that gravity starts behaving differently to what Newton expected when it becomes very weak, as at the edges of galaxies. Mond is quite successful at predicting galaxy rotation without any dark matter, and it has a few other successes. But many of these can also be explained with dark matter, preserving Newton’s laws.

Read more: Dark matter: our review suggests it's time to ditch it in favour of a new theory of gravity

So how do we put Mond to a definitive test? We have been pursuing this for many years. The key is that Mond only changes the behaviour of gravity at low accelerations, not at a specific distance from an object. You’ll feel lower acceleration on the outskirts of any celestial object – a planet, star or galaxy – than when you are close to it. But it is the amount of acceleration, rather than the distance, that predicts where gravity should be stronger.

This means that, although Mond effects would typically kick in several thousand light years away from a galaxy, if we look at an individual star, the effects would become highly significant at a tenth of a light year. That is only a few thousand times larger than an astronomical unit (AU) – the distance between the Earth and the Sun. But weaker Mond effects should also be detectable at even smaller scales, such as in the outer Solar System.

This brings us to the Cassini mission , which orbited Saturn between 2004 and its final fiery crash into the planet in 2017. Saturn orbits the Sun at 10 AU. Due to a quirk of Mond, the gravity from the rest of our galaxy should cause Saturn’s orbit to deviate from the Newtonian expectation in a subtle way.

This can be tested by timing radio pulses between Earth and Cassini. Since Cassini was orbiting Saturn, this helped to measure the Earth-Saturn distance and allowed us to precisely track Saturn’s orbit. But Cassini did not find any anomaly of the kind expected in Mond. Newton still works well for Saturn.

One of us, Harry Desmond, recently published a study investigating the results in greater depth. Perhaps Mond would fit the Cassini data if we tweaked how we calculate galaxy masses from their brightness? That would affect how much of a boost to gravity Mond has to provide to fit models of galaxy rotation, and thus what we should expect for Saturn’s orbit.

Another uncertainty is the gravity from surrounding galaxies, which has a minor effect. But the study showed that, given how Mond would have to work to fit with models for galaxy rotation, it cannot also fit the Cassini radio tracking results – no matter how we tweak the calculations.

With the standard assumptions considered most likely by astronomers and allowing for a wide range of uncertainties, the chance of Mond matching the Cassini results is the same as a flipped coin landing heads up 59 times in a row. This is more than twice the “5 sigma” gold standard for a discovery in science, which corresponds to about 21 coin flips in a row.

More bad news for Mond

That’s not the only bad news for Mond. Another test is provided by wide binary stars – two stars that orbit a shared centre several thousand AU apart. Mond predicted that such stars should orbit around each other 20% faster than expected with Newton’s laws. But one of us, Indranil Banik, recently led a very detailed study that rules out this prediction. The chance of Mond being right given these results is the same as a fair coin landing heads up 190 times in a row.

Results from yet another team show that Mond also fails to explain small bodies in the distant outer Solar System. Comets coming in from out there have a much narrower distribution in energy than Mond predicts. These bodies also have orbits that are usually only slightly inclined to the plane that all the planets orbit close to. Mond would cause the inclinations to be much larger.

Newtonian gravity is strongly preferred over Mond on length scales below about a light year. But Mond also fails on scales larger than galaxies: it cannot explain the motions within galaxy clusters. Dark matter was first proposed by Fritz Zwicky in the 1930s to account for the random motions of galaxies within the Coma Cluster, which requires more gravity to hold it together than the visible mass can provide.

Mond cannot provide enough gravity either, at least in the central regions of galaxy clusters. But in their outskirts, Mond provides too much gravity. Assuming instead Newtonian gravity, with five times as much dark matter as normal matter, seems to provide a good fit to the data.

The standard dark matter model of cosmology isn’t perfect, however. There are things it struggles to explain , from the universe’s expansion rate to giant cosmic structures. So we may not yet have the perfect model. It seems dark matter is here to stay, but its nature may be different to what the Standard Model suggests. Or gravity may indeed be stronger than we think – but on very large scales only.

Ultimately though, Mond, as presently formulated, cannot be considered a viable alternative to dark matter any more. We may not like it, but the dark side still holds sway.

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It’s Time to End the Quiet Cruelty of Property Taxes

By Andrew W. Kahrl

Dr. Kahrl is a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia and the author of “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.”

Property taxes, the lifeblood of local governments and school districts, are among the most powerful and stealthy engines of racism and wealth inequality our nation has ever produced. And while the Biden administration has offered many solutions for making the tax code fairer, it has yet to effectively tackle a problem that has resulted not only in the extraordinary overtaxation of Black and Latino homeowners but also in the worsening of disparities between wealthy and poorer communities. Fixing these problems requires nothing short of a fundamental re-examination of how taxes are distributed.

In theory, the property tax would seem to be an eminently fair one: The higher the value of your property, the more you pay. The problem with this system is that the tax is administered by local officials who enjoy a remarkable degree of autonomy and that tax rates are typically based on the collective wealth of a given community. This results in wealthy communities enjoying lower effective tax rates while generating more tax revenues; at the same time, poorer ones are forced to tax property at higher effective rates while generating less in return. As such, property assessments have been manipulated throughout our nation’s history to ensure that valuable property is taxed the least relative to its worth and that the wealthiest places will always have more resources than poorer ones.

Black people have paid the heaviest cost. Since they began acquiring property after emancipation, African Americans have been overtaxed by local governments. By the early 1900s, an acre of Black-owned land was valued, for tax purposes, higher than an acre of white-owned land in most of Virginia’s counties, according to my calculations, despite being worth about half as much. And for all the taxes Black people paid, they got little to nothing in return. Where Black neighborhoods began, paved streets, sidewalks and water and sewer lines often ended. Black taxpayers helped to pay for the better-resourced schools white children attended. Even as white supremacists treated “colored” schools as another of the white man’s burdens, the truth was that throughout the Jim Crow era, Black taxpayers subsidized white education.

Freedom from these kleptocratic regimes drove millions of African Americans to move to Northern and Midwestern states in the Great Migration from 1915 to 1970, but they were unable to escape racist assessments, which encompassed both the undervaluation of their property for sales purposes and the overvaluation of their property for taxation purposes. During those years, the nation’s real estate industry made white-owned property in white neighborhoods worth more because it was white. Since local tax revenue was tied to local real estate markets, newly formed suburbs had a fiscal incentive to exclude Black people, and cities had even more reason to keep Black people confined to urban ghettos.

As the postwar metropolis became a patchwork of local governments, each with its own tax base, the fiscal rationale for segregation intensified. Cities were fiscally incentivized to cater to the interests of white homeowners and provide better services for white neighborhoods, especially as middle-class white people began streaming into the suburbs, taking their tax dollars with them.

One way to cater to wealthy and white homeowners’ interests is to intentionally conduct property assessments less often. The city of Boston did not conduct a citywide property reassessment between 1946 and 1977. Over that time, the values of properties in Black neighborhoods increased slowly when compared with the values in white neighborhoods or even fell, which led to property owners’ paying relatively more in taxes than their homes were worth. At the same time, owners of properties in white neighborhoods got an increasingly good tax deal as their neighborhoods increased in value.

As was the case in other American cities, Boston’s decision most likely derived from the fear that any updates would hasten the exodus of white homeowners and businesses to the suburbs. By the 1960s, assessments on residential properties in Boston’s poor neighborhoods were up to one and a half times as great as their actual values, while assessments in the city’s more affluent neighborhoods were, on average, 40 percent of market value.

Jersey City, N.J., did not conduct a citywide real estate reassessment between 1988 and 2018 as part of a larger strategy for promoting high-end real estate development. During that time, real estate prices along the city’s waterfront soared but their owners’ tax bills remained relatively steady. By 2015, a home in one of the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods worth $175,000 received the same tax bill as a home in the city’s downtown worth $530,000.

These are hardly exceptions. Numerous studies conducted during those years found that assessments in predominantly Black neighborhoods of U.S. cities were grossly higher relative to value than those in white areas.

These problems persist. A recent report by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy found that property assessments were regressive (meaning lower-valued properties were assessed higher relative to value than higher-valued ones) in 97.7 percent of U.S. counties. Black-owned homes and properties in Black neighborhoods continue to be devalued on the open market, making this regressive tax, in effect, a racist tax.

The overtaxation of Black homes and neighborhoods is also a symptom of a much larger problem in America’s federated fiscal structure. By design, this system produces winners and losers: localities with ample resources to provide the goods and services that we as a nation have entrusted to local governments and others that struggle to keep the lights on, the streets paved, the schools open and drinking water safe . Worse yet, it compels any fiscally disadvantaged locality seeking to improve its fortunes to do so by showering businesses and corporations with tax breaks and subsidies while cutting services and shifting tax burdens onto the poor and disadvantaged. A local tax on local real estate places Black people and cities with large Black populations at a permanent disadvantage. More than that, it gives middle-class white people strong incentives to preserve their relative advantages, fueling the zero-sum politics that keep Americans divided, accelerates the upward redistribution of wealth and impoverishes us all.

There are technical solutions. One, which requires local governments to adopt more accurate assessment models and regularly update assessment rolls, can help make property taxes fairer. But none of the proposed reforms being discussed can be applied nationally because local tax policies are the prerogative of the states and, often, local governments themselves. Given the variety and complexity of state and local property tax laws and procedures and how much local governments continue to rely on tax reductions and tax shifting to attract and retain certain people and businesses, we cannot expect them to fix these problems on their own.

The best way to make local property taxes fairer and more equitable is to make them less important. The federal government can do this by reinvesting in our cities, counties and school districts through a federal fiscal equity program, like those found in other advanced federated nations. Canada, Germany and Australia, among others, direct federal funds to lower units of government with lower capacities to raise revenue.

And what better way to pay for the program than to tap our wealthiest, who have benefited from our unjust taxation scheme for so long? President Biden is calling for a 25 percent tax on the incomes and annual increases in the values of the holdings of people claiming more than $100 million in assets, but we could accomplish far more by enacting a wealth tax on the 1 percent. Even a modest 4 percent wealth tax on people whose total assets exceed $50 million could generate upward of $400 billion in additional annual revenue, which should be more than enough to ensure that the needs of every city, county and public school system in America are met. By ensuring that localities have the resources they need, we can counteract the unequal outcomes and rank injustices that our current system generates.

Andrew W. Kahrl is a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia and the author of “ The Black Tax : 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.”

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Scientists use generative AI to answer complex questions in physics

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When water freezes, it transitions from a liquid phase to a solid phase, resulting in a drastic change in properties like density and volume. Phase transitions in water are so common most of us probably don’t even think about them, but phase transitions in novel materials or complex physical systems are an important area of study.

To fully understand these systems, scientists must be able to recognize phases and detect the transitions between. But how to quantify phase changes in an unknown system is often unclear, especially when data are scarce.

Researchers from MIT and the University of Basel in Switzerland applied generative artificial intelligence models to this problem, developing a new machine-learning framework that can automatically map out phase diagrams for novel physical systems.

Their physics-informed machine-learning approach is more efficient than laborious, manual techniques which rely on theoretical expertise. Importantly, because their approach leverages generative models, it does not require huge, labeled training datasets used in other machine-learning techniques.

Such a framework could help scientists investigate the thermodynamic properties of novel materials or detect entanglement in quantum systems, for instance. Ultimately, this technique could make it possible for scientists to discover unknown phases of matter autonomously.

“If you have a new system with fully unknown properties, how would you choose which observable quantity to study? The hope, at least with data-driven tools, is that you could scan large new systems in an automated way, and it will point you to important changes in the system. This might be a tool in the pipeline of automated scientific discovery of new, exotic properties of phases,” says Frank Schäfer, a postdoc in the Julia Lab in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and co-author of a paper on this approach.

Joining Schäfer on the paper are first author Julian Arnold, a graduate student at the University of Basel; Alan Edelman, applied mathematics professor in the Department of Mathematics and leader of the Julia Lab; and senior author Christoph Bruder, professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Basel. The research is published today in Physical Review Letters.

Detecting phase transitions using AI

While water transitioning to ice might be among the most obvious examples of a phase change, more exotic phase changes, like when a material transitions from being a normal conductor to a superconductor, are of keen interest to scientists.

These transitions can be detected by identifying an “order parameter,” a quantity that is important and expected to change. For instance, water freezes and transitions to a solid phase (ice) when its temperature drops below 0 degrees Celsius. In this case, an appropriate order parameter could be defined in terms of the proportion of water molecules that are part of the crystalline lattice versus those that remain in a disordered state.

In the past, researchers have relied on physics expertise to build phase diagrams manually, drawing on theoretical understanding to know which order parameters are important. Not only is this tedious for complex systems, and perhaps impossible for unknown systems with new behaviors, but it also introduces human bias into the solution.

More recently, researchers have begun using machine learning to build discriminative classifiers that can solve this task by learning to classify a measurement statistic as coming from a particular phase of the physical system, the same way such models classify an image as a cat or dog.

The MIT researchers demonstrated how generative models can be used to solve this classification task much more efficiently, and in a physics-informed manner.

The Julia Programming Language , a popular language for scientific computing that is also used in MIT’s introductory linear algebra classes, offers many tools that make it invaluable for constructing such generative models, Schäfer adds.

Generative models, like those that underlie ChatGPT and Dall-E, typically work by estimating the probability distribution of some data, which they use to generate new data points that fit the distribution (such as new cat images that are similar to existing cat images).

However, when simulations of a physical system using tried-and-true scientific techniques are available, researchers get a model of its probability distribution for free. This distribution describes the measurement statistics of the physical system.

A more knowledgeable model

The MIT team’s insight is that this probability distribution also defines a generative model upon which a classifier can be constructed. They plug the generative model into standard statistical formulas to directly construct a classifier instead of learning it from samples, as was done with discriminative approaches.

“This is a really nice way of incorporating something you know about your physical system deep inside your machine-learning scheme. It goes far beyond just performing feature engineering on your data samples or simple inductive biases,” Schäfer says.

This generative classifier can determine what phase the system is in given some parameter, like temperature or pressure. And because the researchers directly approximate the probability distributions underlying measurements from the physical system, the classifier has system knowledge.

This enables their method to perform better than other machine-learning techniques. And because it can work automatically without the need for extensive training, their approach significantly enhances the computational efficiency of identifying phase transitions.

At the end of the day, similar to how one might ask ChatGPT to solve a math problem, the researchers can ask the generative classifier questions like “does this sample belong to phase I or phase II?” or “was this sample generated at high temperature or low temperature?”

Scientists could also use this approach to solve different binary classification tasks in physical systems, possibly to detect entanglement in quantum systems (Is the state entangled or not?) or determine whether theory A or B is best suited to solve a particular problem. They could also use this approach to better understand and improve large language models like ChatGPT by identifying how certain parameters should be tuned so the chatbot gives the best outputs.

In the future, the researchers also want to study theoretical guarantees regarding how many measurements they would need to effectively detect phase transitions and estimate the amount of computation that would require.

This work was funded, in part, by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the MIT-Switzerland Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives.

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Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new machine-learning model capable of “predicting a physical system’s phase or state,” report Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch . 

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Apple News+ could be a lifeline for news & magazine sites

While many publishers were initially cautious about the launch of Apple News+ , with some fearing that it could do more harm than good, there’s increasing evidence that it might act as a lifeline in what has become an increasingly precarious business.

News sites have faced a two-pronged challenge in recent years: Traffic alone is worth less than it used to be, and driving that traffic has become far harder …

The twin challenges for news sites

When ad rates are high, and a reasonable proportion of casual visitors end up taking out a paid subscription, then traffic to a news site has significant value. But what many publishers have experienced is lower ad revenue on a per-visitor basis, and declining sign-ups to paid memberships as subscription fatigue takes effect.

Alongside this, traffic to news sites has fallen, as sites struggle to adjust to changes to Google’s algorithm. The search giant’s attempts to combat a growing volume of AI junk on the web have also hit quality sites.

Many feared Apple News+ could make things worse

When Apple News+ first launched, many in the news business were concerned that the app could hurt them. Mark Thompson, CEO of the New York Times, was particularly vocal about it back in 2019.

Thompson argued that accepting Apple’s terms would be handing all of the power to the Cupertino company, and that decision was likely to come back to bite publications which joined in. He said lessons could be learned from the Netflix experience, where broadcasters happily sold their content to the video streaming service, only to find that it turned into a one-sided deal further down the line.

In particular, he said, it reduced the relationship readers feel with a particular publication.

But many are now upbeat about it

A former Daily Beast reporter wrote in Semafor that it was a real savior for the site.

The program made all of the publication’s buzziest exclusives available to paying Apple subscribers, behind Apple’s own paywall. And the impact for a mid-sized news site was immediate, putting the Beast on track to make between $3-4 million in revenue this year from Apple News alone — more than its own standalone subscription program, and without much additional cost.

Other publications seem to have had similarly positive experiences.

Executives at companies including Condé Nast, Penske Media, Vox, Hearst, and Time all told Semafor that Apple News+ has come to represent a substantial stream of direct revenue. A spokesperson for Time said that Apple News has become “one of our most important partners and delivers 7-figures of revenue for TIME annually.”

Not everyone shares that view. Thompson did finally put the New York Times into Apple News, but withdrew it the following year, stating that the paper wanted to build direct relationships with its own readers. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos expressed the same concern, declining to participate in Apple News+ (though it does post some pieces through the free tier of the app). But for some publishers, Apple’s news app seems to have been not just a positive force, but one key to survival.

Image: Apple

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Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!

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