Major Shake Up at About.com

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WriteUR

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The company just fired a bunch of writers, some of whom had very successful sites and had been there for years, in some cases since day one. It's a sad day, indeed.
 

Kylabelle

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Was any explanation offered?
 

WriteUR

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Nope. In some cases, writers got termination emails saying that this was a "business decision," whatever that means. In other cases, there was no warning at all. Just locked out of their sites. Otherwise, there was no warning, and no rhyme or reason.
 

WriterBN

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I don't normally check this subforum, but saw this post today. Oddly enough, a few hours later I received an e-mail notifying me that Yahoo is shutting down its Yahoo Voices and Yahoo Contributor Network. I haven't been active there for many years, but I wonder if more content sites will follow suit.
 

WriteUR

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Since I last posted, 9 more writers were terminated, bringing the total to 17 within a three-day period. About was bought by IAC last year, and they are undergoing a big site redesign, and firing writers at the same time. What's weird is that they got rid of a lot of long-time writers, who had very popular sites that were money-makers. My colleagues and I speculate that they are gearing up to operate with a skeletal crew of writers, and will just glean income from the content that the writers who were terminated left behind. Either that, or they will succeed in running it into the ground, and will go belly up in a year or two.
 

Ralyks

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Looks like lots of people are getting out of the content business lately. I wonder if there will be any new avenues in the future or if it is an idea whose time is gone.
 

WriteUR

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I don't know what they're thinking there, but I don't see how this can last at the rate they are going.
 

Pikko

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Is it possible they're just kicking out the experienced people to hire people at cheaper starting rates? I've frequented FlexJobs for a few months and I'm constantly seeing About.com job postings in droves for months. They say it takes months to hire people from their applicants too, so maybe by now they've found the noobs they want to hire?
 

herdon

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It's nothing so sinister. In fact, the new writers might cost them more money than the old writers in some cases. I'm not sure exactly what the new writer payment system is like these days, but in general, About.com has made sure that new writers receive money for their work even if that work isn't yet paying off in terms of page views and advertising revenue.

The new executive staff is executing a lot of new (and, in most cases, good) changes and a little bit of guide turnover isn't surprising. I believe the entire 'topic writer' idea has been axed and the writers let go. That was a product of the old staff. I'm willing to bet that new topics aren't getting filled as quickly because of all the changes.

One of the biggest changes they are making is to bring the website into a more modern era instead of the very early/mid 2000s look. Here's the new site:

http://homerepair.about.com

You can compare it to my very old and drab site:

http://ipad.about.com

My site should get converted later this month. I can't wait.
 

Pikko

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Whoa. That is a pretty stark change, very modern and nice, though it is a bit busy. I like the author box much better.

I submitted myself for a few categories, but didn't expect a response just because the topics I could write about were some pretty popular pop culture ones.
 
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