BuzzFeed to pay up to $10K for user-contributed content

BuzzFeed for the first time is paying fans for the content they contribute to the website, offering as much as $10,000 for quizzes, listicles and more as part of a new summer program, Variety reported Monday.

The media company is launching an initiative called the Summer Writers’ Challenge, which will pay cash to contributors for an eight-week period from June 15 to August 15. 

NEW: @BuzzFeeders is paying out its Community contributors during the “Summer Writers’ Challenge,” an unlimited fund that will give writers payouts for each high-performing post from Tuesday, June 15 – Sunday, August 15. https://t.co/oqEpAPnPAj

— BuzzFeed PR (@BuzzFeedPR) June 14, 2021

The pay scale hinges on how viral the user-generated content is. 

For posts that surpass 150,000 views, a contributor will get $150; a contributor who gets 500,00 views on a post will receive $500; more than one million views will net a contributor $2,000; and $10,000 will go to those who have at least 4 million views on a post. 

Peggy Wang, BuzzFeed’s executive director of growth and trends, told Variety that their website’s community is important to them, adding that they are looking at other ways to reward community contributors in the future. 

“Our BuzzFeed community is incredibly valuable to us — our contributors are our audience, and opening up our platform means BuzzFeed can better represent and serve our audience’s needs,” Wang told Variety. 

Users must be 16 years or older and a legal U.S. resident to apply for the writers’ challenge.