Complaint Review: www.examiner.com

With so many ambiguous loopholes on how you get paid, it is no wonder that they are unable to keep writers for very long. I didn't ramp up my writing until this past fall and that is when I realized that I wasn't going to get paid for the work I already did. I inquired if I made a mistake in my math or tallying videos/photos ($1/video), and what the profit was from attaching a slideshow or photo. Subsequent emails did not get a reply or even a phone call. 

I should have received about $50 - just for the videos, but that doesn't count the 79 articles I wrote that had slideshows and multiple photos. Additionally, I started to keep an excel ss on how often they changed the number of times my articles were reviewed and how often someone looked at a slideshow. Not only did these numbers change hourly, each day they would change dramatically. For example, Monday would show 35 people viewed my articles, then the next day it was 144, the following day it was 47? Using creative math, I couldn't figure out how they were arriving at these numbers. Sometimes the number at the end of the month was incredibly low which statistically did not add up if your monthly numbers were successively and consistently increasing. For example, I received 560 views for one month and the next month it was 166. 

Knowing this, it makes it difficult to ascertain what is true and what isn't. The site will have varying messages posted on the support screen stating that their engineers are aware of some problem and are working to correct it. In communicating with the people at examiner.com., you find out quickly that either you are dealing with a bunch of interns/teenagers who lack ethics, professionalism and honesty or that there are two people who are playing multiple roles. 

Although I did get promoted to write content for CBS Local Charlotte, CBS Local did pay me (through Clarity Digital) quickly for the content that I wrote for them.

In researching the company, I did find out that although they have $8 billion in assets, they do not show a profit and loss statement, nor was there a record of paying taxes - ever. The billionaire Philip Anschutz owns Clarity Digital Group, dba examiner.com., and recently (September - I think) sold the company to a new CEO with 30 years experience in media. I considered writing to Philip, but felt that my letter would be ignored and my thoughts dismissed.