Categories: OLD Media Moves

Seeking Alpha pays $270,000 a month to contributors

Eli Hoffman, the senior vice president of content and editor in chief of Seeking Alpha, writes about how the financial news and investment site pays its contributors.

Hoffman writes, “We pay contributors who publish articles that are exclusive to Seeking Alpha. The base payment is $10/CPM (1,000 page-views). For high-quality analysis of stocks that otherwise lack good research, we have two additional payment tiers: i) Small-Cap Insight – we pay a minimum of $150 per article for high-quality small-cap research, as selected by our editors. ii) Top Ideas – for top small-cap ideas with exceptionally attractive risk/reward profiles (1-10 per day) we pay $500.

“We launched article payments in early 2011 with the per-page-view model. Contributors were happy, but said the focus on page-views led them to publish analysis on very popular stocks and topics. Since unusual investment opportunities (‘alpha’) are often found in lesser-followed stocks, this wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Unlike traditional media businesses, in equity research there is often an inverse correlation between broad appeal and value.

“This led us to change our payment model and channel a large percentage of author payments to quality rather than popularity. Having said that, I still think too much of the decision about what constitutes quality rests in editors’ hands. In a true marketplace, consumers determine the value of an item, not an expert panel. Because of this, I am intrigued by ways in which SA can more closely mimic the characteristics of a marketplace, in which those who provide the greatest net value are most successful. I welcome your suggestions.

Are all contributors paid?

“No. Some contributors decline payment for a variety of reasons; they can direct their payments to a charity of their choice. Others prefer to syndicate their research through a variety of channels, and decline payment in order that their articles not be exclusive.

How much do you pay contributors per month?

“Contributor payments are the lion’s share of our editorial costs. In a typical month, we pay $270,000 to contributors – $150,000 in page-view payments, and $120,000 in minimum-guaranteed article-quality payments.”