Inside Examiner.com’s local push

Cory Bergman August 16th, 2008

As you may know, the billionaire owner of the SF Examiner, Philip Anschutz, is pushing into local markets with Examiner.com — online newspapers that mix local aggregation with original columns and community features. Right now there are Examiner.com’s in 57 cities — see Seattle’s here — with plans to delve even deeper into larger neighborhoods. In your city, you may notice a local blogger or two that’s contributing content. Here’s the compensation model gleaned from a recent email from Examiner.com to a local blogger: Writers, called “Examiners,” are paid as independent contractors. The base rate is $2.50 per 1,000 pageviews, but there will be incentives/awards that may increase a writer’s pay. Payouts occur monthly if the total compensation is $50 or more.

Part of the pitch is the ability for bloggers to promote themselves on Examiner.com. “It’s free advertising for you and a guaranteed bump in your page views and readership,” explains the email. “This is going to be a big hit as we continue to grow. We want to give people a chance to be on board from the start and grab a share of our audience and find more readers.” Examiner.com says its pageviews have reached 6 million a month and growing.