A Fired Demand Studios Writer Reports on Life in the Demand Studios Writer Development Program (WDP) / Writer Evaluation Program (WEP)

By Demand Studios Review Editorial

Posted On 8/22/11

Today we have an especially important post for all Demand Studios writers. This is the most in depth look so far into the dreaded Demand Studios Writer Development Program (WDP), also known as the Demand Studios Writer Evaluation Program (WEP).

Former Demand Media Studios writer Arianna Swain reports on her experience in the WDP. Not only does she offer up her scores prior to the email telling her she was included in the Writer Development Program, she even provides the actual email sent by Demand Media. Also included is the email telling her she was no longer allowed to write for Demand Media, which as you’ll see was brief, to put it nicely.

We want to thank Arianna for this honest and well written post. Check her out at AriannaSwain.net and at Merope Press.

If you would like to contribute a guest blog on Demand Studios Review, please send an email to demandstudiosreview@gmail.com.

And now, we’ll let Arianna take it away…

Life in and After the Demand Studios WDP / WEP

By Arianna Swain

I worked for Demand Studios for nearly three years. As a freelance writer, Demand was one of my top clients with constant work available and the enviable twice weekly payments. When the scorecard was introduced, I thought it was a great way to begin monitoring my articles with Demand Studios. My research scores were consistently a 4 or higher, my grammar scores wavered between a 3.8 and a 4.2. I thought I was in pretty good shape.

The week that the WEP "program" began I was planning a trip to Europe, so I was putting in more work than my usual part time work. I woke up on Tuesday morning, checked my work desk, went for a walk, and came back to find that all of my work and claimed articles had vanished. I had a note at the top of my work desk telling me: “Attention writer, you have been selected for the Writer Development Program. Your claim limit has been lowered to three articles. Please see your email for additional information.” Below is a copy of the email I received:

Dear Arianna,

We are writing to inform you that you have been identified as a candidate for our Writer Evaluation program. Our Writer Evaluation program allows you to work closely with our Senior Editors, and serves as a tool to help you raise the overall quality of your work.

As part of the Program, your claim limit will be lowered to three. These three articles will be reviewed carefully by one of our Senior Editors and must meet a high standard of quality in order for you to regain normal writing permissions within the Studio.

Some things to note about your current work in progress:

·          Titles claimed - Any claimed titles you have yet to start work on will be automatically removed from your queue.

·          Articles Pending Review or Rewrite - Any articles submitted up to this point will be reviewed as part of the normal editorial process. They will not count toward your three article submissions.

·          Articles in Draft - Any articles in draft will remain in draft and you can submit any or all of them. However, note that the first three of these articles submitted will be reviewed by our Senior Editors as part of the development program.

Note: If you have fewer than three articles in draft or wish to unclaim any articles, you will be able to claim up to three new assignments.

Once your three articles pass through our Senior Editors, we will let you know the results of the evaluation. It should also be noted that when our Senior Editors are reviewing your work, your first submitted draft of each article will carry much more weight than the finished product. In addition, there will be a zero-rejection policy in effect for the three articles.

We value the working relationship we have with you and all our writers, and hope you find this program beneficial.

Best Regards,

Demand Media Studios Editorial Team

I knew the tales of the last “development” program that Demand had implemented. So few writers survived that process that it immediately put me on guard and searching for new clients.

I took the evening, took a breath, and selected three articles the next morning. I spent all day on Wednesday writing these three articles. I sat on pins and needles for four days before the first of my articles was sent through without a rewrite request. When I looked at the article, the editor that I was “working with” had made several notes and rephrased several sentences.

As the article was not sent back for rewrite and the editor did not contact me at all during this process, there was nothing “developed”, nothing for me to do. I waited and searched the forums for more information on what the pass/fail criteria was for this program. Very few answers and little guidance was given from the staff.

The only determined scale seemed to be that if an article was rejected, you were out as a writer. If all articles went through, you seemed to be okay.

My second article was returned for a rewrite. I spent another day rewriting the article and sent it back for review.

By Wednesday of that week my third article had gone through without a rewrite request. The comments from the editor on that article were severe and the editor had given it a low rating all the way around. From the editor’s comments, it did not seem that the editor understood the material covered in the article. I have no idea why they would have chosen this article to edit for such an influential program or why they would have not sent it back for a rewrite if they were not satisfied with it.

The article went straight through and the rewritten article went through the next day. The editor for the rewrite gave a glowing review of my work but did not rate the article. Upon further review of my scorecard, I noticed that only a third of my articles for Demand Studios were ever rated according to their counts.

My last article for WEP went through at 1 am on Thursday, a week after the “program” began. By 8:05 the same morning I had received the following email from Demand titled “Writer Evaluation Progress”:

Greetings,

We are writing to inform you that after careful review of the articles you submitted to our Senior Editors while in the Writer Evaluation program, we will regretfully be removing your writing permissions from the Studio.

We want to let you know that this decision was not approached lightly. We carefully reviewed the majority of your work before we arrived at this conclusion.

If you currently have any work in progress, these articles may be submitted for review and payment if approved. However, effective today, you will no longer be permitted to claim additional titles.

If you are currently approved for any other roles within the Studio, this decision does not affect them in any way.

We wish you luck with your future writing projects.

Best Regards,

Demand Media Studios Editorial Team

That was it. A form letter. No explanation, nothing.

I logged on to my work desk to see if I could request further information. If it was bad enough for me to lose a client over, I would like to know what mistake I was making so that I could remedy it.

All of my communication privileges had also been revoked at that time. I received payment for the three WEP articles that had gone through for publication by Demand. I was never allowed to put through any work that had been in progress at the start of WEP. I was not allowed to “work with” a Senior Editor. My articles nor my scores were discussed with me to provide any type of development as a writer.

If this had been a routine performance review from an employer where the issues were evaluated and discussed with me as an employee that would have been acceptable. To be summarily dismissed from Demand without any information was offensive to me as a writer.

While I realize that as a contract employee, Demand retains the right to void my contract for any reason at any time, calling a mass firing a development evaluation program left a bad taste in my mouth for DMS. If this had been an opportunity for improvement as they stated, I believe they would have given the writers involved more information on why they had been selected and what their criteria was for failure or success, along with actual feedback that the writers could act upon.

I personally found WEP to be a profound waste of time that cost me far more money to execute blindly and without chance of a positive outcome than if I had simply received an email from Demand relieving me of my writing permissions, allowing me to utilize the time spent on WEP articles for work with clients who value my work.

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