Is the Hot New Story About Ghostwriters Too Good to Fact Check?

Earlier this week, Insider profiled a ghostwriter who says he works 5 hours a week and makes $200K. What’s his niche? Writing tweets for venture capitalists.

Also, this is his side hustle; at his main job, he has dozens of employees.

Before you say, “How do I get one of these gigs?” let’s apply a little journalistic skepticism to these boasts.

The reporter says he saw screenshots of bank statements and wire transfers.

1️⃣ You don’t need Photoshop to manipulate a screenshot.

2️⃣ What about seeing some *invoices*? I’d be curious to see if those documents simply say “ghostwriting” or “social media,” or if they include details (like 10 tweets/month)? Also, do the invoices include other services, or is the $200K solely and specifically for ghostwriting tweets?

3️⃣ The writer says he sends his messages to clients via Trello. Well, did the reporter see the Trello boards? Did he compare the tweets submitted with the tweets published?

4️⃣ The writer says he “made about $200K” last year. What does “about” mean? $170K? $195K? This is still big money, but why didn’t the reporter press for an exact amount?

5️⃣ Why didn’t the reporter talk to any of the writer’s clients? Or at least contact them, so he could say they declined to comment? This is journalism 101.

6️⃣ The writer says he charged $100K for a threaded tweet. He later says, “Threads don’t work.” Does this blanket statement include his own $100K payday? A reputable publication shouldn’t let this kind of discrepancy stand unacknowledged.

Business Insider continues to play the headline game superbly!

Article Headline
Why Microsoft paid untold millions to bring the world’s most well-known gamer, Ninja, to its own streaming platform

Page Headline
Why Microsoft’s exclusivity deal with Ninja was a brilliant move

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Addendum (10/27/2019):

Same with Vox:

Article Headline
Trump’s Baghdadi press conference shows how he ruins even his best moments

Page Headline
ISIS leader Baghdadi’s death: Trump’s 5 most stunning remarks

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Addendum (10/28/2019):

And New York:

Article Headline
The Zombie Campaign: Joe Biden is the least formidable front-runner ever. Will it matter?

Page Headline
Inside Joe Biden’s 2020 Presidential Campaign

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Addendum (11/3/2019):

Slate, too!

Article Headline
Let’s All Stop Mindlessly Clicking and Sharing Zombie Links

Page Headline
Deadspin firings and what you can do to fight bad content.

A Typical Day on Business Insider

Tom Scocca:

The home page of Business Insider today is full of headlines that use the “curiosity gap” technique:

1. CARL ICAHN WARNS: It would be disastrous

2. The man who delivered one of the great economic speeches in history just made a bold move to bolster India’s economy

3. This health-conscious fast food chain is challenging McDonald’s to be healthier

4. Your Mac is going to change this week

5. NASA’s “major” Mars water news is a distraction from something much more exciting

Should Scoops Come in a Single Serving, or in Multiple Flavors?

Faced with a scoop, big publications like the Times and Post tend to cram everything into one long article. Business Insider follows the same playbook, except when it doesn’t.

An example of the latter approach appeared last week, when reporter Alyson Shontell wrote up the story of Noah Kagan, an early Facebook employee who was fired and thus missed out on $185 million in stock options. Alyson extracted four different angles from Noah’s new book:

Article	Page Views
Young Mark Zuckerberg Allegedly Threw Water on an Engineer’s Computer and Threatened Employees With a Samurai Sword	80,289
How an Early Facebook Employee Messed Up, Got Fired, and Cost Himself $185 Million	47,986
The Intimidating First Conversation an Early Facebook Employee Had With Mark Zuckerberg	26,497
How I Got My Job As One Of Facebook’s First 30 Employees	5,734

Would combining these short takes into a longer single narrative have drawn more traffic? What do you think?

A Tale of 2 Articles: How 2 Websites Market the Same Article

	Slate	Business Insider	Winner
Article Title	How Pornhub Milks Its Own Traffic Data	Sex Site Pornhub Has Figured Out A Brilliant Way To Get Free Publicity	Business Insider
Page Title	Pornhub Insights: How a porn site milks its own traffic data for publicity.	Pornhub Milks Its Own Traffic Data	Slate
Tweet	Pornhub Is Milking Its Own Traffic Data for All It’s Worth	Sex Site Pornhub Has Figured Out A Brilliant Way To Get Free Publicity	Business Insider
Facebook	Pornhub Is Milking Its Own Traffic Data for All It’s Worth	N/A	Slate

What do you think?

Related: A Headline Is Worth a Thousand Words