Happy International Freelancer’s Day! In honor of the occasion, I am calling attention to Ebyline, a new service announced in June. The service is catering to the growing number of businesses that choose to hire contract-based or freelance workers as needed instead of adding to their full-time staff.
Ebyline is an online platform that connects publishers with journalists and other freelance content providers through a virtual newsroom. The goal is to provide publishers, editors, brands, and content developers with access to top-quality freelance writers at an affordable cost.
Ebyline’s pitch to freelance writers is that their service enables you to receive and track assignments from multiple clients, and “Get paid for your work quickly, without the need to create invoices and follow up on payments owed.”
In the press release announcing the company’s launch, Ebyline’s CEO and co-founder Bill Momary said that “Ebyline has recruited and curated a stable of over 2,000 highly qualified freelance writers and journalists in the U.S. With our simple management tools, these journalists are now readily available to newspapers, magazines, blogs and brands that are looking to expand their quality content. Our trusted network allows publications to cover any topic, or create any story they want efficiently and professionally.”
Publishers and businesses can use Ebyline’s self-service platform to manage content production, hire professional journalists, and expand coverage. Four tiers of service are offered:
Basic: This free version of the Virtual Newsroom gives users a simple, clean, easy-to-use dashboard to track all of their freelancers, staff writers, assignments, due dates, pitches and other workflow tasks. The dashboard makes it easy to invite freelancers into the system, assign stories, provide background media, negotiate pricing and track projects through to completion.
Plus: This level offers all of the workflow tools of the Basic product plus features that can help publishers find journalists, expand coverage, and manage operations. For example, by accessing Ebyline’s database of contributors, publishers can find journalists for spot reporting or writers with expertise in specific topics. Ebyline Plus also offers plagiarism scanning tools , reporting and stats, and access to syndicated content from a range of publishers.
Plus w/Payments: Publishers who choose this level of service receive features that allow them to automatically manage all invoicing, billing and payment to freelancers. The payment system also handles all 1099s and independent contractor agreements.
Enterprise: The complete Virtual Newsroom solution can help publications be more efficient while aligning their business models with new economic realities. With the Virtual Newsroom, publishers can automate freelancer administration tasks including assignment and pitch flow, tax management, and electronic payment processing. Through Ebyline’s marketplace platform, publishers can earn incremental revenue by selling news content directly to other publishers.
The Enterprise edition also offers custom integration with the publisher’s CMS/publishing tool, access to Ebyline’s content strategy team, and advanced management features including private domains.
“Our goal is to help business users and publishers concentrate on their core strengths by automating the content production workflow,” said Allen Narcisse, Ebyline’s COO and co-founder. “The reality is that 70 percent of writers and reporters work for themselves nowadays, and hiring qualified outside sources to produce reliable, quality content has traditionally been a high-cost, inefficient endeavor. Now publishers and business users can access Ebyline and manage all aspects of the freelance hiring process – from hiring to payments to project management – immediately and inexpensively.”
Ebyline’s founders are veterans of the Los Angeles Times and specialists in new content distribution models. Ebyline’s client partners include E.W. Scripps & Col., Gatehouse Media, Intel, and others.
LINKS
