You make it sound as if there is something wrong with writing for money. Being a writer is actually a job. Those of us who are professional writers do actually write for money.

I went back to do some research on Newsbreak. The people who own it were looking for a gap in the market place, and they saw that there was a gap for local news. Only, it isn't really a gap. Most people are not interested in local news. That is why online news sources don't focus on it so much. The market for it is too small to make it viable, and the smaller the village or town, the less it becomes viable.

I'm betting it will fold. How is it financed? Through advertising? Remember, if the site can't find local advertisers to pay for content in that particular town or village, Newsbreak isn't going to be particularly willing to pay the writer for news of that village.

Also, a view is a bounce. This means that people clicked on the story but didn't read it. If they didn't read it, they weren't exposed to the advertising. I don't know why so many writers get excited about views. It's meaningless.

As someone who has little interest in local news (not even in Lisbon, where I moved three weeks ago), or Dusseldorf (where I stayed for 10 weeks before that (or George, South Africa, where I stayed for a year before that, or Cape Town, etc. etc. Local news does not interest me. I am interested in the big picture - specifically climate change, pandemics, etc.