"As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place"

"A nationwide operation of 1,300 local sites publishes coverage that is ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms."

"The instructions were clear: Write an article calling out Sara Gideon, a Democrat running for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat in Maine, as a hypocrite.

Angela Underwood, a freelance reporter in upstate New York, took the $22 assignment over email. She contacted the spokesman for Senator Susan Collins, the Republican opponent, and wrote an article on his accusations that Ms. Gideon was two-faced for criticizing shadowy political groups and then accepting their help.

The short article was published on Maine Business Daily, a seemingly run-of-the-mill news website, under the headline “Sen. Collins camp says House Speaker Gideon’s actions are hypocritical.” It extensively quoted Ms. Collins’s spokesman but had no comment from Ms. Gideon’s campaign."

Davey Alba and Jack Nicas report for the New York Times October 18, 2020.

SEE ALSO:

"As Election Looms, A Network Of Mysterious ‘Pink Slime’ Local News Outlets Nearly Triples In Size" (Columbia Journalistm Review: 8/4/2020)

"Hundreds of ‘Pink Slime’ Local News Outlets Are Distributing Algorithmic Stories And Conservative Talking Points" (CJR)