Pheed Gains Ground, Gawker Branded Pages, Freelancer Economics

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

Pheed, a Platform for Branded Content

Pheed, a new social platform on which users can share photo, video, audio, text, live broadcasts, and other various content, has garnered over one million users since it was introduced last August.

According to Digiday, brands have the capability to charge for content, and Pheed receives half of the profits.

Pepsi, Macy’s, and General Electric are already on the site, but have not yet begun to create their own content “pheeds.” Miley Cyrus had success on the site, when she posted some audio and 10,000 people logged onto the page in a mere 30 seconds to hear it. The article asks, will people pay for content from brands?

Gawker’s Branded Content Success

Felicia of NewsCred writes about Gawker and the success its had with its branded content.

There are eight people working in the brand content studio, which has been running since 2007. The blog “currently blends native and legacy advertising but is continuing to figure out how to bundle it best” and works with brands in the consumer electronics, travel, financial, and entertainment industries, to name a few.

Erin Pettigrew, director of business development at Gawker, said, “The publishers that are going to be most successful, are the ones that know how to tell stories. … Ultimately that’s what people want, they want to be entertained.”

Making Money in Freelancing

Forbes’ Susannah Breslin highlights ways that freelance writers can make money. 

When it comes to being a journalist, it can vary: “This is the life of the freelance journalist. One day you’re worth pennies. The next day you’re making several thousand dollars for a story you wrote in a few hours.”

Being a copywriter is very lucrative (she made $100 an hour), but soul-sucking, and as an editor, she made decent money and got to be around other writers. As a scriptwriter, her work never came out as she submitted it (but the money was good), and speaking gigs ended up being more work than she hoped for, with the traveling and preparation taking up time.

Freelancers and the Economy

The Atlantic describes the life of freelancers and how the number of independent workers has greatly increased since the economy’s downward spiral.

Highlighting The Freelancer’s Bible, the book written by Sara Horowitz, executive director of the Freelancers Union, Richard Greenwald writes, “Freelancers are nimble, technologically sophisticated and connected, they have formed hives or communities, but their have not yet found their political and collective voice.”

Australian Company Buys Freelancing Site

Freelancer.com, run out of Australia, has purchased vWorker, the fourth-largest marketplace for freelancers in the world, according to The Australian.

The company stated that it “now would have 6.6 million professionals, offering everything from website and software design and mobile device computing to writing, engineering, sales, translation and data entry.”

Oh, Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, media mogul, has caused a stir on Twitter by posting a controversial statement this past weekend. According to the New York Times, he wrote, “Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?,” leading to charges of anti-semitism.

Critics also point out that coverage in his own newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and Times of London, could be skewed now because of the comment. He has since apologized, saying, “‘Jewish owned press’ have been sternly criticised, suggesting link to Jewish reporters. Don’t see this, but apologise unreservedly.”

Microsoft Trashes iPhone in New Video

Mashable reports that Microsoft has released a new video of representative of the company asking people to compare the new Nokia Lumia 920 to the iPhone.

The company has done the same thing in the past with its computers and Zume, comparing them favorably to Macs and iPods. In the video he “disses” Apple’s products and proclaims the Microsoft’s are better.