Demand Media Reviews

Pros

Communication between departments within media engineering is excellent.

Management and Senior Management are very skilled and respectable. Their ideas are creative and notable.

The company culture is very friendly and open, you can be honest with managers and senior managers, and they will be honest with you.

The compensation is good. The benefits are above average.

Cons

Bad press because of underpaid editors and authors creating bad content.

Lack of engineering background by senior management and product management.

Advice to Senior Management

The culture in the Santa Monica offices is awesome, keep it up.

Pros

Learned to write to numerous topics. Reliable and frequent pay. Some rate increases. In the early days, the editorial team was supportive and committed to quality content.

Cons

Total lack of transparency with contractors led to extreme disgruntlement. Failed to resolve ongoing editorial issues. Hired writers with only glancing blow writing experience and flooded the system with WAY too many writers. Followed a typical corporate business model of race to the bottom line and not care about quality and ethical practices. Repeatedly circulated disinformation to juggle IPO and other machinations at the expense of the contractors. Failed to moderate forums with anything resembling professionalism. Blue Gaia has had her say now.

Advice to Senior Management

Abandon all hope and the DMS ship if you refuse to opt for quality. You are a disappointment because you blew a chance to really be something of value in New Media.

Pros

It was a great company to work for remotely. It paid better than any work at home job for the type of work. It offered the opportunity to work in a field that is not offered by any other company. It was a stress-free place to work. They kept it simple and devoid of unnecessary or antiquated systems. The Forums were a place to learn new knowledge and make some great friendships. It paid twice weekly, unheard of.

Cons

It dissolved all of the jobs for thousands of remote workers that had worked for the company for years. The management gave no forewarning, notice or indication and ended contracts with everyone in the blink of an eye. The jobs were taken away under the pretense of it being the employee's performance, when in reality the company essentially ended their work at home departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Look into the future and develop your projects in accordance with long-term growth. Popping on the scene and dropping off the scene is not the best business model. Practice good employee communication. It's essential to communicate clearly and honestly with the people who make it all possible.

Pros

Flexibility to work from home

Cons

Poor communication from department managers

Pros

Twice a week payments are reliable, no billing required.
Article topics provided, no queries required.
Good money source when titles are available.

Cons

Copy editing is random and inconsistent...and does not always follow guidelines.
Writers have a scorecard determined by random and inconsistent copy editing. This scorecard affects the number and quality of articles available to the writer.
Articles are odd and sparse. There is nothing much to write at Demand Media.

Advice to Senior Management

Value writer's more on reader's feedback than copy editors.

Pros

The pay is relatively good, especially once you develop a system and become more speedy and efficient. Most of the editors are helpful and polite.

Cons

Suddenly, the pool of available articles will dwindle to almost nothing, and hundreds of people will be competing for what little there is. Anyone who is relying on that money will be abruptly disappointed.

Advice to Senior Management

Warn writers when they won't have any work to do so that they can find other jobs.

Pros

work whenever your schedule allows

Cons

can be dropped at anytime

Advice to Senior Management

more communication

Pros

Lots of interesting topics to write about

Cons

Harsh assessment by editors
Unclear topics can be canned

Advice to Senior Management

Be VERY cautious when writing an article too similar to your research; it can get you accused of plagiarism.

Pros

Flexible work hours, decent pay, work from home, pays twice a week!

Cons

Slow editing of articles, editors often do not pay attention to article guidelines.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your writers more.

Pros

* Bellevue office has some really smart, innovative and friendly people
* Snacks and fun things to do provided by Facilities, HR and employee run committee
* Very casual environment; NERF rules!
* Good location
* Technology provided is good quality

Cons

* no possibility of promotion in most departments
* internal communication between departments and between management and employees is not sufficient
* Employees in general don't seem very happy

Advice to Senior Management

Please remember that this company is made up of people who are incredibly smart and most of them are just waiting for someone they can follow. Your employees need feedback that can be acted on and defined goals to work on. Saying "Make it so" works for Picard, but not for you.