It’s a neat idea, but with so much content out there, it would be impossible for an editorial team to cover it all. Brijit came up with the genius idea of asking anybody to submit these 100-word summaries in exchange for $5.

Now, let’s get this straight. Five buck for a hundred words works out to a paltry five cents a word. Top freelance rates in Canada hover at around a buck a word, and even that is pathetic. Most writers settle for around 50 cents a word, which is still ten times as much as Brijit is offering. I would assume that no serious writer would even consider working for pea…oh wait, I think even peanuts are worth more than that.

The sad thing is that the writing on Brijit is actually quite good. Are there people desperate enough to spend an hour or two reading an article and then capturing the essence of it in a 100 words? It may sound simple, but it takes far longer than you’d think to do it right.

Brijit ups the ante by submitting each requisition to competition – you actually have to compete with three other writers in the hopes that your piece gets chosen. So most times you just end up writing your beautifully crafted cribs note for free. Competition, however, is a great motivator for some people apparently.

Is Brijit turning freelance writing into a cheap mockery? Is it dragging down freelance rates by calling anybody a writer? Can you even stomach reading summaries that you know were written by word slaves? 

A Vancouver police officer actually had the balls to impersonate a newspaper reporter (from 24-Hours) and arrange an “interview” with David at a mall, whereupon he was promptly arrested. Give me a break. Have the Vancouver police no integrity whatsoever? The editor-in-chief of 24-Hours is rightly miffed, according to this article, where he says that these sorts of ploys undermine trust in the media and destroy credibility. What was that cop thinking? He obviously thought 24-Hours doesn’t have enough independent clout to adopt an anti-police stance in their editorial, and he’s probably right. But that doesn’t mean other media aren’t going to have a field day with this one. Naughty, naughty Mr. Policeman.