Demand Media Firing Freelancers? Company "Reevaluates" Writers as Stock Price Tanks

As Demand Media's stock price continues to fall (NYSE: DMD), its freelance writers are betting the content company will conduct mass lay-offs in part because of a new explanation of its quality expectations.

Demand Studios, the content production arm of the company, emailed writers Aug. 2 that those with grammar scores at or above four -- on a one to five scale -- rank in the top 15th percentile while those at or below 3.5 fall in the lower 15th percentile.

The company has begun notifying writers with low scores that they will enter the long-standing Writer Evaluation Program (WEP), according to information posted on Demand Studios Sucks.

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RunKeeper Blows Past 6M Registered Users

Over 6M people now have RunKeeper accounts to track and share their workouts -- triple the number since November 2010 -- and just 30% of them are in the U.S., CEO and co-founder Jason Jacobs told LAUNCH.

Growth exploded when the Boston-based, three-year-old company made its $10 Pro app free on Dec. 30, 2010, despite being a top-10 grossing health and fitness app in the iPhone store last year.

"Although we did forgo a lot of short-term download revenue, it's not about the short term for us," says Jason, who points out the company has not touched any of the $1.5M raised so far "because revenues are scaling faster than expenses."

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A New New Deal: Adult Technical Education (or "The Jarvis Deal")

[ Photo of FDR Memorial in Washington, DC by Kate Ure, creative commons license. ]

"Don't fill potholes. That won't fix the economy. Instead, we should be investing in the entrepreneurs who will create jobs -- if fewer -- and wealth -- greater, thanks to platforms and efficiencies. Invest in education of our youth and our unemployed. Invest in efficiency -- energy efficiency, for example."

---- Consistently captivating curmudgeon Jeff Jarvis's judgment on jobs.


By Jason Calacanis

Depending on whose numbers you believe, we are at around 9% unemployment (11.8% here in California). If you include the underemployed folks and the folks who have simply given up, it’s 50% more (around 15%) I understand.

Let’s say, for simplicity, the number of folks unemployed or underemployed in America is 20M.

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Sweet: Yahoo Debuts WebPlayer for YouTube and Other Media Formats

Seeking to capitalize on the boom in online video, Yahoo has released a beta version of its WebPlayer, which can play a variety of file types -- including YouTube videos -- and automatically adds relevant video to web pages. This is the next generation of its long-standing Yahoo Media Player.

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Why Does LinkedIn Make It Impossible to Downgrade Your Subscription?

If you need to hire a bunch of people for your growing startup, it makes sense to get a premium subscription to LinkedIn for $20 up to $500 a month, right?

Despite the incredible value it delivers, the problem is that LinkedIn doesn't make it easy to downgrade your subscription once you've finished hiring, found a new job, etc. It's downright reminiscent of how Aol treated customers who wanted to cancel their dial-up service (Aol topped this two-year-old list of worst customer service).

The downgrade "help" page includes a link to a form that you have to fill out, but the downgrade doesn't happen instantly:

"To prevent unwanted charges and provide us with enough time to change your account to your new selection, please contact us at least 3-5 business days before your renewal date. Changes will be effective on the billing expiration date of your current premium subscription."

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