How 'listicles' are created

You see them all the time in news feeds and social media, but do you ever wonder where those articles based on lists of "best", "Top 10", or "leading" are made? I always ask, "Who the hell made this up?" An email I got today from Kristen DeGroot, CEO of Campfire Circle (no, I never heard of her nor her company, either), explained it all.

"I’m releasing three press releases in (sic) Yahoo, Business Insider, and AP News, featuring 10 businesses in each publication with a slightly different angle per publication," she explained breathlessly. "The three different angles are: 10 Unique Businesses to Watch, These 10 Businesses Are Disrupting Their Industries, and 10 Businesses You Need to Know About."

These press releases each contain a four-sentence paragraph written by the company marketing department or their agency, so the company can "control the narrative." She encourages that each version should be modified to boost SEO. Don't want to be repetitive, ya know.

Then comes the best part. It's only $750 to be mentioned in all three news releases. That's $7500 in revenue for Kristen who doesn't have to write a damn thing, much less research it.

Wait, I take that back. She does ask for a link to the agency or the clients to make sure "they are a good fit", which is, I assume, code for making sure she isn't promoting criminal organizations.

I don't know what annoys me more: that services like this exist; that companies actually sign up for this; or theoretically legitimate news organizations will reprint them. I mean, Yahoo I get, but BI and AP. Really? I know I see similar stories in both from time, but I always thought that the organizations randomly put together the article from a handful of the thousands of news releases they get every month. I would never have thought that they just reprint something like this.

My hat is off to Kristen for putting together a business encouraging the enshitification of the web, but I think I need a drink.