According to insiders, newspaper giant Gannett will shut down its product review website Reviewed starting from November 1st. The website provides recommendations for products ranging from shoes to household appliances and employs journalists to test and evaluate the products. However, recently there have been doubts about whether the work is done by humans.
"After careful consideration and evaluation of the Reviewed business, we have decided to close it. We sincerely thank the employees who have provided reliable product reviews for consumers," said Lark-Marie Antón, spokesperson for Reviewed, in an email to The Verge.
Recently, the website has been under scrutiny and has even faced questioning from its own unionized employees. In October last year, Reviewed employees publicly accused Gannett of publishing artificially generated product reviews on the website. These articles had a peculiar and stiff writing style, and the authors' names seemed to be nonexistent on LinkedIn and other platforms. Some questioned the authenticity of these authors. In response to these concerns, Gannett stated that the articles were produced by a third-party marketing company called AdVon Commerce and that the original reviews did not include proper disclosure. However, Gannett denied involvement of artificial intelligence.
As reported by The Verge last autumn, the marketing company responsible for Reviewed's content is the same company that caused a similar controversy on Sports Illustrated. Similar product reviews with very similar content were published on Sports Illustrated, attributed to freelance writers. However, in the case of Sports Illustrated, there were clear signs of artificial intelligence involvement: the authors' photos were being sold on an AI image website. Sports Illustrated insisted that although the authors' names were indeed not real, AdVon had assured them that the content was written by real people.
However, The Verge's investigation into AdVon revealed that the company had published a large amount of marketing content online, some of which former employees confirmed were generated by artificial intelligence. Ben Faw, CEO and co-founder of AdVon, has been using his connections in the media industry to sign contracts with news organizations for many years, often setting up complex marketing plans to benefit himself. AdVon's marketing content appears on various platforms, from small blogs to media outlets such as Us Weekly and the Los Angeles Times. In response to The Verge's report, Faw stated in an email statement that the company "generates affiliate revenue, which publishers use to fund the operation and salaries of newsrooms." He also stated that AdVon provides clients with "human-only, AI-enhanced, and hybrid solutions."
Antón did not provide a reason for the closure of Reviewed. Product reviews are typically seen as a profitable business for publishers, as they can attract readers who are searching for buying advice on search engines and make money when readers purchase the products mentioned in the articles. In recent months, other news organizations, including The Associated Press, have also announced similar ventures. However, even content that historically generated revenue for news organizations is facing threats from changes in Google search, as Google search is the main source of traffic. Some independent websites have reported a gradual disappearance of their search traffic, and the shift towards AI search tools by Google will further erode their revenue.
After reaching an impasse with Gannett management, the unionized employees of Reviewed have staged limited strikes multiple times. The most recent one was in July, when the employees held a temporary work stoppage, claiming that they were asked to take on additional work without corresponding adjustments to their compensation. Gannett has not commented on whether Reviewed employees will be offered new positions within the company or face layoffs.
