this is a chunk of what I wrote them:

For those of us with well-established brands, businesses and a social media presence, we are not likely to ever push Newsbreak in front of the work we have to do in order to drive business to our sites. Time is precious, and we aren't likely to forfeit marketing time to build our brands to get eyeballs on Newsbreak. We just won't. I sure as hell won't. So base pay was about all I cared about. At the outset, I might have been willing to refer other writers to you, but I held off because I watched the stunning unpredictability of your payment systems, the increasing length of time it took to get a response, the capricious AI settings and even more capricious denial of stories based on, well, nothing. That kind of mindless annoyance, especially when it took longer and longer to find out why a story had been denied (usually for something ridiculous) wastes time, is irritating to professional people who take their work seriously, and who try hard to respect the rules you put in place. It's been bumpy at times but my commitment has ever been to find what works. I finally found a groove here, and as I have settled into Eugene, am finding more local stories right about the time you are taking away base pay, which really is the only metric I particularly care about. I am well aware I only speak for myself, but I would suspect others share my position.

Anyone who has ever managed a team, those of us who consult on human performance as I have, are all aware of what happens to people when you start punishing the overall community for the bad behavior of one element. Each time you do this you communicate that the folks on the bottom end, who are as you say gaming the system, have far more control or sway over Newsbreak than the folks who labor at the top end. Why? Because when you overhaul your payment plan primarily or solely because of the bottom feeders, folks, the tail is wagging the dog. That's a message, most particularly to non-corporate content creators, that we don't matter. Your copy says we do but your actions and changes to payment plans communicate differently.