154 “independent” news sites. One back office.

They are paid through the same few ad accounts

What this is: A site that shows Google ads puts an account number in its code so Google knows whom to pay. Google publishes a list of these accounts, and owners can choose to hide their name.

Every one of the 154 sites carries one of just four account numbers. One account alone is used by 66 sites with different names. Three of the four accounts are marked “confidential” in Google’s public list. The fourth is listed under the name Calhoun Media LLC.

The four ad accounts share one newsletter-ad account

What this is: Websites post a public file called ads.txt listing every company allowed to sell ads on their behalf. An entry marked “DIRECT” means the site owner controls that account.

94 of the sites list the same account at Jeeng, a company that places ads inside email newsletters: account 2497, marked DIRECT. Those sites come from all four Google accounts. That suggests the four Google accounts are an administrative split rather than four separate businesses.

An ad company’s public records name the businesses

What this is: Ad companies publish a registry, called sellers.json, naming the businesses behind their seller accounts. Google lets those names be hidden. Decide, an ad company formerly called LockerDome, publishes them.

48 sites list a Decide seller account as DIRECT. Decide’s registry names the account holders, including Earnlink Network, LLC and Prime Media, whose listed website is earnware.com. In all, the registry ties nine business names to this network, and four of them give one of the network’s own news sites as their website.

They run the same email sign-up software

What this is: Earnware sells email-marketing tools to publishers. Its WordPress add-on, earnware-connect, powers the forms that collect readers’ email addresses and track where sign-ups came from.

150 of the 154 sites load it. On its own, that only shows they use Earnware’s product. But Earnware’s founder says he uses it to build audiences for his own websites:

“Lately I’ve used Earnware to create millions of subscribers for my websites and I helped many others do the same.”John Valenty, on johnvalenty.com (saved copy)

The same administrator logins run sites with different “publishers”

What this is: WordPress, the software these sites run on, can run many websites from one installation. Unless an owner switches it off, each site also publishes a public list of its user accounts at /wp-json/wp/v2/users.

Readers see generic bylines like “Managing Editor” or “Editorial Director.” The public user lists show the accounts behind them, and the same accounts run sites that claim different publishers. The login “reliablemedia” appears on 20 sites, “reliable1” on 20 and “reliable118” on 24. On five installations, the very first account follows one naming pattern: reliable9site, reliable12site, reliable13site, reliable16 and reliable118. One site, Liberty News Alerts, names its publisher as “Reliablemedia Inc.”

The companies describe the model themselves

Earnware’s website says it is “owned and operated by Earnlink Network, LLC.” Both list the same mailing address: 5580 La Jolla Blvd #332, La Jolla, California. On valenty.com (saved copy), John Valenty lists “PrimeMedia brands” and “Earnware, our flagship tech platform for publishers.”

Calhoun Media, the one company named openly in Google’s list, operates under the name FiveZero Media. Its website says it “owns and operates a network of 28 news and commentary websites” with “over 1.5 million newsletter subscribers,” “100M+ emails / month” and “shared infrastructure.” The 26 sites paid through its Google account all belong to the group run with the login “reliable118.”