Bloomberg plans to pay people $2,500 a month to text about him


Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going all in on social media.
His Democratic presidential campaign team is putting out a call for so-called "deputy digital organizers" who will reportedly work for 20 to 30 hours a week and receive $2,500 per month in exchange for promoting Bloomberg via text each week to everyone in their phones' contact list, while making daily social media posts in support of his campaign, The Wall Street Journal reports. They'll also likely have to do some more traditional campaign work every once in a while like phone banking.
It's another example of how Bloomberg's wealth gives him a leg up in certain situations. Most campaigns rely on a mix of volunteers and paid staff to phone bank or go door-to-door while encouraging their supporters to promote them over social media, but, per the Journal, experts say Bloomberg's willingness to pay to do all those things is novel.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
One thing that's unclear is if the social media posts for the digital organizers should qualify as sponsored content on platforms like Facebook, which the Journal notes, is just beginning to grapple with the intersection of political advertising and influencer marketing. The campaign reportedly thinks the posts shouldn't require an advertising label since they consider it to be a new form of political organizing rather than paid influence content. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot