Pay your contributors the week the story publishes. Not 60 days later.
Wingspan gives digital publishers and editorial networks the infrastructure to onboard freelance writers at volume, trigger per-piece payments on approval, and file 1099-NECs for every contributor automatically at year-end.
Superpath processed over $1M in contributor payments through Wingspan and was fully operational within months of implementation.
Contributor payments
Fizz Social saved $150,000 and scaled their contributor network to 200+ campus locations using Wingspan.
Annual savings
Wingspan tracks every payment year-round and generates 1099-NECs automatically at year-end. No spreadsheet reconciliation required.
1099s filed automatically
Trusted by businesses that run on contingent work
Pay contributors the day the piece goes live
Net 60 is standard in publishing. It is also why top freelancers publicly rank publications by payment difficulty before accepting assignments.
Wingspan lets editors approve a completed piece and pay the contributor the same day, not after the next monthly check run. Contributors receive funds into the Wingspan Wallet and can instant-transfer to their bank account immediately.
Onboard 50 new contributors in a week instead of a quarter
Most publishers still onboard freelancers through email threads: send a PDF contract, wait for a signed scan, follow up for the W-9, CC accounting. When you need 50 writers for a new section launch, the process collapses.
Wingspan sends each contributor a single onboarding link. It collects the W-9, contract signature, direct deposit details, copyright assignment agreement, and any additional requirements in one flow.
Contributors complete it on any device. Editorial ops sees completion status in real time and never sends another follow-up email.
File 1099s for 500 contributors without an all-nighter in January
High-volume publishers spend weeks every January reconciling payments, tracking down missing W-9s, and filing forms. One incorrect TIN means a B-notice letter and potential penalties.
Wingspan collects W-9s at onboarding, validates TINs in real time, tracks every payment throughout the year, and generates and files 1099-NECs automatically at year-end. Your finance team logs in, reviews the batch, and submits.
No spreadsheet cross-referencing. No scramble for missing tax IDs.
Protect content ownership with enforceable contributor agreements
Every published article carries an intellectual property question: who owns the work? Without a signed work-for-hire or IP assignment clause, your publication may not hold clear rights to the content it paid for.
At scale, chasing signed agreements through email creates gaps that expose you to licensing disputes. Wingspan embeds copyright assignment and work-for-hire clauses directly into the contributor onboarding flow.
Every writer signs before their first assignment. The signed agreement is stored with the contributor's profile and linked to their payment history, creating an auditable chain from contract to published piece.
In a few short months, Wingspan was fully operational and I was blown away by how much money was being paid to the right people, at the right time.
