An articles-for-cash platform where clients can pay money in exchange for tailor-made news was thrust into the spotlight Thursday, following reports that it was under investigation by authorities for “upsetting the order of journalism.”

Zhao Jizhe — or “Find a Journalist” — describes itself as the “ride-hailing app” of the PR world, as its participating writers can snatch up orders from clients looking to commission media coverage on a particular subject. Founded in December 2014, the platform, which exists as a website, app, and public account on messaging app WeChat, says it has access to 3,000 media outlets on which content produced through the platform can be published.

“You tell us what platform you want [the article] published on and we’ll help you find it,” a customer service agent for Find a Journalist told Sixth Tone by telephone. “The article is sent to the editor, and, as long as the editor doesn’t object, then it’s all good,” she said, adding that the company has contacts within large media outlets, including one listed internet news giant.

“This isn’t paid journalism,” Find a Journalist’s CEO Wu Wangying told Sixth Tone in a telephone interview. Instead, Wu refers to the service he provides as a part of the “sharing economy for content creation.”

Yet the legal and ethical question marks raised by Find a Journalist’s services have reportedly attracted the attention of China’s Publicity Department, the Communist Party body that oversees all ideology-related work. According to a Thursday article by Chinese tech news outlet PingWest, the Publicity Department was in the middle of operations to close down the platform and punish those involved. Included in that article was an unsourced screenshot of an “emergency announcement for media organizations” that urged any writers who were collaborating with Find a Journalist to cease doing so immediately.

As of Friday, visits to the website were met with the error message that the site’s servers could not be reached. The platform’s public account on WeChat was still accessible, but the menu through which users could submit orders had been disabled.

A spokesperson from the Publicity Department’s press office told Sixth Tone they were unable to comment on the reports.

CEO Wu told Sixth Tone that Find a Journalist had not received any official notice from the authorities directly, but did say that he’d heard “a meeting had been held in the relevant departments,” with which the company is now openly communicating.

“It could be that they just don’t want journalists from state media to register with us,” Wu said, adding that while Find a Journalist did not currently have any such writers on their books, they would not refuse collaborating with them.

According to its website, Find a Journalist has 1,000 writers on its books, and their service quality is separated into different grades. A thousand yuan (around $150), for instance, will get you the “Basic Writer” package, which includes publication on one outlet. For those seeking more experienced penmanship and a wider distribution, the platform offers the 8,000-yuan “Senior Writer” deal, offering publication on 25 outlets, four of which the site describes as “famous.”

Clients are given the chance to approve the content before it is submitted for publication, the company’s customer service agent said.

Wu also suspects it may have been the sensitivity of the word “journalist” in the company name that was attracting undue attention. “When I saw the news yesterday, I changed our name to ‘Zhong Zhi Hui,’” he said. The new name translates approximately to “Collecting Many Aspirations.”

Wu said that the company does not offer an avenue to those seeking to air grievances with the government or expose scams, instead focusing on entrepreneurs or startups seeking coverage of their work or products. “We don’t allow articles about online health care or P2P lending schemes,” he added. “We do have principles.”

Regardless of the exact nature of the content that the company’s collaborating writers produce, some believe that such a platform has no place in the media industry.

Li Liangrong, a professor of journalism at Shanghai’s Fudan University, likened the practice to “red envelope journalism,” a reference to the crimson packets in which cash gifts in China are commonly presented. Corruption in China’s media industry is often attributed to plummeting revenues for outlets — and thus journalists — when the government began decentralizing the media in the 1990s.

“‘Red envelope’ or ‘coat pocket’ journalism was once extremely prevalent,” Li said. “The government has had some success in tackling it, but scars still remain.”

This article has been updated to reflect new developments.

Additional reporting by Li You.

(Header image: Amanaimages/VCG)