I saw the red flags when I read the contract and politely turned them down. Even gave them a bit of free and unsolicited advice about that contract. Do they still have the clause that defines you as a "partner"? That's garbage.

But you should have known that writing whatever you want on a site called NEWS Break wasn't going to last forever - just till they got a quantity of content and attracted sufficient notice by Google and the other search engine gods. Personal essays on NEWS Break? Not going to happen.