OT: General OT Thread [NO POLITICS OR RELIGION]

[chonestown]

One to keep an eye on:

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[humanrefutation]

Magary and Roth bounced from Deadspin, too. Fin.

[ReasonablySober]

I'm not even sure I could recall off the top of my head the names of anyone left at Deadspin.

[ReasonablySober]

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Farmers pulled their deal too.

[Kerb Hohl]

Magary and Roth if they wanted to could probably just go and podcast/write leisurely and make a bunch of money and not funnel the profits to the big media group as the Deadcast was.

The rest I'm sure will land somewhere, maybe with those two eventually. Obviously won't be the same but there are still places that will let them do what they did...just not all together.

[chonestown]

Magary and Roth bounced from Deadspin, too. Fin.

Yeah, it's deader than fried chicken.

This from May 2017 when Spanfeller was torpedoing Forbes.com is...something

https://observer.com/2007/05/revolt-of-the-pageslaves/2/

“One of the fundamental differences of online versus offline [is that] online is completely trackable,” he said. “You have 60, 70, 80 stories [in print], and you don’t know how well consumed each one is.”

Therefore, Mr. Spanfeller said, “not looking at the data would be foolish,” and “tracking page views is something that is very important.”

Spanfeller's decision was made in direct contradiction of the numbers.

[humanrefutation]

Magary and Roth bounced from Deadspin, too. Fin.

Yeah, it's deader than fried chicken.

This from May 2017 when Spanfeller was torpedoing Forbes.com is...something

https://observer.com/2007/05/revolt-of-the-pageslaves/2/

“One of the fundamental differences of online versus offline [is that] online is completely trackable,” he said. “You have 60, 70, 80 stories [in print], and you don’t know how well consumed each one is.”

Therefore, Mr. Spanfeller said, “not looking at the data would be foolish,” and “tracking page views is something that is very important.”

Spanfeller's decision was made in direct contradiction of the numbers.

Well, he'll certainly be able to track all of the lost revenue from their whole staff quitting.

[Kerb Hohl]

Whatever the motive was (Peter Thiel paying these guys to run them into the grave, some sort of debt acquisition, etc.) I can pretty much guarantee you that Spanfeller's group was aware that the entire staff might quit.

[chonestown]

Magary and Roth if they wanted to could probably just go and podcast/write leisurely and make a bunch of money and not funnel the profits to the big media group as the Deadcast was.

The rest I'm sure will land somewhere, maybe with those two eventually. Obviously won't be the same but there are still places that will let them do what they did...just not all together.

Roth and Magary are in line for a much bigger stage and that's great. Things done changed, though. The Ringer rose out of Grantland's ashes, but it most demonstrably is not Grantland. Part of that is due to the outsized writing staff Simmons was somehow able to get and pay well - which was GREAT - and part of that is a definite embrace of search engine optimization. Disheartening to see The Ringer emulating what Buzzfeed moved on from. Let the writing speak for itself. Leading with a "X has changed Y and Z will never be the same" or "The 17 Most Dramatic Times Andy Reid Had a Bowel Movement" will never cease to sadden me. I could see there becoming some sort of Deadspin offspring, but DS itself is gone.

Would love to see co-op journalism come back in a huge way because I think the continued conglomerization makes it harder for weird, contrarian voices to find space.

[chonestown]

Whatever the motive was (Peter Thiel paying these guys to run them into the grave, some sort of debt acquisition, etc.) I can pretty much guarantee you that Spanfeller's group was aware that the entire staff might quit.

I believe the mega-wealthy are just as ignorant as the fry cook at McDonald's. The fry cook provides a vital service, though.

[Kerb Hohl]

Whatever the motive was (Peter Thiel paying these guys to run them into the grave, some sort of debt acquisition, etc.) I can pretty much guarantee you that Spanfeller's group was aware that the entire staff might quit.

I believe the mega-wealthy are just as ignorant as the fry cook at McDonald's. The fry cook provides a vital service, though.

Sure, but they bought the sites for a drop-in-the-bucket ($50m). Either their goal was to silence what the writers were saying or they think they can just pay entry level writers at Deadspin to generate some profit (plus the Onion, etc)...or both.

If they truly valued Deadspin's profitability, they'd have catered to what it was already doing at least somewhat.

I do understand that there are some horribly stupid mishaps/decisions in the VC world but I can't imagine that some of this wasn't intentional.

EDIT:

Here you go

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywaxdw/private-equity-vultures-killed-splinter-your-company-could-be-next

Private equity firms like Great Hill do not care about journalism; private equity firms care about nothing other than extracting as much profit as quickly as possible with as little investment in the businesses they come to own as possible. It is, as Hamilton Nolan wrote for Splinter, "one of the most perfectly soulless industries ever invented by capitalism."

...

In practice, this means that PE-run companies often lay off workers, slash benefits, or sell off parts of the business in order to get quick cash—which the companies sometimes need because PE firms load their acquired companies up with the debt they used to finance the purchase of those companies. This has led to predictable results: Toys R Us and Sears fell into bankruptcy when they were unable to pay off the debt their private equity owners saddled them with after purchasing them. The same thing happened to the healthcare provider ManorCare, to the great detriment of the elderly patients under its care.

[HaroldinGMinor]

Things are evolving. I'll be very curious to see how The Athletic does financially. I could see a new version of Deadspin using a similar model.

The VCs are going to end up eating themselves re: news/media. They are killing daily newspapers. I mean I guess that's like taking bullet to the brain when you have five years to live but still. Something will develop to replace them and it won't be bloggers.

[chonestown]

Sure, but they bought the sites for a drop-in-the-bucket ($50m). Either their goal was to silence what the writers were saying or they think they can just pay entry level writers at Deadspin to generate some profit (plus the Onion, etc)...or both.

If they truly valued Deadspin's profitability, they'd have catered to what it was already doing at least somewhat.

I do understand that there are some horribly stupid mishaps/decisions in the VC world but I can't imagine that some of this wasn't intentional.

EDIT:

Here you go

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywaxdw/private-equity-vultures-killed-splinter-your-company-could-be-next

Private equity firms like Great Hill do not care about journalism; private equity firms care about nothing other than extracting as much profit as quickly as possible with as little investment in the businesses they come to own as possible. It is, as Hamilton Nolan wrote for Splinter, "one of the most perfectly soulless industries ever invented by capitalism."

In practice, this means that PE-run companies often lay off workers, slash benefits, or sell off parts of the business in order to get quick cash—which the companies sometimes need because PE firms load their acquired companies up with the debt they used to finance the purchase of those companies. This has led to predictable results: Toys R Us and Sears fell into bankruptcy when they were unable to pay off the debt their private equity owners saddled them with after purchasing them. The same thing happened to the healthcare provider ManorCare, to the great detriment of the elderly patients under its care.

Right, but they normally try to extract the holdings worth value and drown everything else in debt. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a strong undercurrent of intention, but I legit think they knew better how to run the company.

They didn't.

Anyway, thanks for the back-and-fourth, Kerb. Fk it, I truly have no idea how these guys operate, much less how they live with themselves. S'pose hookers and blow and rolexes and yachts can soothe a conscience something fierce.

[Kerb Hohl]

I'm not supporting it. It sucks. Toys R Us, Sports Illustrated, etc. not to mention people's lives/jobs. I don't know how they live with it either but they don't know any different, I'm sure...I just think that, unfortunately, the staff all quitting (being the absolute right thing to do) isn't going to stick it to anyone in the end...those guys will walk away with millions from this.

[chonestown]

And just when I think I'm out:

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[MickeyDavis]

If you guys are going to continue the discussion from the media thread just be forewarned that if it goes down the same road as before we will not only lock this thread but also give out some suspensions/bans. I'm not saying any posts from today are an issue, they aren't, but it only takes one to derail and cross the line. Thx

[Kerb Hohl]

If you guys are going to continue the discussion from the media thread just be forewarned that if it goes down the same road as before we will not only lock this thread but also give out some suspensions/bans. I'm jot saying any posts from today are an issue, they aren't, but it only takes one to derail and cross the line. Thx

Yeah, I'm trying to avoid it. I'm out of if they do...I understand the reasons.

[ReasonablySober]

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[Kerb Hohl]

And just when I think I'm out:

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None of this really matters to the equity group, though. Toys R Us was kinda profitable but ripped apart on purpose. They had no problem tearing Deadspin down.

I get that the political stuff and elevated self-importance got page views but as noted that is what had turned me off in the past due to a place of escapism being gone. Of course, the question was, "where is the line" between political and articles about dogs and candy bars but in the end it probably didn't matter - they wanted to just decimate the website.

And even without sucking out the debt as noted above, they probably think they can just "stick to sports" by paying a bunch of entry level people 50% of what they were paying employees to churn out 75% of their revenues or something without the interesting content.

[MrHoneycutt]

Wow. Unbelievably sad, looks like I can delete my deadspin bookmark after all these years :/