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I think it's really telling that even though I consume content voraciously and am a highly educated 26 year old making a decent wage, I have never heard of lite

I think it's really telling that even though I consume content voraciously and am a highly educated 26 year old making a decent wage, I have never heard of literally any of these writers and Pulitzer Prize winners. I only know ee cummings in passing, because my high school English textbook told me he was famous for using non-standard punctuation and capitalization. I'm sad that an alt-news source has died. I would have loved to consume their content, but I wouldn't have paid for it. I don't really buy much stuff either, so ads don't work on me. RIP

jmspring 8y ago
You are just of an age where the periodical wasn't really relevant any longer as another poster mentioned -- it started it's decline in the early 2000s. EE Cummings was known for way more than just the village voice.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  It wouldn't have died maybe if it did an OK job of connecting with people born after say 1977
  - hluska 8y ago
    Tell me about your experience in publishing. How many publications have you run?
    - hluska 8y ago
      When I read this again, it sounds much more aggressive than I intended. I really wasn't trying to be a dick, I just wanted to figure out where anoncoward was coming from and what kind of experience he/she had to enable such strong opinions. I have published indie monthlies and I'd chalk the Voice's demise up to things like a serious decline in classifieds revenue, trouble getting visibility once they were online only, and the kind of advertising/printing problems that only an indie weekly could experience. If the sub thirty crowd is that powerful, I'd genuinely love to know.
charred_toast 8y ago
Can you elaborate on being "highly-educated?"
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  MA in History from top 30 US school
iCannotEven 8y ago
I wouldn't have paid for it. It was a free newspaper and website. It was like The Onion. No one paid to read it. Repeat: no one. It existed to appeal to people, and get ads in front of them. Just like The Onion. At which point, whether the ads worked or not (and just like everywhere else on the internet, people resist and try to ignore ads, and that resistance is a known quantity) advertisers paid to get in front of eyeballs. Mostly, New York concert venues paid for its existence, and you picked up the paper, to see who was playing that week, or what dates upcoming shows were. That's why it was free in New York. It didn't really advertise any events outside of New York.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  It died because it failed to connect with the younger generations. Additionally, advertisers pay for conversion, not eyeballs. If they aren't noticing an uptick in prospects or revenue, they stop advertising with their current campaigns
  - rossdavidh 8y ago
    Truth, but of interest is the part of "if they aren't noticing". I think that the (mostly positive) trend of using more data-driven decision making processes, has caused a lot more advertisers to (very slowly) realize that a lot of the advertising they were paying for wasn't doing anything. The decline in print advertising didn't happen in isolation: billboards, radio, TV, even youtube advertising has had declines recently. I think this is part of a generational change in the management of companies that pay for most of the advertising, where instead of going with a gut instinct about what works and what doesn't, they require evidence that it works, and often it doesn't. This would have killed a lot of the advertising income regardless of anything else.
- rsync 8y ago
  "No one paid to read it. Repeat: no one." I was a paid subscriber to the Village Voice for a year or so when I was living in Minneapolis. 2008/2009, I think ? So while the cover price was indeed zero, there were indeed people paying to read it.
paulcole 8y ago
Serious question: What are you thinking this is “really telling” of?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  I think it's telling that this paper failed to connect with my generation. I am a prime candidate to be a reader of this paper and its high quality writing. It never was put in front of me like YT or HN was. Now it's dead
  - paulcole 8y ago
    I'm the same generation as you. But I'm not very educated, have never lived in New York, and am familiar with the Village Voice and most of the writers mentioned in the article. Weird.
    - linkmotif 8y ago
      [edit]
      - paulcole 8y ago
        You’re replying to the wrong person.
- bena 8y ago
  He's generalizing from self. Which is odd considering his high education having attained a Massachusetts in the 30th best school in the nation. You'd think he'd know better than to do that. Regardless of whether or not he would fall within Village Voice's demographic, the fact that he was never aware of it is telling of nothing. Nothing is ever going to capture 100% of their target demographic. And thanks to wide breadth of the totality of human experiences the world has to offer, that he was not aware of it says nothing except that it never crossed his sphere of awareness. I mean, I'm not aware of a lot of things myself. Barely aware of a ton. Like I might vaguely remember hearing something possibly about it maybe. Kind of acquainted with some. I'll know the name but not exactly what it is, or kind of know what it is, but not the name. Etc, etc. I don't have time to be intimately familiar with everything. No one does.
b5 8y ago
I consume content voraciously What kind of "content" are you "consuming"?
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  Hours and hours of youtube and HN per day. All non-fiction and all different topics. I work a very boring job so I will read nearly anything. I also read a ton of ebooks, some even fiction but mostly non-fiction. Things like Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, or Jason Fung's books on fasting.
  - optimalsolver 8y ago
    Could I ask what line of work you're in that gifts you so much free time?
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Hours and hours of youtube and HN per day. All non-fiction and all different topics. And how do you expect to read Pulitzer winning journalism among these?
    - rblatz 8y ago
      The award for excellence in a dying medium? I’d expect the new mediums to create new awards.
      - coldtea 8y ago
        No, the award for excellence, period.
drcode 8y ago
Advertising works just as well on you as it does on everyone else.
- anoncoward111 8y ago
  What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some ground chicken from the closest/cheapest super market to my house. I think you get the point. I don't buy things like RGB keyboards or concert tickets, that require exposure
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - drcode 8y ago
    It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes. The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a complex series of coincidental events... instead, it's because LG spends money in a way that directly or indirectly imprints their brand in your mind.
    - anoncoward111 8y ago
      Except most of the phones in Walmart were Iphones, Motos and Samsungs, and I bought the LG regardless of brand because it was the lowest priced phone that was snappy and responsive
      - bena 8y ago
        You do realize that branding does affect your perception of things as well? It being the most "snappy" and "responsive" of the phones in the price range may just be your brain responding positively to the most known brand in that price range. A brand recognition that LG does pay a good deal for. I mean, it boils down to the old "Pepsi Challenge". In the blind, people will prefer Pepsi over Coca-Cola most of the time. But if people know which is which before hand, Coca-Cola is chosen more often as being "better". (Although Pepsi is sweeter than Coca-Cola on average and people respond to sugar, which is what led to "New Coke"). Same things happen with fast food. Taking the exact same food and putting it in familiar branded packaging and people respond more favorably to it. Everything from chicken nuggets to carrot sticks. And the converse happens. People who have convinced themselves of certain things, can have their perception of an item influenced in particular ways. Say those people who abhor fast food and only buy farm-fresh, local, organic, blah because it "tastes better". You can cut up a McDonald's chicken nugget, present it pleasantly as a local organic whatever and have people compare it to another nugget you present as a McDonald's nugget and people will sit there and tell you how they can taste the difference. So yes, you might have bought the LG because you felt it was the snappiest phone at that price, but you only felt that way because of advertising.
coldtea 8y ago
>even though I consume content voraciously and am a highly educated 26 year old making a decent wage, I have never heard of literally any of these writers and Pulitzer Prize winners. Well, consuming e.g. Medium posts or Lambda the Ultimate discussions is not the same as consuming the kind of content that gets Pulitzers.

jmspring 8y ago

You are just of an age where the periodical wasn't really relevant any longer as another poster mentioned -- it started it's decline in the early 2000s. EE Cummings was known for way more than just the village voice.

anoncoward111 8y ago
It wouldn't have died maybe if it did an OK job of connecting with people born after say 1977
- hluska 8y ago
  Tell me about your experience in publishing. How many publications have you run?
  - hluska 8y ago
    When I read this again, it sounds much more aggressive than I intended. I really wasn't trying to be a dick, I just wanted to figure out where anoncoward was coming from and what kind of experience he/she had to enable such strong opinions. I have published indie monthlies and I'd chalk the Voice's demise up to things like a serious decline in classifieds revenue, trouble getting visibility once they were online only, and the kind of advertising/printing problems that only an indie weekly could experience. If the sub thirty crowd is that powerful, I'd genuinely love to know.

charred_toast 8y ago

Can you elaborate on being "highly-educated?"

anoncoward111 8y ago
MA in History from top 30 US school

iCannotEven 8y ago

I wouldn't have paid for it. It was a free newspaper and website. It was like The Onion. No one paid to read it. Repeat: no one. It existed to appeal to people, and get ads in front of them. Just like The Onion. At which point, whether the ads worked or not (and just like everywhere else on the internet, people resist and try to ignore ads, and that resistance is a known quantity) advertisers paid to get in front of eyeballs. Mostly, New York concert venues paid for its existence, and you picked up the paper, to see who was playing that week, or what dates upcoming shows were. That's why it was free in New York. It didn't really advertise any events outside of New York.

anoncoward111 8y ago
It died because it failed to connect with the younger generations. Additionally, advertisers pay for conversion, not eyeballs. If they aren't noticing an uptick in prospects or revenue, they stop advertising with their current campaigns
- rossdavidh 8y ago
  Truth, but of interest is the part of "if they aren't noticing". I think that the (mostly positive) trend of using more data-driven decision making processes, has caused a lot more advertisers to (very slowly) realize that a lot of the advertising they were paying for wasn't doing anything. The decline in print advertising didn't happen in isolation: billboards, radio, TV, even youtube advertising has had declines recently. I think this is part of a generational change in the management of companies that pay for most of the advertising, where instead of going with a gut instinct about what works and what doesn't, they require evidence that it works, and often it doesn't. This would have killed a lot of the advertising income regardless of anything else.
rsync 8y ago
"No one paid to read it. Repeat: no one." I was a paid subscriber to the Village Voice for a year or so when I was living in Minneapolis. 2008/2009, I think ? So while the cover price was indeed zero, there were indeed people paying to read it.

paulcole 8y ago

Serious question: What are you thinking this is “really telling” of?

anoncoward111 8y ago
I think it's telling that this paper failed to connect with my generation. I am a prime candidate to be a reader of this paper and its high quality writing. It never was put in front of me like YT or HN was. Now it's dead
- paulcole 8y ago
  I'm the same generation as you. But I'm not very educated, have never lived in New York, and am familiar with the Village Voice and most of the writers mentioned in the article. Weird.
  - linkmotif 8y ago
    [edit]
    - paulcole 8y ago
      You’re replying to the wrong person.
bena 8y ago
He's generalizing from self. Which is odd considering his high education having attained a Massachusetts in the 30th best school in the nation. You'd think he'd know better than to do that. Regardless of whether or not he would fall within Village Voice's demographic, the fact that he was never aware of it is telling of nothing. Nothing is ever going to capture 100% of their target demographic. And thanks to wide breadth of the totality of human experiences the world has to offer, that he was not aware of it says nothing except that it never crossed his sphere of awareness. I mean, I'm not aware of a lot of things myself. Barely aware of a ton. Like I might vaguely remember hearing something possibly about it maybe. Kind of acquainted with some. I'll know the name but not exactly what it is, or kind of know what it is, but not the name. Etc, etc. I don't have time to be intimately familiar with everything. No one does.

b5 8y ago

I consume content voraciously What kind of "content" are you "consuming"?

anoncoward111 8y ago
Hours and hours of youtube and HN per day. All non-fiction and all different topics. I work a very boring job so I will read nearly anything. I also read a ton of ebooks, some even fiction but mostly non-fiction. Things like Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, or Jason Fung's books on fasting.
- optimalsolver 8y ago
  Could I ask what line of work you're in that gifts you so much free time?
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Hours and hours of youtube and HN per day. All non-fiction and all different topics. And how do you expect to read Pulitzer winning journalism among these?
  - rblatz 8y ago
    The award for excellence in a dying medium? I’d expect the new mediums to create new awards.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      No, the award for excellence, period.

drcode 8y ago

Advertising works just as well on you as it does on everyone else.

anoncoward111 8y ago
What have I bought lately that I've seen an ad for? I signed a lease for an apartment after searching google maps for the closest corporate apartment buildings (Bozzuto) near my job. I bought Verizon internet because that's what the building is wired for. I bought an LG phone because I impartially reviewed the specs and played with the phones at the closest Walmart to my house. I bought a bag of onions and some ground chicken from the closest/cheapest super market to my house. I think you get the point. I don't buy things like RGB keyboards or concert tickets, that require exposure
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- drcode 8y ago
  It's all about the moment you're standing in the phone store and there's two phones in front of you, one from "LG" and the other from "Hyvver7" and like 99% of other people you're probably going to get the "LG" phone even if the Hyvver7 phone has a similar price and seems to work just as well after poking at it for a few minutes. The reason you know the name "LG" isn't because you somehow heard the name through a complex series of coincidental events... instead, it's because LG spends money in a way that directly or indirectly imprints their brand in your mind.
  - anoncoward111 8y ago
    Except most of the phones in Walmart were Iphones, Motos and Samsungs, and I bought the LG regardless of brand because it was the lowest priced phone that was snappy and responsive
    - bena 8y ago
      You do realize that branding does affect your perception of things as well? It being the most "snappy" and "responsive" of the phones in the price range may just be your brain responding positively to the most known brand in that price range. A brand recognition that LG does pay a good deal for. I mean, it boils down to the old "Pepsi Challenge". In the blind, people will prefer Pepsi over Coca-Cola most of the time. But if people know which is which before hand, Coca-Cola is chosen more often as being "better". (Although Pepsi is sweeter than Coca-Cola on average and people respond to sugar, which is what led to "New Coke"). Same things happen with fast food. Taking the exact same food and putting it in familiar branded packaging and people respond more favorably to it. Everything from chicken nuggets to carrot sticks. And the converse happens. People who have convinced themselves of certain things, can have their perception of an item influenced in particular ways. Say those people who abhor fast food and only buy farm-fresh, local, organic, blah because it "tastes better". You can cut up a McDonald's chicken nugget, present it pleasantly as a local organic whatever and have people compare it to another nugget you present as a McDonald's nugget and people will sit there and tell you how they can taste the difference. So yes, you might have bought the LG because you felt it was the snappiest phone at that price, but you only felt that way because of advertising.

coldtea 8y ago

>even though I consume content voraciously and am a highly educated 26 year old making a decent wage, I have never heard of literally any of these writers and Pulitzer Prize winners. Well, consuming e.g. Medium posts or Lambda the Ultimate discussions is not the same as consuming the kind of content that gets Pulitzers.