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"The impact on journalism has been clear. Just within the past week, we have seen over 1,000 planned layoffs at Gannett, BuzzFeed and HuffPost" I had never con

"The impact on journalism has been clear. Just within the past week, we have seen over 1,000 planned layoffs at Gannett, BuzzFeed and HuffPost" I had never considered the click-bait outlet "HuffPost" as "quality journalism". "We can start with the fact that “free” isn’t a good business model for quality journalism." Well, paid journalism is not a guarantee either: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/claas-relotius-reporter-forgery-scandal-a-1244755.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/claas-relotius... Stopped reading after this. Whining does not suit the NYT well. It is an outstanding newspaper and has basically, also thanks to the internet, a world wide audience. It is better prepared to the changing business model as most other newspapers. Whining here about google and facebook is rent seeking.

giancarlostoro 8y ago
I dont consider BuzzFeed as quality either. Wishing a meme producing site wasnt sharing the name as whats supposed to be a news site. My other issue is when they dont properly check the source of a story like the MAGA teens whom they claimed were doing things they clearly were not if you saw the full video.... Fake News goes both ways... If the "mainstream" media wont check sources better then they are just as much a part of the problem.
- tanderson92 8y ago
  https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news
- fwip 8y ago
  BuzzFeed News produces pretty good news reports. It's not the same as BuzzFeed proper.
  - function_seven 8y ago
    Why BuzzFeed chose to use the same brand to cover such different sites is beyond me. Every time a quality article is linked here, almost without fail there is someone who will comment along the lines of "BuzzFeed is trash, I'm not clicking that" I don't blame them. It's not their fault that the news site decided to share their name with a trash clickbait site.
    - adamrezich 8y ago
      I've noticed how prevalent the "BuzzFeed News isn't BuzzFeed, it's totally different and actually does some decent journalism" meme has been in the past couple years, to the point where I caught myself explaining it to someone that way, with zero first-hand knowledge, just repeating the meme more or less verbatim.
    - culot 8y ago
      Isn't it precisely their fault for choosing that name and branding? They are not blameless for the title they chose.
      - function_seven 8y ago
        Unclear on my part. “Them” refers to commenters who associate BFN with the listicle site. It is the fault of BuzzFeed News, yes.
      - mnx 8y ago
        Yep. Especially since communicating clearly is exactly their job.
  - masonic 8y ago
    Look at what BFN wrote about Austen Heinz in the Quillette story also submitted today, for one example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    I acknowledged this in my comment, I also raised a concern about quality of reporting. Sure they can have some good apples, but the bad apples are the ones that poison you.
8ytecoder 8y ago
It's an Op-Ed.
aggronn 8y ago
I'm just incredibly baffled by what you're proposing the solution is if its not a cultural shift towards paying for content? In an exclusively programmatic ad based market, the only long term winning strategy is to write click-bait and fake news. We should all be extremely concerned about what the writer is getting at. If you're going to call it whining, and say they need to change their business model, what should they change it to?
- jayalpha 8y ago
  "I'm just incredibly baffled by what you're proposing the solution is if its not a cultural shift towards paying for content?" I am not in the news business. Nor am I am in the diesel motor business. It is not my task to suggest solutions to a changing business environment. The NYC can now, thanks to the internet, deliver its content to a world wide audience. A paywall can be easily established. I pay for good news (e.g. "The Economist"). For institutions like the NYT or "The Economist" it would take quite some skill to screw this up. The market may move into "the winners take it all" direction. I agree that free news is a problem to many newspapers. Fake news are another problem. But solutions like screaming for government subsidiaries (e.g. in Germany) or getting fees from google or facebook are not solutions. Taxing eCars to pay employees that produced diesel engines to save jobs is not a solution either. If you don't want to get indexed by google because you are afraid they "steal" your content, then this can be solved by one line in your robots.txt file And it is really hard to ask for redistribution of common news without any further added value.
  - matt4077 8y ago
    Wether you want it or not, you are in the news business – as a Customer, that is. Since that business is integral to democracy, it would seem we all have some stake in its success.
    - jayalpha 8y ago
      "Wether you want it or not, you are in the news business – as a Customer, that is." Thanks for clarifying this for me. Based on this, there is nearly no business I am not in. Does that make me a businessman extraordinaire?
sqldba 8y ago
Huffington Post occasionally has deep and (what looks like) well researched articles though. It's a real mix and that's my problem. I want to pay for something that's good. I don't need all the bullshit filler, and in fact seeing the bullshit filler makes me not want to pay at all because it's an insult to my time.
- masonic 8y ago
  Look at what HuffPost wrote about Austen Heinz in the Quillette story also submitted today, for one example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866

giancarlostoro 8y ago

I dont consider BuzzFeed as quality either. Wishing a meme producing site wasnt sharing the name as whats supposed to be a news site. My other issue is when they dont properly check the source of a story like the MAGA teens whom they claimed were doing things they clearly were not if you saw the full video.... Fake News goes both ways... If the "mainstream" media wont check sources better then they are just as much a part of the problem.

tanderson92 8y ago
https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news
fwip 8y ago
BuzzFeed News produces pretty good news reports. It's not the same as BuzzFeed proper.
- function_seven 8y ago
  Why BuzzFeed chose to use the same brand to cover such different sites is beyond me. Every time a quality article is linked here, almost without fail there is someone who will comment along the lines of "BuzzFeed is trash, I'm not clicking that" I don't blame them. It's not their fault that the news site decided to share their name with a trash clickbait site.
  - adamrezich 8y ago
    I've noticed how prevalent the "BuzzFeed News isn't BuzzFeed, it's totally different and actually does some decent journalism" meme has been in the past couple years, to the point where I caught myself explaining it to someone that way, with zero first-hand knowledge, just repeating the meme more or less verbatim.
  - culot 8y ago
    Isn't it precisely their fault for choosing that name and branding? They are not blameless for the title they chose.
    - function_seven 8y ago
      Unclear on my part. “Them” refers to commenters who associate BFN with the listicle site. It is the fault of BuzzFeed News, yes.
    - mnx 8y ago
      Yep. Especially since communicating clearly is exactly their job.
- masonic 8y ago
  Look at what BFN wrote about Austen Heinz in the Quillette story also submitted today, for one example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  I acknowledged this in my comment, I also raised a concern about quality of reporting. Sure they can have some good apples, but the bad apples are the ones that poison you.

8ytecoder 8y ago

It's an Op-Ed.

aggronn 8y ago

I'm just incredibly baffled by what you're proposing the solution is if its not a cultural shift towards paying for content? In an exclusively programmatic ad based market, the only long term winning strategy is to write click-bait and fake news. We should all be extremely concerned about what the writer is getting at. If you're going to call it whining, and say they need to change their business model, what should they change it to?

jayalpha 8y ago
"I'm just incredibly baffled by what you're proposing the solution is if its not a cultural shift towards paying for content?" I am not in the news business. Nor am I am in the diesel motor business. It is not my task to suggest solutions to a changing business environment. The NYC can now, thanks to the internet, deliver its content to a world wide audience. A paywall can be easily established. I pay for good news (e.g. "The Economist"). For institutions like the NYT or "The Economist" it would take quite some skill to screw this up. The market may move into "the winners take it all" direction. I agree that free news is a problem to many newspapers. Fake news are another problem. But solutions like screaming for government subsidiaries (e.g. in Germany) or getting fees from google or facebook are not solutions. Taxing eCars to pay employees that produced diesel engines to save jobs is not a solution either. If you don't want to get indexed by google because you are afraid they "steal" your content, then this can be solved by one line in your robots.txt file And it is really hard to ask for redistribution of common news without any further added value.
- matt4077 8y ago
  Wether you want it or not, you are in the news business – as a Customer, that is. Since that business is integral to democracy, it would seem we all have some stake in its success.
  - jayalpha 8y ago
    "Wether you want it or not, you are in the news business – as a Customer, that is." Thanks for clarifying this for me. Based on this, there is nearly no business I am not in. Does that make me a businessman extraordinaire?

sqldba 8y ago

Huffington Post occasionally has deep and (what looks like) well researched articles though. It's a real mix and that's my problem. I want to pay for something that's good. I don't need all the bullshit filler, and in fact seeing the bullshit filler makes me not want to pay at all because it's an insult to my time.

masonic 8y ago
Look at what HuffPost wrote about Austen Heinz in the Quillette story also submitted today, for one example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19051866