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without re-iterating my views about the political affiliation of these outfit. Just seeing the timing of it, all at the same time, is indeed suspicious. Anothe

without re-iterating my views about the political affiliation of these outfit. Just seeing the timing of it, all at the same time, is indeed suspicious. Another posted suggested that they have hired at disproportionally large numbers. Seems like a plausible explanation, if true. May be it related to some political changes. Or, may be, there is an unseen 'consolidation' that will commence (layoffs in tech industry, often precedes takeovers). Just speculating, though. I definitely feel, that people will not pay for opinion pieces, but will pay for investigative journalism. However, investigative journalism, in my view, lacks economic model. It is quite resource intensive, but there is no 'story origination fee' of some sort. So it has to live of donations, which could make it very biased.

untog 8y ago
I'm not convinced it's all that suspicious. Some immediate thoughts: - it's the start of a new year. New budgets. Plus laying people off just before the holidays is a baaaad look. - it's a lot easier to do this when lots of other outlets are doing it too, because you'll get less attention - all these companies rely on advertising for revenue, often from the exact same sources. So any softening in ad prices would affect a lot of people at once. - this is actually the latest in a long, long line of media layoffs and redundancies
deleted 8y ago
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ummonk 8y ago
That is certainly how I feel. There are a lot of good free bloggers out there that have better opinion pieces than those in the establishment media, and there is no way I’m going to pay for the latter. At the same time, I greatly value the media’s role in investigative journalism and wish I could support outlets / journalists that break important quality investigative news, but there really isn’t a good way to do that. I think video functions as a much better format for investigative reporting though - it is much more engaging, slightly more trustworthy (because you don’t have to e.g. trust the journalist’s description of tone / body language, although selective editing can still be done), and harder for other media outlets that haven’t done the investigative legwork to just copy and redistribute.
- ummonk 8y ago
  Huh. Why are people downvoting me? I don't think my opinion is particularly controversial, and I'm genuinely curious which part people disagree with...
- chipotle_coyote 8y ago
  While I didn't downvote you, one could certainly make the argument that "how you feel" is, well, maybe a little...idiosyncratic and perhaps not that well-informed? First: I'm sure there are "good free bloggers" out there, but there's far, far fewer that aren't associated with new media companies now than there were a decade ago. Making money as an independent blogger is exceedingly difficult in 2019 in a way that just wasn't as true in 2009. Second: McClatchy, BuzzFeed, and Vice are all known for investigative journalism, not opinion pieces. McClatchy was once considered one of the best newspaper companies in the business, primarily based on investigative work; while Vice and BuzzFeed certainly are known for clickbait material, they've both been funding serious news stories for years. "Free bloggers" just aren't competition in this space. Third: You know that BuzzFeed in particular is in the straits that they're in because they tried to pivot to video, right? Mashable is nearly out of business because of their attempt to do so. Also, investigative journalism tends to rely on, well, investigation, not "descriptions of tone and body language." Fourth: there is, in fact, a really good way to support investigative journalism. It's--you know what I'm going to say, right?--paying for it. It turns out that an awful lot of newspapers, magazines, and journalism web sites have mechanisms set up that enable you to give them money, often on a recurring basis!

untog 8y ago

I'm not convinced it's all that suspicious. Some immediate thoughts: - it's the start of a new year. New budgets. Plus laying people off just before the holidays is a baaaad look. - it's a lot easier to do this when lots of other outlets are doing it too, because you'll get less attention - all these companies rely on advertising for revenue, often from the exact same sources. So any softening in ad prices would affect a lot of people at once. - this is actually the latest in a long, long line of media layoffs and redundancies

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ummonk 8y ago

That is certainly how I feel. There are a lot of good free bloggers out there that have better opinion pieces than those in the establishment media, and there is no way I’m going to pay for the latter. At the same time, I greatly value the media’s role in investigative journalism and wish I could support outlets / journalists that break important quality investigative news, but there really isn’t a good way to do that. I think video functions as a much better format for investigative reporting though - it is much more engaging, slightly more trustworthy (because you don’t have to e.g. trust the journalist’s description of tone / body language, although selective editing can still be done), and harder for other media outlets that haven’t done the investigative legwork to just copy and redistribute.

ummonk 8y ago
Huh. Why are people downvoting me? I don't think my opinion is particularly controversial, and I'm genuinely curious which part people disagree with...
chipotle_coyote 8y ago
While I didn't downvote you, one could certainly make the argument that "how you feel" is, well, maybe a little...idiosyncratic and perhaps not that well-informed? First: I'm sure there are "good free bloggers" out there, but there's far, far fewer that aren't associated with new media companies now than there were a decade ago. Making money as an independent blogger is exceedingly difficult in 2019 in a way that just wasn't as true in 2009. Second: McClatchy, BuzzFeed, and Vice are all known for investigative journalism, not opinion pieces. McClatchy was once considered one of the best newspaper companies in the business, primarily based on investigative work; while Vice and BuzzFeed certainly are known for clickbait material, they've both been funding serious news stories for years. "Free bloggers" just aren't competition in this space. Third: You know that BuzzFeed in particular is in the straits that they're in because they tried to pivot to video, right? Mashable is nearly out of business because of their attempt to do so. Also, investigative journalism tends to rely on, well, investigation, not "descriptions of tone and body language." Fourth: there is, in fact, a really good way to support investigative journalism. It's--you know what I'm going to say, right?--paying for it. It turns out that an awful lot of newspapers, magazines, and journalism web sites have mechanisms set up that enable you to give them money, often on a recurring basis!