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Yeah. I'm a freelance journalist and this is one of the worst journalism takes I've seen in a while. Paying bills is already hard enough as it is and I, like ma
by chaps 3y ago
Yeah. I'm a freelance journalist and this is one of the worst journalism takes I've seen in a while. Paying bills is already hard enough as it is and I, like many others in this industry, don't even have health insurance: why in the fuck would any of us invest in a startup?
- DANmode 3y agoTo ensure the stability of the platform you are (seemingly) sacrificing being well-paid to stay on.
- chaps 3y agoWhy is the base assumption here that journalists be the ones to pay for this?
- DANmode 3y agoStakeholder theory? You (we?) are some of the minority of humans that value journalism. Unfortunately.
- DANmode 3y agoSaid another way: you're already paying for it - at least subsidizing it - by being underpaid. Wouldn't you like to be in control of it for your troubles?
- chaps 3y ago...you're greatly missing the point that none of us have any money to invest.
- DANmode 3y agoThat, I understand better than most here. What did it really cost to start The Intercept, though? Salaries aside - or not. What can be done with new tech that makes publishing cheaper than ever?
- mikeyouse 3y agoThe Intercept was bankrolled by a billionaire who committed $250 million to his journalism efforts while it got off the ground... https://pressthink.org/2013/10/why-pierre-omidyar-decided-to-join-forces-with-glenn-greenwald-for-a-new-venture-in-news/ https://pressthink.org/2013/10/why-pierre-omidyar-decided-to...
- afavour 3y ago> What can be done with new tech that makes publishing cheaper than ever? Nothing. IMO that’s all been done: replacing the printing presses with the internet made it incredibly cheap to publish journalism. Producing journalism, however, remains a solidly human task that resists automation. And every time anyone tries the result is notably inferior.
- all2 3y agoOne of the companies I worked for was an ESOP [0]. Has there ever been anything like that in terms of journalistic publications? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Stock_Ownership_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_Stock_Ownership_Plan
- Scoundreller 3y agoHopefully not since the shares tend to go to $0. Though I’d note The Economist has staff and former staff as minority shareholders.
- all2 3y agoThe place I was at paid a lot more than $0 per share. Is zero share value common for ESOPs?
- Scoundreller 3y agoWhat I mean is that a lot of traditional journalistic outfits have been teetering toward bankruptcy in recent years/decades. While there are successes, the total size of the industry has been declining.
- pangolinja 3y agothis was a direct consequence of Google and Facebook's predatory pricing. How is a hack on the bread line supposed to take on the Goliaths of Silicon Valley?
- all2 3y agoAre we talking ad pricing? Or some other pricing? How is it predatory?
- aml183 3y agoI run a B2B media company called Payload and all our employees own equity in the company. http://payloadspace.com/ http://payloadspace.com/
- SirMaster 3y agoBecause if you don't invest in something then you will never be rich. If you do then there is a chance you might become rich.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoAll things considered, excluding pump’n’dump schemes, you’d probably have a better shot winning the lottery than backing the Next Big ThingTM.
- SirMaster 3y agoYeah, I mean you aren't wrong. But I think that's people's mindset and some feel they need to at least try if they can.