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I Sold The Magazine, Too
- workbench 13y agoThat dog is so gonna be next to go.
- mmariani 13y ago> Don’t worry, Hops isn’t for sale. Don't think so. ;)
- obviouslygreen 13y agoI have a client that insists I believe things simply because he says them, all evidence to the contrary. Situations change, priorities change, 'facts' are rarely actually facts, and even statements that are currently true often don't stay that way... I'm not suggesting he's being dishonest or that it won't last, but even the statement you cite indicates it's not currently for sale, and even then, what's the guarantee?
- asveikau 13y agoEveryone has a price.
- sambeau 13y agoFrom the press release: "He and his wife have one child and one dog. Neither is for sale."
- mehrzad 13y agoMaybe now it'll be ported to other platforms, but they are generous with the platform-agnostic file downloads.
- thehodge 13y agoExcellent news, no note about what he's doing next though?
- GuiA 13y agoIIRC, he hinted several times on twitter that he's experimenting with some new iOS apps ideas. He's often said that his strategy was to do cool stuff with Apple's newer APIs to maximize the chance for his apps to get featured (eg. the magazine with newsstand). So whatever Apple announced at WWDC could be a nice hint towards his next venture :)
- canthonytucci 13y agoHe was talking a while back on the accidental tech podcast about a PHP framework based on the one he built at tumblr that he said he was going to open source "soon".
- runjake 13y agoOn a recent ATP podcast episode, Marco hinted he had another major project or few in the wings, and from the sound of it, it was going to be unveiled soon. He recently bought a BMW (a long running joke), and estimates guess he made about $6.2 million from the Tumblr sale. If he puts the BMW up for sale, then worry.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- alex_doom 13y agoI'd imagine now that tumblr made him a pretty penny he'll be working on a personal fun project that's been on the back burner.
- tannerc 13y agoIt's great to see someone find success from things they've built. Marco is a solid example of what many of us strive to be: someone who builds things because it's what we love doing (and because at least one person out there needs/wants it).
- frou_dh 13y agoIt's like the mental version of reducing your possessions to fit in a backpack. Pretty cool if you ask me.
- lylejohnson 13y agoMaybe he's just finding that after polishing his yachts and helicopters he doesn't have time to work on all these projects.
- ihuman 13y agoHe should hire people to do that, and then hire people to manage the people he hired.
- wklauss 13y agoHope Glenn keeps up the good work. As a journalist The Magazine has been eye-opening to me. Almost non-existing staff (Glenn and Marco), handpicked contributors and you get a excellent magazine running profitable in less then one month. Shows how much baggage traditional media carries from the past and how convoluted a news organization can get once you start adding sales, advertising, and other departments that can be avoided now with the proper strategy.
- elmuchoprez 13y agoI think it's unclear how scalable and replicable The Magazine's success is (or even how successful it is). Marco Arment has a sizable niche following which provided an initial boost when The Magazine launched. His personal connections have allowed him to snag a handful of known names within that same niche circle. But more importantly, I think there's a different level of burden on a niche, under-the-radar type publication like this as compared to much of traditional media. I don't think Marco has a research staff to vet every article, so it's possible that they have or will eventually publish false information thanks to a lack of due diligence. Will anyone care? I guess it depends what falsehood they publish. What if the falsehood results in a libel claim? Now you're talking about significant legal involvement (and costs). Or maybe they end up running a story that has been plagiarized. What happens then? I think that what Marco has done with the Magazine has been great, but I often find that when you start dissecting "broken industries", you can start to see a method to the madness that led to the current state of affairs, and I question if big media is no different. Simplified money transfers were (still are?) a booming concept when PayPal launched, providing a simple alternative to the major banking networks that were slow and full of red tape. But as time has gone by, most of these payment services have gotten equally complex (holds on money, automatic reversals, etc...) because they slowly discovered that there was a reason for all the red tape. I find myself wondering if The Magazine's business model will discover a similar situation.
- smackfu 13y ago>Marco Arment has a sizable niche following which provided an initial boost when The Magazine launched. I think it was a pretty brilliant idea to have a lot of the pieces be written by popular bloggers and people with lots of twitter followers. Then they organically advertise The Magazine "for free", right when it needs the biggest pop. (And yes, they were mainly his friends, but I bet offering people a few grand for a longer blog post, cold, would work pretty well.)
- credo 13y agoI like many of Marco's posts, but I find it amusing that this one made it to #1 on the front page Instagram was a great product, Magazine a good follow-up. It is marginally interesting that Magazine ownership is being transferred to Marco's partner, but I don't understand why that merits the #1 ranking on HN :)
- par 13y agoInstapaper, right?
- kaichanvong 13y agoI also keep making that same mistake.
- lostlogin 13y agoAs do all people who discuss it - it's funny when Marco is on a podcast and you hear people pause before saying Instapaper. An inaudible please-don't-let-me-screw-this-up.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago>> "I don't understand why that merits the #1 ranking on HN" Because enough people upvoted it to get it there. The Magazine, although not focussed on tech, I assume attracts a large tech audience (the people on HN). Marco is a well known person in the development community and I'm sure quite a few people saw the post on his blog and submitted here gaining it upvotes.
- rhizome 13y ago"Relevance by proximity" is the cousin of "just add internet!" stories.
- Timothee 13y agoI think it's interesting to see the evolution of a startup engineer/now entrepreneur. Instapaper was a little product made by this one guy at home that grew big and I think for that reason, Marco Arment's story appealed to a lot of people here that are hoping to build their own bootstrapped product. And now he's at a later stage where he used the Instapaper success as a stepping stone for more projects, like The Magazine.
- smackfu 13y agoWow, Marco really does hate the idea of having employees. In this case, he accomplished the goal of many small business owners: a successful product where a trusted employee handles the day-to-day operations and the owner can be hands off and take the profits. But his immediate reaction is to sell it because he doesn't want to be a product owner, he wants to be the entire business.
- cickpass_broken 13y agoI am so confused as to how you came to all these conclusions. To me, it seemed pretty clear that he wants to develop things, and to program as his job, rather than run a business. "without doing much of the kind of work I actually enjoy."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- smackfu 13y agoYou seem to be saying the same things as I did. My point was that is very unusual for a small business owner, to sell a profitable business because it's not taking up enough of your time.
- soemarko 13y agoI guess ultimately, Marco's just a good guy. Under him The Magazine as a product probably would stagnate like Instapaper did. Then he would have sold it anyway. And, advisory role usually means a decent chunk of shares too. With what Glenn have in mind, this might be a smart financial step.
- Tyrannosaurs 13y agoThe reason a lot of people want that is they want a passive income to give them security. Given the success of instapaper and the fact he'll have done fine out of Tumblr, I suspect Marco has no need for that and would rather devote his time and attention (something can be distracting even while taking little actual time) to something he'd be happier doing.
- carlesfe 13y agoI highly recommend everyone to listen to his latest atp.fm podcasts. I found it is easy to misinterpret Marco (as if he wanted to be a public person, ha) but after hearing from the guy, I can only applaud him. Just a bit from ATP #14: "I'm terrified of doing anything that would make me look like a jerk in front of my family and friends"
- ruswick 13y ago>"I'm terrified of doing anything that would make me look like a jerk in front of my family and friends." That just doesn't seem true. He consistently goes out of his way to engage in trivial arguments with people, especially on Twitter. Literally days after the sale, he called out Anil Dash in a needlessly confrontational way about some minute error in his history of Tumblr (http://dashes.com/anil/2013/05/seven-years-ago-my-wife.html http://dashes.com/anil/2013/05/seven-years-ago-my-wife.html). Not to mention the time when got in some squabble with a writer for one of the Apple rumor sites, then blacklisted said site from every Instapaper account. As far as I'm concerned, he's made a jerk of himself in public innumerable times already. He just seems like an abrasive guy. That's not to say that his work is inferior (certainly assholes have created incredible work before), but any fear of looking like a jerk is moot. He has been a jerk forever.
- carlesfe 13y agoMany geeks are too cynical and abrasive over the internet, but good people when you talk to them (or when you can hear them talking). This is the case for most of HN people, most geek websites, and Marco, too. What the heck, I can include myself there. One thing is to write angry tweets, and in a very different level, would have been shutting it (or Instapaper) down just because he's burned out. He cares about his users.
- shn 13y agoHow much?
- tptacek 13y agoRule of thumb: if they don't say, they're not going to say. Given the situation here, where the business has been "sold" to its key operating employee, it's probably some kind of capped profit share.
- grinich 13y agoInstapaper. Tumblr. and now The Magazine. Sounds like Marco is clearing house a bit. Out with the old, in with the new.
- programminggeek 13y agoAs Marco has sold his businesses, I can't help but think of the line from Office Space "What would you say you do here Bob?"
- dylangs1030 13y agoAssuming the Magazine is successfully pivoted under new leadership, does that give Marco the award for most acquisitions? Tumblr, co-founder, acquired by Yahoo. Instapaper, founder, acquired by Betaworks. The Magazine, sold to the other founder, so kind of an acquisition?
- Osmium 13y agoDon't think he was technically a co-founder of Tumblr (but was the first employee), but nevertheless quite the achievements!
- pesenti 13y agoAnd in case you wondered, the company - Vivisimo - where Marco worked for his first job (before Tumblr) and where he owned stocks was also sold a year ago... So Marco made money from 4 different businesses in one year.
- DigitalSea 13y agoI really admire Marco as an entrepreneur and as a person. I am already looking forward to his next endeavour already, no doubt it'll be something awesome as usual. Congratulations Marco.
- KVFinn 13y agoI love Glenn. This is in good hands.
- unwind 13y agoWhen I tried reading this site on my Android phone, I get a blank page I can scroll around, with a) a huge ad banner and b) a "read later" button which leads to Instapaper. Very un-satisfying. :|
- coreymaass 13y agoI know nothing of the back story. I want to give praise to the Marco for this: "I accidentally built a business that I’m not very well-suited to run." A profound admission, showing real personal insight. I had to realize this about myself recently, and it wasn't easy.