The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Digital Fire Sale: ‘Get Woke, Go Broke’ Wiping Out SJW Online Media

Posted on | December 5, 2018 | Comments Off on Digital Fire Sale: ‘Get Woke, Go Broke’ Wiping Out SJW Online Media

Making “social justice” part of your business model is never a good idea, and some startling numbers are starting to come out:

It was around this time last year that things were starting to look a little dicey for the media industry’s once breathlessly-hyped digital unicorns. Both BuzzFeed and Vice made news for substantially missing their revenue targets. Mashable was sold at a dramatic price reduction. Vox Media was forced to terminate 5 percent of its workforce. . . .
A year later, the challenges have hardly abated. Mic canned the majority of its staff last week as part of a last-resort sale to Bustle for about $5 million — $95 million less than its previous valuation. Vice, under turnaround C.E.O. Nancy Dubuc, is in the process of trimming its 3,000-person global headcount by 15 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported Vice’s losses at more than $50 million in 2018. At Refinery29, 10 percent of the workforce received pink slips this fall. BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti recently floated in the pages of The New York Times the quixotic notion of a multi-company merger between BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox Media, Group Nine Media, and Refinery29, as a means to rival the Facebook-Google ad duopoly.

Whoa — Vice is losing $1 million a week? That’s insane. And did you know (I didn’t) that Mic had raised $60 million in investment capital? But the founders Chris Altchek and Jake Horowitz “couldn’t find a business model” to pay the bills for their “millennial-focused news company,” so they sold for just $5 million. Just three years ago, they had a vodka company sponsoring their private party at a swanky Chelsea nightclub, but then Facebook changed its algorithm and the clickbait traffic evaporated, so no more hoverboards in the office, eh?

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)



 

Category: Media Bias

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