-
oh noPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 7 Retweets
❤️ 32 Favorites
Mood -1 🙁
-
They're launching without ads active, their big hires are all editorial & no notable business people, they're VC funded, judging by design issues, they're not building mobile-first, they will "potentially branch out" into consulting and software. They don't have a business planPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 5 Retweets
❤️ 42 Favorites
Mood +3 🙂
-
And they've done the Fusion thing of bringing in a mediocre Famous Journalist, which means they don't have a marketing plan.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 22 Favorites
Mood +2 🙂
-
I appreciate the editorial mission but everything about this screams out that they don't have any idea how to turn it into a sustainable business and don't have a plan for when the investors want growth and returns. nytimes.com/2022/01/12/business/grid-news-site-live.htmlPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 4 Retweets
❤️ 23 Favorites
Mood +5 🙂
-
And imo, the fact that they can't even pull the mediocre Famous Journalist from his newsletter is another Fusion echo. Didn't go well for them with FS either.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 12 Favorites
Mood +2 🙂
-
It's 2022, news startups need better plans than 'build audience without ads, flip ads on when it is big enough, make money'Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 5 Retweets
❤️ 25 Favorites
Mood +3 🙂
-
I do understand why these things keep happening. The VCs still have not evolved their idea of how to turn audiences into cash beyond Facebook and they figure if FB didn't have ads initially, acquired a huge audience & then flipped on ads & went hockey stick now that's the modelPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 11 Favorites
Mood +1 🙂
-
And I understand why Prestige Journalism Startups are pitched, most corporations, including media, have stopped offering upward mobility so running your own outlet until it collapses a year later is basically the only way to get a raise for near-top journalists.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 17 Favorites
Mood -3 🙁
-
But conceptually I find it all incredibly depressing. These startups tend to be built on the back of True Believers because pitching your media co to employees is the first step and the easiest way to get them to work at or under their incoming rates...Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 11 Favorites
Mood 0
-
Journalism is an especially precarious job vertical and while top employees likely have an easy exit from the wreck of the company, the majority will not. Some percent of really good passionate journalists will inevitably burn out on the labor Start Up Life asks of them...Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 9 Favorites
Mood +6 🙂
-
And in the end these types of start ups end up being incredibly depressing to me because it's really just one more example of early career and millennial employees being literally ground up to escalate a few big names up the corporate ladder...Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 11 Favorites
Mood -1 🙁
-
While it's true of many startups that this this happens, in journalism we really need those new and younger voices and it really sucks that the marketplace has created this mechanism that just continually grinds them out of the industry...Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 6 Favorites
Mood -1 🙁
-
These startups, even if well-intentioned, end up being the very engines of the media industry's conformity by crushing the mid and early career people most passionate about reforming it. It fkin sucks. I hate this keeps happening & that there are never consequences for leadershipPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 3 Retweets
❤️ 11 Favorites
Mood -4 🙁
-
This is why I can never really get excited about any of these that launch without a clear business plan. A lot of media commentators applaud the very act that these startups keep popping and get funding, but I don't see that as an intrinsic good.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 13 Favorites
Mood +9 🙂
-
These always end up being just one more labor abusive work-place whose need to hustle for investors sets them up to burn out the very voices we need to retain the most.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 9 Favorites
Mood -3 🙁
-
For this reason I really wish media reporters would dig into the mechanics of how these startups are supposed to work and treat them critically instead of basically giving them free PR every time they pop up.Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 4 Retweets
❤️ 17 Favorites
Mood +2 🙂
-
(Slight edit: it turns out that Grid *did* launch with a full Freestar ad tech stack only there are so many ad loads and slow tracking scripts it took multiple page views before I'd cached enough for their ad tech to do anything... and their density is definitely not high enoughPermalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 6 Favorites
Mood 0
-
... so very low ads--2 on a long article--not *no* ads... and no interest in doing anything innovative with their ad tech stack, literally the most basic everyone-in drop on ad tech, just as bad IMO, and everything still stands, but wanted to be clear)Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 4 Favorites
Mood -2 🙁
-
(And in case you were wondering how they're going to do on search as a result of that heavy ad tech load... well it doesn't look good)Permalink On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 3 Favorites
Mood +3 🙂
-
(To be clear, dumping a Full Ad Tech Stack on your page for two ads per article is as much an indicator of a total lack of business plan or way to make a company profitable except even worse because now you're starting off selling your users to literally everyone & w/a slow site)On twitter.com
♻️ 2 Retweets
❤️ 7 Favorites
Mood -2 🙁