Let’s remember that what happened to so many of these companies that went under — VICE, Buzzfeed, Mic, Pitchfork — happened in part because they were so successful that people whose main goal was making piles of money expanded them to death, dropped absurd amounts of money on huge, fancy offices in New York City and required workers to move there in order to work onsite, spent way too much money on other stupid things and then had to call in private equity firms to bail them out.
/Quote
Sort of relevant:
McSweeney's, "Our Company Is Doing So Well That You're All Fired"
But wait, this will be a money maker! The name is still good so they can synergistically use that as a brander across social media platforms! And I have a great first idea! They need to get together with Stanley Tools and put the name on products. I’m thinking a device used to hold two pieces of wood together. Picture it: Vice x Stanley screws! It gets right to the heart of vulture capital firms!🔩🔩
This is the way of the corporate world. They have been doing this for decades across industries. My inner anarchist is very riled. What is the benefit of this? Rich people get richer, good people lose their jobs and everyone loses a resource that enriched their lives somehow. Although, I have always held Vice at arms length, Gavin Mcinnes being a founder really added a weird tint to that site. Still, so often fine websites, offering a wide verity of views, have been disappeared, bought up and disassembled. I grieve old beautiful sites, True/Slant, which brought together a wide range of political voices, including Matt Taibbi before he got weird, they were bought and decimated within a week. Buzzfeed News taking the Britney Spears conservatorship to another level, reminding people that this also happens to people who do not have a fan club to fight for them Too many others to count. Why do we favor this system which gives us bland and boring everything? What good is corporate greed for? Absolutely nothing
"As we synergistically realign our strategic vision, we remain committed to realigning our logistic priorities to conform to the ever changing bottom line of the core values of our essential priorities. We must never forget the primary principals to continue to essentialize excellence that demands we keep on the inside track of new business long terms...."
The error is deeply telling. It speaks to private equity's focus on the gains of 'principals' - aka the ones with invested money in the game - who are the only ones who they think deserve to make money on this.
So among the bullshit a nugget of truth pops up. They are in it to make money for themselves and their investors, not to provide a needed service. Often that involves killing the goose that may not be laying a golden egg but is laying eggs the serve a purpose besides wealth.
How sad that this is the future envisioned by the people in charge of such things. Soulless computer generated drivel without any pesky human emotion or nuance. What a loss for humanity. 😢
Remember when automation was held over our heads to say "You want an expensive burger? Keep asking for wages and you will be replaced by robots!"
And it turns out the robots were designed to take away the jobs that allow us to have joy and be creative, and not automating the difficult, dirty drudge-work.
The most essential jobs get paid the least. And the logic is that 'because these are really essential and important jobs you obviously get more satisfaction from doing them and don't need compensation'. There is NOTHING that Elon Musk could do better if he had a salary of only 48 billion instead of 56 billions to encourage him to work better.
Nothing to see here. Bruce is just right-sizing the strategic synergies too grow the cross-platform paradigms and ensure a robust future of multi-dynamic growth, or something.
Yeah, this is depressing as hell but then I think about substack and all the fine authors and citizen journalists there and I get happy but then I think about Laura Loomer and that asshole Matt Taiibi and I'm back to depressed as hell.( Don't even get me started on Andrew Sullivan.)
Why can't they shut the New York Times down. Those guys really suck.
When Ted Turner agreed to merge with Time Warner there began the long slide to where his company is today. I was working at CNN when Time Warner took over. It was bad. Ted thought he would retain control, but was very mistaken. I was also there when AOL took over. That was even worse. I laid off my staff one by one and then the company laid me off. Now Discovery, well known as a horrible place to work, is running things. The government should have stopped all these mergers and acquisitions years ago before everything became consolidated into a handful of mega media companies. I predict that TCM will be gone soon, despite heavy hitters like Scorcese and Spielberg throwing their weight behind that little network.
"...no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously." So they are shutting down the server? It's digital.........there's not a lot of ink and paper or mail involved. It's embarrassingly bad to come up with statements like this when everybody knows they outspent their income. The honchos ought to be fined for mismanagement.
it is amazing that shareholders can sue a board for financial mismanagement or malfeasance, but those employees laid off by the board's stupidity or mismanagement can't throw together a class action law suit.
There you go, implying that empires have some sort of societal responsibility. Anyone who has read Atlas Shrugged when he was 13 knows that you go in, take the good stuff and let the rest collapse in a heap for society to clean up.
Sharks go for the liver of their prey and let nature handle the remains.
Another one bites the dust, and I get another shiver of PTSD from the days when AOL bought Time Warner...and destroyed a legacy media company within a year. What's ironic is I think Steve Case and Gerald Levin believed they were creating the "media company of the future," but inadvertently planted the suck-'em-dry seeds.
Quote/
Let’s remember that what happened to so many of these companies that went under — VICE, Buzzfeed, Mic, Pitchfork — happened in part because they were so successful that people whose main goal was making piles of money expanded them to death, dropped absurd amounts of money on huge, fancy offices in New York City and required workers to move there in order to work onsite, spent way too much money on other stupid things and then had to call in private equity firms to bail them out.
/Quote
Sort of relevant:
McSweeney's, "Our Company Is Doing So Well That You're All Fired"
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-company-is-doing-so-well-that-youre-all-fired
But wait, this will be a money maker! The name is still good so they can synergistically use that as a brander across social media platforms! And I have a great first idea! They need to get together with Stanley Tools and put the name on products. I’m thinking a device used to hold two pieces of wood together. Picture it: Vice x Stanley screws! It gets right to the heart of vulture capital firms!🔩🔩
Ta, Robyn. This is so sad. I hate vulture capitalism with the heat of a billion suns.
If things keep going this way, Wonkette will soon be the only independent media news provider left.
Defector (of course) also has a good piece on this disaster:
https://defector.com/vices-avaricious-stewards-finally-succeeded-at-bleeding-it-dry
I love the presumption that those who are about to get laid off would give a flinging shit about the future of Vice.
This is the way of the corporate world. They have been doing this for decades across industries. My inner anarchist is very riled. What is the benefit of this? Rich people get richer, good people lose their jobs and everyone loses a resource that enriched their lives somehow. Although, I have always held Vice at arms length, Gavin Mcinnes being a founder really added a weird tint to that site. Still, so often fine websites, offering a wide verity of views, have been disappeared, bought up and disassembled. I grieve old beautiful sites, True/Slant, which brought together a wide range of political voices, including Matt Taibbi before he got weird, they were bought and decimated within a week. Buzzfeed News taking the Britney Spears conservatorship to another level, reminding people that this also happens to people who do not have a fan club to fight for them Too many others to count. Why do we favor this system which gives us bland and boring everything? What good is corporate greed for? Absolutely nothing
I'm in it for the kink. Global platform me, baby.
"As we synergistically realign our strategic vision, we remain committed to realigning our logistic priorities to conform to the ever changing bottom line of the core values of our essential priorities. We must never forget the primary principals to continue to essentialize excellence that demands we keep on the inside track of new business long terms...."
'We're got fucked over. But I made sure you got fucked over more'
I hate how corpo-speak has committed the cold blooded murder of the English language.
'principals', lol.
It's 'principles'
The error is deeply telling. It speaks to private equity's focus on the gains of 'principals' - aka the ones with invested money in the game - who are the only ones who they think deserve to make money on this.
I know that. Glad you saw it
So among the bullshit a nugget of truth pops up. They are in it to make money for themselves and their investors, not to provide a needed service. Often that involves killing the goose that may not be laying a golden egg but is laying eggs the serve a purpose besides wealth.
Late stage capitalism is killing us.
A more correct summation of the situation could not be said! I like.
How sad that this is the future envisioned by the people in charge of such things. Soulless computer generated drivel without any pesky human emotion or nuance. What a loss for humanity. 😢
Remember when automation was held over our heads to say "You want an expensive burger? Keep asking for wages and you will be replaced by robots!"
And it turns out the robots were designed to take away the jobs that allow us to have joy and be creative, and not automating the difficult, dirty drudge-work.
The most essential jobs get paid the least. And the logic is that 'because these are really essential and important jobs you obviously get more satisfaction from doing them and don't need compensation'. There is NOTHING that Elon Musk could do better if he had a salary of only 48 billion instead of 56 billions to encourage him to work better.
Nothing to see here. Bruce is just right-sizing the strategic synergies too grow the cross-platform paradigms and ensure a robust future of multi-dynamic growth, or something.
He's Working Against Normalizing Knowledge Involving Negative Gains......
which is what it is, anyhow :p
But he seems to have misplaced the fenortinor rod and the teleport for the doohicky at the latest c-suite meth party...
Enshittification. Wall St wants continuously growing profits, bleeding these orgs until they die. Fuck capitalism! 👿
This is well done. Thank you!
Yeah, this is depressing as hell but then I think about substack and all the fine authors and citizen journalists there and I get happy but then I think about Laura Loomer and that asshole Matt Taiibi and I'm back to depressed as hell.( Don't even get me started on Andrew Sullivan.)
Why can't they shut the New York Times down. Those guys really suck.
When Ted Turner agreed to merge with Time Warner there began the long slide to where his company is today. I was working at CNN when Time Warner took over. It was bad. Ted thought he would retain control, but was very mistaken. I was also there when AOL took over. That was even worse. I laid off my staff one by one and then the company laid me off. Now Discovery, well known as a horrible place to work, is running things. The government should have stopped all these mergers and acquisitions years ago before everything became consolidated into a handful of mega media companies. I predict that TCM will be gone soon, despite heavy hitters like Scorcese and Spielberg throwing their weight behind that little network.
"...no longer cost-effective for us to distribute our digital content the way we have done previously." So they are shutting down the server? It's digital.........there's not a lot of ink and paper or mail involved. It's embarrassingly bad to come up with statements like this when everybody knows they outspent their income. The honchos ought to be fined for mismanagement.
This is the way, but they can't say it out loud or no one will give them the loans for their next ventures.
....and you know there will be next ventures that will be just as grifty.
right, it seems more like they cant actually afford to produce the digital content and find a way to pay themselves a shit load of money
it is amazing that shareholders can sue a board for financial mismanagement or malfeasance, but those employees laid off by the board's stupidity or mismanagement can't throw together a class action law suit.
that is just some BULLSHIT right there.
There you go, implying that empires have some sort of societal responsibility. Anyone who has read Atlas Shrugged when he was 13 knows that you go in, take the good stuff and let the rest collapse in a heap for society to clean up.
Sharks go for the liver of their prey and let nature handle the remains.
Another one bites the dust, and I get another shiver of PTSD from the days when AOL bought Time Warner...and destroyed a legacy media company within a year. What's ironic is I think Steve Case and Gerald Levin believed they were creating the "media company of the future," but inadvertently planted the suck-'em-dry seeds.