SB Nation pulls Daniel Holtzclaw longform piece

Jones is right, btw.

 

Do they make money? If yes, from where?

I look at Eater a lot for business reasons, but I can't imagine it makes money. Very little advertising. Few reader comments ever.

Even look at Curbed from time to time, and on rare occasion Racked.

None of them look like money makers to me.

Is the valuation based on Vox.com? Maybe it makes some money, but it's mostly terrible.

 

Typefitter-
You should write about Home Depot. It would be more interesting than somebody who's Fighting Adversity in life.
Bad work is not always about the length of a coin.

 

YF and Ragu, I just figure if something is valued at $1 billion, however speciously, somebody, somewhere, is making some money from it.

And I should say, as an addendum to my previous post, that you might find good reason to write for free or for little pay—the thrill of seeing a story earn an audience, an opening to some larger opportunity, you and your friends are doing something out of love together, whatever. That's a personal choice that you have to make, and I meant what I said: If you want to do that, go to town. It's your time and effort. I just think that most of the time, it's a mistake. I think it devalues all writing, and I believe words—well-reported, structured, and written words—should have value. Good stories are hard and rare. If you are good at something, you should get paid for it. We complain all the time about the illogic of newspapers giving their product away for nothing; I don't see how it's any different for writers.

 

Poe's adjusted earnings were below our poverty line. That was before he drank the rest away.
So it's never been all about talent.
I would surmise Caleb Hannan was paid well by industry standards- and look at the egg he dropped.
You can give somebody lavish spending "resources" and he will still produce crap.

 

I'm nowhere near bitter or washed up. I've just seen enough to know the difference between shit and shit steak. You obviously haven't.

 

Of course. Poverty has produced some great work, and money has produced some serious shit. Love will trump most things when it comes to art. But if you pay professional wages, and if you have an appropriately sized staff earning them, you will have a generally higher quality of work than if people are stretched too thin or you're trying to get them to work for free. This isn't exactly a mind-bending proposition I'm making here.

 

We're talking past each other at this point, which is fine.
Arnold's name is on the thing. As Hannan's was on his.
The damage done to that, no amount of money can fix.
All because they didn't have an editor to save them from themselves.

 

Agree. The local Home Depot came in and quickly put 3 longstanding local hardware mom 'n' pops to bed.

I don't know what this means -- Bad work is not always about the length of a coin -- but I like how it sounds.

 

What was better about the old days?

I ask as a reader.