The Athletic keeps growing .......

I'm tired of it mediating all aspects of our lives.

Whenever there is a defecation in public, Twitter seems to be involved.

We need that to stop, as a people.

 

FWIW, I think Patrick said the decision not to renew his contract was made before the pandemic, so don't read anything into the timing.

But the sports he covered were quite unlikely to generate many Athletic subscriptions. NCAA lacrosse has a devoted (but comparatively quite small) fan base centralized in a pretty compact area of the country. The college hoops teams he mostly covered -- the GWs, Loyolas and UMBCs of the world -- barely move the needle at all in their hometowns, much less elsewhere (even when they're winning). Hell, Georgetown basketball struggles to generate much interest in DC, and that's a brand-name program with a national title to its name (though it's been coasting on its brand name and 1980s success for decades now).

 

You keep hearing from suits no longer in the business that Twitter is a waste of time in terms of newspapers drawing pageviews. Yet over and over small sports items, scoops if you will, are reported on there first. It's a worthless form of bragging I guess. Not sure which suit came up with the idea you had to break news on Twitter. But it's dumb to continue to use Twitter.

 

I've witnessed a clear internal hesitation over whether we should be driving traffic to our website or to fucking Twitter.

a no-brainer.

 

Thoughts and prayers.

 

I’d love to hear the business justification for that.

 

Somebody forgot that Twitter was one of those Gannett-noid edicts that should have jumped the shark. Instead thanks to Trump and celebrities who have always enjoyed Twitter, it's bigger than ever. Just say no to Twitter.

 

Can’t wait til Gannett discovers Tik Tok

 

Cringe.

When newspapers debated to join TikTok: Big cringe.

There's no money to be made on TikTok. The demographic won't pick up a newspaper. The only thing to do is spread awareness of the brand. WaPo's Dave Jorgenson is doing things right.

 

It's a pleasant surprise to me that The Athletic hasn't cut staffing during the current crisis. Has it cut only freelance work? That's interesting considering that it's such a numbers-driven operation. I wonder if some of the big names or semi-big names hired on a contract basis have been quietly let go. (TBH, I'm not sure if the contract writers are paid by the piece or have some kind of guaranteed amount of work. )

 

Newspapers demand their reporters give all scoops to Twitter. Even the smallest "scoop." The new normal: a.) Report news on Twitter. b.) write story as quickly as humanly possible. c.) Post story following (very) quick edit. d.) Tweet the story. And all is well ... as long as the harried reporter got everything right. No time to triple check, ponder all facts in the story and re-read the story and headline several times. Cause putting it on Twitter first is everything to a suit.

 

The creator of Tik Tok was so smart. If you watch those short videos, it allows everybody to be an actor/actress and make their precious kids be actors/actresses. It's everybody's 15 minutes of fame which is genius of Tik Tok. Not sure how it makes money but I guess it does.