purge at CyclingTips

[offtheback]

well, this kinda blows. guess corporate hacks gonna do what corporate hacks gonna do.

"Today Caley Fretz, Dave Rome, Matt de Neef and Daniel Benson (Editor-in-Chief of VN) were let go. Plus lots of other staff (including Steve Brawley who has been with CT for years in sales) and others throughout the company. 12% in total.

What a clusterfcuk OutsideInc is. Robin Thurston has gotten his head over his skis and singlehandedly fcuked up dozens of good media publications in just 2 years.

Goodbye CT. It was good while it lasted."

[prototoast]

This is the obvious consequence of Outside's anticompetitive and facially illegal acquisitions of so many cycling media brands.

FTC and DOJ dropped the ball on this one, and we're all paying the price for it.

[EDS]

Originally Posted by prototoast

This is the obvious consequence of Outside's anticompetitive and facially illegal acquisitions of so many cycling media brands.

FTC and DOJ dropped the ball on this one, and we're all paying the price for it.

Somehow I doubt the transaction value involved in this acquisition was high enough to require any HSR filing.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by EDS

Somehow I doubt the transaction value involved in this acquisition was high enough to require any HSR filing.

While I don't have all the financial details, prior to going on their acquisition spree, Pocket Outdoor Media raised $150 million in new money, with their total funding at over $170 million. That certainly puts them in the ballpark of HSR levels.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organizat...any_financials

[rice rocket]

This came up in my YouTube feed, worth a listen (on 2x speed at least) to "see it from his perspective" and what he's trying to build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HompCper4R0

Some of the stuff he says falls in line with this implosion TBH, he leans hard on expecting that we'll all be interacting w/ the world in microtransactions, paying for articles individually or accessing Trailforks on a per-ride basis. Except...many of us ride to get away from the social media world and the inundation of microtransactions. The big play he's trying to make is to game-ify outdoor time, collect rewards and trade them for points to spend on other things like you would airline miles, which was the basis of the NFT idea.

Later on, he goes on about mergers and acquisitions and how he expects to lose readers (but perhaps not on this level), and that he wants to pay freelance writers to put out content, sorta Uber-fying media generation.

It kinda aligns with the idea that he doesn't care about subscriptions if he can get money from microtransactions (but then later goes on to state that subscriptions are important). He also mentions the importance of content (except not quality of content), which aligns with his Uber idea. In essence, he's buying up media for the eyeballs, not necessarily for the staff. Sounds like a great future hellscape. Why not just use AI to generate articles at that point, most gear review is just fluffing the marketing narrative anyways.

Anyways, he says wait until Q1/Q2 of 2023 to see his vision.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by rice rocket

This came up in my YouTube feed, worth a listen (on 2x speed at least) to "see it from his perspective" and what he's trying to build.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HompCper4R0

Some of the stuff he says falls in line with this implosion TBH, he leans hard on expecting that we'll all be interacting w/ the world in microtransactions, paying for articles individually or accessing Trailforks on a per-ride basis. Except...many of us ride to get away from the social media world and the inundation of microtransactions. The big play he's trying to make is to game-ify outdoor time, collect rewards and trade them for points to spend on other things like you would airline miles, which was the basis of the NFT idea.

Later on, he goes on about mergers and acquisitions and how he expects to lose readers (but perhaps not on this level), and that he wants to pay freelance writers to put out content, sorta Uber-fying media generation.

It kinda aligns with the idea that he doesn't care about subscriptions if he can get money from microtransactions (but then later goes on to state that subscriptions are important). He also mentions the importance of content (except not quality of content), which aligns with his Uber idea. In essence, he's buying up media for the eyeballs, not necessarily for the staff. Sounds like a great future hellscape. Why not just use AI to generate articles at that point, most gear review is just fluffing the marketing narrative anyways.

Anyways, he says wait until Q1/Q2 of 2023 to see his vision.

When archaeologists dig up our artifacts years from now they’re going to wonder how we let the idiots like this guy take the wheel and drive us off a cliff..

[rice rocket]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

When archaeologists dig up our artifacts years from now they’re going to wonder how we let the idiots like this guy take the wheel and drive us off a cliff..

That's basically how this whole country operates now, no?

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

When archaeologists dig up our artifacts years from now they’re going to wonder how we let the idiots like this guy take the wheel and drive us off a cliff..

When people talk about eyeballs and content without also saying editorial standards and quality content, they’re saying please put me out of business.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by 72gmc

When people talk about eyeballs and content without also saying editorial standards and quality content, they’re saying please put me out of business.

This is nothing new - this is pretty much the definition of Yellow Journalism. This term was coined over 100 years ago, during the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst, although in practice it goes back further. Current purveyors, like the New York Post, are still doing well, even as the newspaper business in general is suffering.

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

This is nothing new - this is pretty much the definition of Yellow Journalism. This term was coined over 100 years ago, during the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst, although in practice it goes back further. Current purveyors, like the New York Post, are still doing well, even as the newspaper business in general is suffering.

Also booming is Pink Slime Journalism. Wherever you live you probably have one of these sites run by a company called "Metric Media" ... and if you dig into their business model it's a local-news nightmare. It looks and quacks like a duck but it most definitely isn't a duck.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

Also booming is Pink Slime Journalism. Wherever you live you probably have one of these sites run by a company called "Metric Media" ... and if you dig into their business model it's a local-news nightmare. It looks and quacks like a duck but it most definitely isn't a duck.

Thanks for this info. Always good to keep a skeptical eye on what you’re reading.

[lavi]

Also just a reminder that our little corner of the world is totally small potatoes compared to many other business ventures.

It's bike dorks talking to, and writing for, bike dorks. Small piddly dollars by comparison.

It tough, but Wade selling (not out) was the beginning of the end. And, I cannot blame him. He got to pull his chips off the table and likely fatten his wallet a touch. I would likely have done the same. Having a 2nd (and 3rd) mortgage on one's family home is a dicey proposition in running/funding a business. Selling one's company is, and always will be, an exit strategy. In this case, it eventually dismantled something we all really enjoyed.

Same for Peloton Mag...even though it wasn't super good. It was still good enough to grace my coffee table and bedside stand.

[72gmc]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

Also booming is Pink Slime Journalism. Wherever you live you probably have one of these sites run by a company called "Metric Media" ... and if you dig into their business model it's a local-news nightmare. It looks and quacks like a duck but it most definitely isn't a duck.

I hadn’t thought about this story in a while. Thanks for posting.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

This is nothing new - this is pretty much the definition of Yellow Journalism. This term was coined over 100 years ago, during the circulation war between Pulitzer and Hearst, although in practice it goes back further. Current purveyors, like the New York Post, are still doing well, even as the newspaper business in general is suffering.

The New York Post? It turned its first profit in 2021 in “modern history”. It’s a chronic loss maker for News corp and apparently has been so since inception in 1801.

Originally Posted by prototoast

It's easy to look at what Outside is doing and say "this is just the way of the world right now" but I would posit that Outside management is actually doing a particularly bad job of things.

I think you’ll struggle to find a news organisation that hasn’t gone backwards in the last 20 years. If you do, they’ll likely be in a niche and relatively small revenue base.

I do not disagree that outside management is doing an outsize-ed-ly bad job, though, which combined with the swift shift in macro policy settings that has made life very hard for them.

This theme will continue for cash burning businesses for the foreseeable future I imagine.

[Joeeboh]

I mailed Andy V B for some discount codes as the Velohub page wasnt updated and received notice that he has left.

Velohub homepage is down and the forum seems offline.

Pretty sure this is the nail in the coffin.