purge at CyclingTips

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by aaronffs

https://www.vox.com/recode/22870773/...lion-explained

"The reason the Athletic is selling for $550 million — less than the $750 million the company was reportedly seeking, and around the value its investors thought it was worth in February 2020, when it last raised money — is because it has to.

As The Information’s Jessica Toonkel has reported, the startup burnt through more than $100 million in 2019 and 2020. In 2020 alone, when sports went dark for much of the year, it lost $41 million on revenue of $47 million. And even its most optimistic projections had it losing money until at least 2023. "

It's not a profitable business, buying the highest profile local writers and constantly offering discounted subscriptions isn't exactly a winning short term model... but I agree with both of you, the content is good and the model will probably work for ct2.0 (fwiw, i've been subscribed to the athletic for a few years now)

Interesting info. I will try to avoid gloating, but in another discussion on the current state of the media (where I was arguing it’s pretty dire from an earnings perspective) The Athletic was held up as a wildly successful and profitable business.

$550m is not chump change, by any means, but 5x revenue (Not to be confused with 5x earnings) is also not a huge multiplier, and if revenue is being used as the publisher multiplier it kind of infers the business isn’t earning heaps.
.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Have to admire their perseverance i suppose. Tough days to be a journalist of any sort. Well into my adulthood, i have neither the patience or risk tolerance for a career that might not work.

A paid subscription model probably makes sense for them. I agree that there is a ton of content out there, and much of it is just complete garbage and freelancers fighting for clicks, likes and eyeballs. If a subscriber is willing to pay for content, it is more likely they will actually read it since they are paying for it.

I'll be curious to see what becomes of this, and if the model will prove to be viable. I think it can work.

I suspect the reason this is being pursued as they have insider knowledge “under the hood” of CT1.0.

Ie they intimately know the subscriber numbers and feel pretty confident they can hit a number that will pay their bills.

If I was in their shoes, you can understand the motivation. It’s a job that they appear to be super passionate about. And at their point in life, you are talking career change and retraining.

[Elefantino]

I'm in. It won't break me and I'm more than happy to give an initial hand-up to Caley and the rest.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I still haven't forgiven Patrick Brady for that awful article he wrote in bicycling magazine that was supposed to be about riding in Japan, but was actually about his failing marriage.

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

The ethos of The Cycling Independent seems to be "how much can we write about cycling without our readers learning anything."

I'd much rather read Dave Rome explain the nuances of 10 different chain tools than read about how a chain tool is actually a metaphor for happiness.

Gotta disagree with you here. The best sports writing rarely involves the sport itself. Brady is a talented writer. Cycling is a ruminative sport. I can see how testing your mettle against an imposing mountain while contemplating the implosion of your marriage would make for gripping material. I'll put it on my reading list.

Who wants to read an entire article about the nuances of cadence? I don't.

[lavi]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Gotta disagree with you here. The best sports writing rarely involves the sport itself. Brady is a talented writer. Cycling is a ruminative sport. I can see how testing your mettle against an imposing mountain while contemplating the implosion of your marriage would make for gripping material. I'll put it on my reading list.

Who wants to read an entire article about the nuances of cadence? I don't.

Concur. I like Padraig. I spent lots of time on Belgian Knee Warmers and Red Kite Prayer.

Sadly, Cycling Independent is not anywhere near as good as RKP was, atmo. I wish it were, but it ain't.

THIS is the seminal article for me from RKP/Padraig. It was my guide book when I spent a year in Malibu loving every stinking foot of the beautiful roads.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Gotta disagree with you here. The best sports writing rarely involves the sport itself. Brady is a talented writer. Cycling is a ruminative sport. I can see how testing your mettle against an imposing mountain while contemplating the implosion of your marriage would make for gripping material. I'll put it on my reading list.

Who wants to read an entire article about the nuances of cadence? I don't.

I don't know what you want to read, but both my wife and I independently picked up that article thinking to ourselves "oh, cycling in Japan. Japan was a fun place to visit and we like cycling, I'd like to learn more about cycling in Japan in case we want to try that when we go back there."

And then we both put down the article thinking to ourselves "***, why did we just read about some guy-we-don't-care-about's depression and bad marriage."

If you're someone who likes reading about someone's depression and bad marriage, I'm sure you'd love the article, but I imagine readers of Depression and Bad Marriage Magazine would be similarly disappointed if the cover story was all about a bicycle adventure.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I don't know what you want to read, but both my wife and I independently picked up that article thinking to ourselves "oh, cycling in Japan. Japan was a fun place to visit and we like cycling, I'd like to learn more about cycling in Japan in case we want to try that when we go back there."

And then we both put down the article thinking to ourselves "***, why did we just read about some guy-we-don't-care-about's depression and bad marriage."

If you're someone who likes reading about someone's depression and bad marriage, I'm sure you'd love the article, but I imagine readers of Depression and Bad Marriage Magazine would be similarly disappointed if the cover story was all about a bicycle adventure.

God damn that was funny. Really damn funny. We still disagree though

[alexihnen]

Haven’t seen this mentioned, maybe another thread, but the CyclingTips Forum now appears to be gone. I’m a bit surprised it lasted so long after the staff departures given that it was mostly bashing CyclingTips. And I’m not even sure that we needed another cycling forum. Still, sad to see another part of CyclingTips disappear.

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by alexihnen

Haven’t seen this mentioned, maybe another thread, but the CyclingTips Forum now appears to be gone. I’m a bit surprised it lasted so long after the staff departures given that it was mostly bashing CyclingTips. And I’m not even sure that we needed another cycling forum. Still, sad to see another part of CyclingTips disappear.

That's very new. I have been keeping half an eye on this as part of my evening routine to see if anything was happening. It was there 24 hours ago, I even checked my history to make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks.

I was just thinking this morning (while listening to the Placeholder podcast) how matter of fact James Huang was in his responses on there. As in, zero attempt to control the (very negative) narrative and no hint of the corporation line in his posts.

[crankles]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I'd much rather read Dave Rome explain the nuances of 10 different chain tools than read about how a chain tool is actually a metaphor for happiness.

This almost made me milk-nose. HA!

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I don't know what you want to read, but both my wife and I independently picked up that article thinking to ourselves "oh, cycling in Japan. Japan was a fun place to visit and we like cycling, I'd like to learn more about cycling in Japan in case we want to try that when we go back there."

And then we both put down the article thinking to ourselves "***, why did we just read about some guy-we-don't-care-about's depression and bad marriage."

If you're someone who likes reading about someone's depression and bad marriage, I'm sure you'd love the article, but I imagine readers of Depression and Bad Marriage Magazine would be similarly disappointed if the cover story was all about a bicycle adventure.

I'm in middle of the article right now and so far it's okay, but gosh darn, your punchline here is gold, Jerry, GOLD!

[kiwisimon]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

Who wants to read an entire article about the nuances of cadence? I don't.

The nuances of cadence with two legs working together is quite analogous to a marriage.
Legs of different lengths with one dominant leg wanting to do more while the weaker leg is being dragged around while being told to push and pull more.
The damage done from misalignment, calling in a professional to mitigate the damage by adjustment to the "fit" whilst dealing with diminishing power output due to aging.
There is a PhD thesis there. I'd read it.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by kiwisimon

The nuances of cadence with two legs working together is quite analogous to a marriage.
Legs of different lengths with one dominant leg wanting to do more while the weaker leg is being dragged around while being told to push and pull more.
The damage done from misalignment, calling in a professional to mitigate the damage by adjustment to the "fit" whilst dealing with diminishing power output due to aging.
There is a PhD thesis there. I'd read it.

I’d read that

[crankles]

Ditto. TCI kinda lost me I and forgot about it until about 5 minutes ago...

Originally Posted by lavi

I spent lots of time on Belgian Knee Warmers and Red Kite Prayer.

Sadly, Cycling Independent is not anywhere near as good as RKP was, atmo. I wish it were, but it ain't.

[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.