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by TradingPlaces 1038 days ago
Right into my veins

>Much has been written about the failing business model of new media. We have watched how new media companies fail, and it’s not because of a lack of audience, revenue, impact, or vital work. New media companies fail because of a growth-at-any-cost mentality, and venture capital investments made at absurd valuations. Most importantly, astronomical overhead costs make it impossible for journalists to out-earn the cost of expensive office space, the ever-changing whims of management, executives’ salaries, the cost of unnecessary enterprise software, and an endless parade of consultants brought in to figure out what’s wrong.

>It doesn’t have to be this way, and at 404 Media, it will not. We propose a simple alternative: pay journalists to do journalism.

Also, y u no Mastodon?
3 comments
jkoebler 1038 days ago
We're going to join Mastodon I promise. Honestly the reason we haven't joined Mastodon yet is because there have been a million little things to adjust/fix in the days leading up to launch to make sure the site didn't break, to edit the stories, get art done, backend business stuff as well.

There are a lot of things we wanted to launch with that we haven't had time to do yet, which doesn't mean it's not a priority. As you can imagine we've had a few (very minor) urgent fires in the leadup to launch, so tbh our social media accounts across the board have taken a temporary backseat. Mastodon is high on our list and I'm sure we'll be there by the end of the week if not the end of the day.

Thank you for your support!

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user_named 1038 days ago
Sounds like there's lots of overhead.
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ehPReth 1037 days ago
I mean, setting up a new publication/company is a little more involved than just idly clicking though setting up a blog on wordpress.com and shitting out a singular 5 paragraph essay if that's what you mean.
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satvikpendem 1037 days ago
Where are they getting the money to pay the journalists? Isn't that the main issue, that people don't pay for journalism, hence why media outlets take VC in the first place? Seems like VC funding is a consequence, not the cause.
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smcleod 1038 days ago
This is absolutely spot on. It’s refreshing to see.
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