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May 8, 2018 7:58 AM Subscribe
"Univision Is A Fucking Mess." A special long form report/distress signal from the Gizmodo Media Group, a subsidiary of Univision.
Also, great title!
posted by Going To Maine at 8:33 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 8:33 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
So if Univision goes down, I suppose that would be the death knell for GMG sites including The Onion.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:40 AM on May 8, 2018
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:40 AM on May 8, 2018
aligns perfectly worth a number of stereotypes about the organization.
What are these stereotypes? I don't know them.
posted by josher71 at 8:41 AM on May 8, 2018
What are these stereotypes? I don't know them.
posted by josher71 at 8:41 AM on May 8, 2018
I assume that it Univision went bankrupt, the GMG sites would be an asset that would be sold at auction.
posted by andreaazure at 8:42 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by andreaazure at 8:42 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Wow.
With these deep cuts, Univision’s voice—the work of journalists who in many cases were forced to flee countries like Venezuela, Mexico, and Guatemala, where they were persecuted for their reporting—has been muted. In the Miami office, where the newsroom is based, morale is dragging. Staffers, some hired less than two years ago, are confused about why these cuts are happening right now; some in the U.S. on work visas are scrambling to find ways to stay in the country legally. Two newsroom sources say that reporters and supervisors cooperated and in some cases even sacrificed their jobs to ensure that reporters facing unstable or unsafe conditions in their home countries, like Venezuela, could keep their jobs and stay in the U.S.posted by ZeusHumms at 8:42 AM on May 8, 2018 [21 favorites]
I suspect the hand is not going to be feeding much longer, which might explain the biting.
What are these stereotypes? I don't know them.
Basically that Gawker (now technically Gizmodo Media Group, but a leopard keeps its spots) is a messy property, inhabiting an awkward space between journalism and muckraking, and will take a damn-the-torpedoes approach, reporting on questionable content -- often soliciting that content, often courting danger (or at least lawsuits). They are the people who brought us the Rob Ford crack video.
Univision bought GMG in a fire sale after a lawsuit against Gawker, financially backed by Peter Thiel and brought on behalf of Hulk Hogan and that dude who claims he invented email, bankrupted the company. The lawsuit was about journalistic (ir)responsibility, basically; Gawker reported on a sex tape featuring Hogan, and pointed out that the dude claiming to have invented email did not, in fact, actually invent email. Neither party had the cash to fund this, but Thiel wanted to take Gawker down because a subsite of theirs, Valleywag, outed him (Valleywag shuttered in 2011). And Thiel has infinite money, so Thiel bankrolled the suit, and kept it going until Gawker had to concede. This is how they went out.
Thiel was at least contemplating the perfection of his revenge by buying them; this 'biting the hand that feeds' may be a timely warning to Thiel that buying them won't stop them from talking shit about their owners, so he may want to steer clear.
posted by halation at 9:01 AM on May 8, 2018 [11 favorites]
What are these stereotypes? I don't know them.
Basically that Gawker (now technically Gizmodo Media Group, but a leopard keeps its spots) is a messy property, inhabiting an awkward space between journalism and muckraking, and will take a damn-the-torpedoes approach, reporting on questionable content -- often soliciting that content, often courting danger (or at least lawsuits). They are the people who brought us the Rob Ford crack video.
Univision bought GMG in a fire sale after a lawsuit against Gawker, financially backed by Peter Thiel and brought on behalf of Hulk Hogan and that dude who claims he invented email, bankrupted the company. The lawsuit was about journalistic (ir)responsibility, basically; Gawker reported on a sex tape featuring Hogan, and pointed out that the dude claiming to have invented email did not, in fact, actually invent email. Neither party had the cash to fund this, but Thiel wanted to take Gawker down because a subsite of theirs, Valleywag, outed him (Valleywag shuttered in 2011). And Thiel has infinite money, so Thiel bankrolled the suit, and kept it going until Gawker had to concede. This is how they went out.
Thiel was at least contemplating the perfection of his revenge by buying them; this 'biting the hand that feeds' may be a timely warning to Thiel that buying them won't stop them from talking shit about their owners, so he may want to steer clear.
posted by halation at 9:01 AM on May 8, 2018 [11 favorites]
I've gotta say that The Onion is almost completely unreadable since they moved to Gizmodo's CMS. (The AV Club fared even worse, as their content isn't at all blog-like)
"One size fits all" is a terrible design strategy for media outlets to adopt, particularly one as unique as The Onion.
posted by schmod at 9:12 AM on May 8, 2018 [22 favorites]
"One size fits all" is a terrible design strategy for media outlets to adopt, particularly one as unique as The Onion.
posted by schmod at 9:12 AM on May 8, 2018 [22 favorites]
I suspect the CMS is actually the main reason they rolled the dice on GMG, despite its being a toxic property and not really fitting with the overall vision. Kinja is (theoretically) a great platform for generating revenue, for pushing monetised external links and affiliate content. Kinja Deals is basically just a direct conduit to Amazon. It sounds like there's far too much debt for that revenue stream to matter much to Univision, though it was enough to float a smaller media company. Someone may buy them again for that CMS.
The Onion, I assume, they bought for the name recognition. Since they've proceeded to ruin both it and the AV Club, I don't imagine either property fetching much or surviving very long after a Univision collapse.
posted by halation at 9:23 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Onion, I assume, they bought for the name recognition. Since they've proceeded to ruin both it and the AV Club, I don't imagine either property fetching much or surviving very long after a Univision collapse.
posted by halation at 9:23 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've gotta say that The Onion is almost completely unreadable since they moved to Gizmodo's CMS. (The AV Club fared even worse, as their content isn't at all blog-like)
All the funny content on The Onion moved to Clickhole, anyway.
posted by TrialByMedia at 9:24 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
All the funny content on The Onion moved to Clickhole, anyway.
posted by TrialByMedia at 9:24 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]
Becoming just another of the many names of Gawker was already the death knell for The Onion. Talent has been fleeing to start a new parody news content outlet owned by Elon Musk.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 9:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 9:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Definitely agree. The move to Kinja was a pretty terrible one for the Onion's properties.
Other than that tho, I really am surprised to see the ongoing bitterness towards Gawker/GMG. Even if you are still really mad about something they did in the past, tons of media properties that have done far, far worse don't inspire anything like the bile that Gawker somehow still does (the NYT has actively helped push the country into multiple illegal wars, just for one example) and pretty much everybody who participated in most of the things that people still hold against Gawker isn't there anymore. GMG right now is a vital source of original reporting. They're probably the most-read leftist media in the US. They're doing as much as any news organization to keep attention on union work, teacher strikes, racial injustice, and conservative efforts to roll us back to the Gilded Age. I don't get the lingering hate.
posted by protocoach at 9:28 AM on May 8, 2018 [29 favorites]
Other than that tho, I really am surprised to see the ongoing bitterness towards Gawker/GMG. Even if you are still really mad about something they did in the past, tons of media properties that have done far, far worse don't inspire anything like the bile that Gawker somehow still does (the NYT has actively helped push the country into multiple illegal wars, just for one example) and pretty much everybody who participated in most of the things that people still hold against Gawker isn't there anymore. GMG right now is a vital source of original reporting. They're probably the most-read leftist media in the US. They're doing as much as any news organization to keep attention on union work, teacher strikes, racial injustice, and conservative efforts to roll us back to the Gilded Age. I don't get the lingering hate.
posted by protocoach at 9:28 AM on May 8, 2018 [29 favorites]
Since they've proceeded to ruin both it and the AV Club, I don't imagine either property fetching much or surviving very long after a Univision collapse.
What they did to AV Club was tragic. I've followed it since it was a print section nestled in the middle of the Onion that you could pick up on a Madison street corner on Tuesday mornings (or was it Thursday?). For a while, it had one of the greatest comment sections on the internet and was hands down the best place for TV show reviews. All that's gone (especially after the Kinjapocalypse), and the writing has become awful clickbaity stuff about how awful Trump is. Hey, I really despise the guy, but I don't come to a pop culture website to read third-rate articles by non-journalists about politics.
posted by Edgewise at 9:34 AM on May 8, 2018 [20 favorites]
What they did to AV Club was tragic. I've followed it since it was a print section nestled in the middle of the Onion that you could pick up on a Madison street corner on Tuesday mornings (or was it Thursday?). For a while, it had one of the greatest comment sections on the internet and was hands down the best place for TV show reviews. All that's gone (especially after the Kinjapocalypse), and the writing has become awful clickbaity stuff about how awful Trump is. Hey, I really despise the guy, but I don't come to a pop culture website to read third-rate articles by non-journalists about politics.
posted by Edgewise at 9:34 AM on May 8, 2018 [20 favorites]
I used to go to AV Club for recaps on shows. These days, I don't even know if they're reviewing them because not only it feels like there's not even half the people doing recaps, the site itself is unresponsive and so. fucking. slow to browse. I hatehatehatehate sites that have a big-ass image taking all of the screen, and then a paragraph of text, and a lot of freaking white space because they were designed for portrait orientation devices.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:57 AM on May 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by lmfsilva at 9:57 AM on May 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
I still read the AV Club out of habit, but it is really a shame what happened to the site. I've always enjoyed the 'Film Club' discussions with I. Vishnitivesky and A. Dowd, and thankfully they're still making them (after a brief hiatus). Still, sometimes I can't shake the feeling that their current discussions feel rather subdued compared to the former ones, as if they both can't forget what a mess was made of the once great website they work for.
posted by Alex404 at 10:00 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Alex404 at 10:00 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Goddamn, capitalism is such a mess. This network was doing better than fine, great, and in the pursuit of bullshit, they were sold to garbage and loaded up with debt for the cost of being purchased??? It's really maddening. We're supposed to think these assholes with the big bucks are working hard enough to earn their pay but it seems like they're just fucking people over left and right for fucking bizarre reasons and managing to make their good company lose money over nonsense nothings. I almost wish I hadn't read that. Fuck the upper classes.
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:06 AM on May 8, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:06 AM on May 8, 2018 [10 favorites]
Unfortunately: "Buyout feast expected as Trump alters debt rules...Deal insiders believe the next buyout boom will start shortly now that the Trump administration has rolled back an Obama-era rule that limited debt on LBOs to six times a company’s Ebitda."
posted by Iridic at 10:17 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Iridic at 10:17 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I still read the AV Club out of habit, but it is really a shame what happened to the site.
Indeed. I was a daily reader at least until The Great Dissolve Exodus, when my visits became more infrequent. Since the Kinja change, it is nearly unreadable, in both senses of the term.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:19 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Indeed. I was a daily reader at least until The Great Dissolve Exodus, when my visits became more infrequent. Since the Kinja change, it is nearly unreadable, in both senses of the term.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:19 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
I hate Kinja so much! The best thing for AV Club recaps is to Google for avclub [show] [season]- it's way better than the internal search.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, I love GMG and most of their sites. I read Jalopnik, The Root, Gizmodo, and Kotaku every day. I love their tone, style, and they produce some really incredible long form original content.
GMG is one of the only media outlets I "trust", and pieces like TFA are why.
posted by weed donkey at 10:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
GMG is one of the only media outlets I "trust", and pieces like TFA are why.
posted by weed donkey at 10:26 AM on May 8, 2018 [8 favorites]
I hate Kinja so much! The best thing for AV Club recaps is to Google for avclub [show] [season]- it's way better than the internal search.
Subscribing to their various channels via Feedly also works well. It's like Reader was back in the good old days.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:58 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Subscribing to their various channels via Feedly also works well. It's like Reader was back in the good old days.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:58 AM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Am wondering if and where private equity firms have bought a communications outlet and made it better.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:18 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:18 AM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's linked above, but I think it's worth quoting. This is from Gawker's swan song:
posted by uberchet at 11:46 AM on May 8, 2018 [36 favorites]
Emphasis added.
Gawker was simply a civil defendant, facing a judgment too large to pay, after a plaintiff had structured the case so that insurance would not help cover the damages. The company was asking only to survive long enough to put the judgment before a higher court, on appeal. This is, supposedly, how the system works.
Instead, there would be no chance to appeal before the company was destroyed. Here was money talking, and nothing but money. The only law was the judge.
It’s a hard story for journalists to tell. Journalists are, despite their political reputation, fundamentally conservative. The only way to keep explaining what’s happening in the world, day after day, is to rely on some basic frames. Cause and effect have to unfold within stable institutions, according to accepted rules.
A story that falls outside the everyday frames—The mayor is a crackhead who leaves a trail of violence where he goes, say, or This beloved entertainer is accused of being a serial rapist—requires a radical shift of perspective. Possibly the best and truest part of the movie Spotlight was how much of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s secret sexual abuse came out of the Globe’s own morgue. The paper had already written the story, piece by piece. It just hadn’t read it.
Gawker always said it was in the business of publishing true stories. Here is one last true story: You live in a country where a billionaire can put a publication out of business. A billionaire can pick off an individual writer and leave that person penniless and without legal protection.
If you want to write stories that might anger a billionaire, you need to work for another billionaire yourself, or for a billion-dollar corporation. The law will not protect you. There is no freedom in this world but power and money.
posted by uberchet at 11:46 AM on May 8, 2018 [36 favorites]
There is no freedom in this world but power and money.
.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:04 PM on May 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:04 PM on May 8, 2018 [4 favorites]
From the article, emphases mine:
> In 2007, a consortium including Texas Pacific Group, Thomas H. Lee, Madison Dearborn, Providence Equity, and Saban Capital took Univision private for $13.7 billion. These firms—executives of which still shape Univision’s board—borrowed heavily to finance the deal
In the same article, Thomas H. Lee also owns Clear Channel (currently rebranded as, ugh, IHeartMedia) and driven it deeply into debt to the tune of $20,000,000,000. And Saban Capital owns Saban Entertainment, which recently sold their Power Rangers franchise to Hasbro.
All of which makes me wonder whether Univision might be on the butcher's block at this particular moment not only (or maybe not primarily) because of its current debt status, poor judgement and money-wasting flaws, as because its creditors have money holes in other properties that they want cash infusions for.
posted by at by at 1:15 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
> In 2007, a consortium including Texas Pacific Group, Thomas H. Lee, Madison Dearborn, Providence Equity, and Saban Capital took Univision private for $13.7 billion. These firms—executives of which still shape Univision’s board—borrowed heavily to finance the deal
In the same article, Thomas H. Lee also owns Clear Channel (currently rebranded as, ugh, IHeartMedia) and driven it deeply into debt to the tune of $20,000,000,000. And Saban Capital owns Saban Entertainment, which recently sold their Power Rangers franchise to Hasbro.
All of which makes me wonder whether Univision might be on the butcher's block at this particular moment not only (or maybe not primarily) because of its current debt status, poor judgement and money-wasting flaws, as because its creditors have money holes in other properties that they want cash infusions for.
posted by at by at 1:15 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Wait, the Onion was taken over by Eurovision? What a sad end for that venerable institution.
posted by sfenders at 1:20 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sfenders at 1:20 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Plenty more cuts are pending (Univision president of news Daniel Coronell reportedly described them as “catastrophic” to his newsroom), including at GMG, the staff of which fears the newsroom may be cut by up to a third by the end of June, perhaps as part of a broader pivot toward video and branded content. [emphasis added]This seems like Univision read about what didn't work at any media outlets in 2017 and decided to try it for themselves in 2018. If this is truly their strategy, they are done for.
posted by HiddenInput at 2:41 PM on May 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Talent has been fleeing to start a new parody news content outlet owned by Elon Musk.
Hey now, we all take Tesla's press releases with a grain of salt, but that seems extreme.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:57 PM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
Hey now, we all take Tesla's press releases with a grain of salt, but that seems extreme.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 7:57 PM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I sort of stopped reading about this when it said that private equity took over the business using Univision's own money, which I can't believe is legal, and has been the reason why countless solvent businesses have collapsed in the last few years, the most notable being Toys 'R' Us.
posted by Merus at 11:04 PM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Merus at 11:04 PM on May 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's passed on unremarked in the article, but I am mesmerised by this inexplicable corporate musical commissioned for Fusion's launch in 2013.
posted by rollick at 5:29 AM on May 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rollick at 5:29 AM on May 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
this inexplicable corporate musical
Dibs on the user name.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:29 AM on May 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Dibs on the user name.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:29 AM on May 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Private equity takeovers are a blight on legitimate business. The way they suck money out of other businesses is both the worst that Capitalism has to offer and also Capitalism's ultimate manifestation.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:39 PM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:39 PM on May 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by Going To Maine at 8:32 AM on May 8, 2018