Thank you for growing up with us.

November 30, 2018 1:54 PM

The publication of Rookie magazine is ending. "In one way, this is not my decision, because digital media has become an increasingly difficult business, and Rookie in its current form is no longer financially sustainable. And in another way, it is my decision—to not do the things that might make it financially sustainable, like selling it to new owners, taking money from investors, or asking readers for donations or subscriptions. And in yet another way, it doesn’t feel like I’m deciding not to do all that, because I have explored all of these options, and am unable to proceed with any of them." -Tavi Gevinson.
posted by jenfullmoon (19 comments total)

I hope that I live long enough to see Tavi and her generation, which includes Kid Ruki, rule the world.
posted by Ruki at 2:12 PM on November 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Having shut down my own passion project turned business for similar reasons a couple of years ago, I empathized deeply with this. I wish Tavi all the best as she moves on.

I do, however, wish that part of the closure plan involved keeping the site up in archive form. It has served as a resource for so many young people (and old!) as they navigate this crazy world we're growing up in, and it would be a shame for that to be lost to future generations.
posted by me3dia at 2:31 PM on November 30, 2018 [8 favorites]

This reminds me of when The Toast closed down. Very similar reasons. It's really hard to keep a niche, high-quality website like this going.
posted by lunasol at 2:34 PM on November 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Tavi Gevinson is really an extraordinary human being, and so much in this letter embodies why I think the world would be a better place if run by teenage girls (I know she is 22 now, I'm thinking more about the entire arc of Rookie's lifecycle... and really I wouldn't mind the world being run by 22-year-old women either).

. for Rookie, and excited to see what she does next.
posted by sunset in snow country at 2:35 PM on November 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

One woman venture capitalist told us, after hearing my very nervous pitch, “I hate to say this because I hate that it’s true, but men who come in here pitch the company they’re going to build, while women pitch the company they’ve already built.” The men could sound delusional, but they could also sound visionary; women felt the need to show their work, to prove themselves.

QFT.

(It often seems like we only find out about great things or great people from reading the obituaries; this isn't really that, just the end of what sounds like a very fine chapter. Even still, I wish I'd heard of Rookie before, even though I'm far from its demographic.)
posted by chavenet at 2:53 PM on November 30, 2018 [21 favorites]

That's a bummer. I'm way older than their target audience, but found a lot to like about it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:06 PM on November 30, 2018

Let's list all the nice things we invented and then instantly found out they were too expensive to really have societally long term. Healthcare! Universities! The Internet! Cars! Smart phones!

The internet is a delivery mechanism for really good content, but if we can't actually afford to fill it with good content, why do we have it?
posted by bleep at 4:12 PM on November 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

.
posted by limeonaire at 4:27 PM on November 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I do, however, wish that part of the closure plan involved keeping the site up in archive form.

Can it be archived at the Wayback Machine? I know of blogs that shut down, where the owners encouraged people to archive extensively.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:28 PM on November 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

The internet was built as a delivery system for content. The “really good” part of that was never built in. In fact it was kind of explicitly built for amateur content. Geocities and Angelfire are much closer to what the web was supposed to do than anything we have remaining today. It was built for hobbyists; it’s not easy to monetize, and monetization has made the internet into a much worse, more boring place.
posted by rikschell at 4:30 PM on November 30, 2018 [11 favorites]

I went to her reading with my daughter in 2013. I was so impressed with her and thought she was an amazing rolemodel for young women, smart, funny, and so poised.
posted by vespabelle at 4:45 PM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

→ Can it be archived at the Wayback Machine?

I think most of it already is.
posted by scruss at 5:18 PM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

.

I can't wait to see what Tavi does next. It's been kind of amazing to watch her grow up.
posted by nightrecordings at 5:47 PM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

The editor's letter has this sidebar:

Rookie is no longer publishing new content, but we hope you'l continue to enjoy the archives, or books, and the community you've helped to create. Thank you for seven very special years!

87 issues.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:07 PM on November 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

" In fact it was kind of explicitly built for amateur content. Geocities and Angelfire are much closer to what the web was supposed to do than anything we have remaining today. It was built for hobbyists..."

Or... It was built for academia, and the military industrial-complex. Commercial interests pounded on its doors until they were let in, and after they were we saw it initially populated by hobbyists until the commercial interests found their footing.
posted by el io at 10:56 PM on November 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Bleep -- at risk of a de-rail, none of things you mention have to be so expensive. With the will to do it, we could very easily have cars, universities and hospitals at a significantly LOWER real dollar cost than 30, 40 or 50 years ago but they would be quite different than they are now (cars: worse, universities: better, hospitals: some ways better others not).

Someone could build and sell you a circa 2007 Treo smartphone for $50 if you were willing to live with the software and websites a 2007 Treo can run. (The developing world happily runs on lower-spec Android smartphones that cost well under $200 now, and those are phones that would be Buck Rogers stuff in 2012, to say the least of 2007).
posted by MattD at 8:52 AM on December 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

.
posted by eamondaly at 4:11 PM on December 1, 2018

Rookie Cataloged a Generation of Girlhood (NYT)
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:24 PM on December 14, 2018

Tavi Gevinson on Why Rookie Had to End
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:55 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]