...they wanted on record that they spent advertising dollars with us.
January 27, 2022 9:07 AM Subscribe
What happened at The Root? Since April, 15 of the site's 16 staffers have quit—the latest in a series of collapses at G/O Media, most recently the AV Club and Jezebel, formerly Deadspin (previously). See also: the mass deletion of pictures from posts across G/O Media in October. For more context, you'd have to go back to the death of the site that eventually became G/O Media: Gawker Was Murdered by Gaslight, and How Things Work (also previously).
It is perhaps unsurprising that the new Gawker is keeping thorough tabs on the demise of its ex-affiliates. Its fellow exile site Defector is doing much the same. (Check out the disclaimer on that last post if you enjoy a good deadpan laugh.)
It is perhaps unsurprising that the new Gawker is keeping thorough tabs on the demise of its ex-affiliates. Its fellow exile site Defector is doing much the same. (Check out the disclaimer on that last post if you enjoy a good deadpan laugh.)
After the last 'previously' I took all of the G/O media URLs out of my history so that my browser didn't autocomplete to one of their sites. I'm fed up of giving these corporate douchemongers clicks.
posted by The River Ivel at 9:36 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 9:36 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Well shit, is that what happened? I added The Root to my daily media browsing a couple of years ago: for some diversity in my reading, because the writing was so good, and particularly for Michael Harriot. But I haven't been paying close attention, for instance I missed Harriot's farewell post in Nov 2021. It has seemed to have fewer interesting articles recently.
What a shame. Can someone recommend something new to replace it? I see Harriot is writing at theGrio among other places.
posted by Nelson at 9:38 AM on January 27, 2022 [10 favorites]
What a shame. Can someone recommend something new to replace it? I see Harriot is writing at theGrio among other places.
posted by Nelson at 9:38 AM on January 27, 2022 [10 favorites]
Based on the article it doesn't sound like there's one particular place to go at the moment to replace the Root. If you used Twitter I'm sure you could follow that list of staffers who left, but for those of us who don't use it, anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
posted by LegallyBread at 9:45 AM on January 27, 2022
posted by LegallyBread at 9:45 AM on January 27, 2022
It is perhaps unsurprising that the new Gawker is keeping thorough tabs on the demise of its ex-affiliates.
Maybe, but it strikes me as the same sort of whistling-past-the-graveyard that the former Gawker-affiliated blogs did when one of their erstwhile competitors closed up shop (e.g. pre-Defector Deadspin and Grantland). If anything, the ongoing degradation of G/O Media should signal that sometimes it really is better to burn out than to fade away.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:53 AM on January 27, 2022
Maybe, but it strikes me as the same sort of whistling-past-the-graveyard that the former Gawker-affiliated blogs did when one of their erstwhile competitors closed up shop (e.g. pre-Defector Deadspin and Grantland). If anything, the ongoing degradation of G/O Media should signal that sometimes it really is better to burn out than to fade away.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:53 AM on January 27, 2022
The G/O sites were my main sites that I looked at other than Metafilter, and even without knowing about the behind-the-scenes drama, the quality has obviously been collapsing for months. Like many others here, I would love people's recommendations for alternates to each of the sites.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:59 AM on January 27, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:59 AM on January 27, 2022 [13 favorites]
The other G/O sites have been undergoing a lot of changeover, as well. Jill Pantozzi left io9 at the end of 2021, and Kotaku has an almost entirely new staff. (There's actually quite a few farewell posts that preceded the links I've put here, but I'm trying to keep this short.) I'm impressed with Patricia Hernandez's tenure thus far. They're managing to put out a wide range of compelling news despite the parent company's active sabotage.
From the OP's first link, this looks like the next hammer to fall: "In a statement to Gawker, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), Lowell Peterson, noted that the site’s collective bargaining agreement expires on Feb. 28."
posted by greenland at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
From the OP's first link, this looks like the next hammer to fall: "In a statement to Gawker, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), Lowell Peterson, noted that the site’s collective bargaining agreement expires on Feb. 28."
posted by greenland at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
io9 no longer has its own url, no full chronological view, and its entry in the top Gizmodo navigation is at the very end. It sure feels like G/O wants to kill but for whatever reason can’t fully justify it yet.
posted by Ian A.T. at 10:47 AM on January 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Ian A.T. at 10:47 AM on January 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
Damn. Also, I guess I haven't been paying attention. I'm glad to know about the sad news.
posted by eotvos at 10:51 AM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
Can someone recommend something new to replace it?It's much less US-focused and arguably has less overt social/political stuff in general. But, OkayAfrica has some overlap, especially when it comes to smart writing about arts and culture that I wouldn't personally otherwise see. I'm looking forward to better suggestions.
posted by eotvos at 10:51 AM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
Interesting. An antecedent is difficult prior to 1980, pretty much print then. But,
""Bert Powers was fucking crazy! He disliked newspapers.”
If the strike hastened the decline of newspaper culture in New York, it also changed the landscape of literary journalism"
though as much about emerging technology, the void created new venues for writers.
posted by clavdivs at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
""Bert Powers was fucking crazy! He disliked newspapers.”
If the strike hastened the decline of newspaper culture in New York, it also changed the landscape of literary journalism"
though as much about emerging technology, the void created new venues for writers.
posted by clavdivs at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
BuddhaInABucket: " Like many others here, I would love people's recommendations for alternates to each of the sites."
I think that you could probably find reasons to reject any of the professionally produced blogs. For tech, Engadget would probably be the nearest equivalent, but I think The Verge is higher quality, and there are other Vox properties that are good, eg Vulture.
But they're just not interchangeable parts—each is written by human beings who have their specific appeal. I specifically enjoy reading David Torchinsky's posts on Jalopnik (a G/O property). I won't get that elsewhere.
posted by adamrice at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think that you could probably find reasons to reject any of the professionally produced blogs. For tech, Engadget would probably be the nearest equivalent, but I think The Verge is higher quality, and there are other Vox properties that are good, eg Vulture.
But they're just not interchangeable parts—each is written by human beings who have their specific appeal. I specifically enjoy reading David Torchinsky's posts on Jalopnik (a G/O property). I won't get that elsewhere.
posted by adamrice at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
io9 no longer has its own url, no full chronological view, and its entry in the top Gizmodo navigation is at the very end. It sure feels like G/O wants to kill but for whatever reason can’t fully justify it yet.
io9 was always a bit of an odd duck, more SFF/comics/fannishly-oriented than the AV Club, but ultimately, as superheroes ate pop culture whole, AVC got into that gig as well. It had a bit more heft when Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz ran the show, but now it seems pretty much superfluous.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
io9 was always a bit of an odd duck, more SFF/comics/fannishly-oriented than the AV Club, but ultimately, as superheroes ate pop culture whole, AVC got into that gig as well. It had a bit more heft when Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz ran the show, but now it seems pretty much superfluous.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:20 AM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Why does G/O Media keep acquiring successful media sites it does not like and then killing them trying to change them?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
Capitalism.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:47 AM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 11:47 AM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
Most likely, ghouls like that don’t care what makes a site popular. They just know that it attracts clicks and views, and will continue to do so until they monetize it enough to make their investment back (and then some). Whether the site lives on after that, who cares. They’re onto the next buyout.
posted by hwyengr at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hwyengr at 11:48 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I normally hate that tired old "definition of insanity" aphorism, but if someone wants to trot it out here, I think we can grant a one time dispensation.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:55 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:55 AM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
The definition of insanity is taking DirtyOldTown up on that offer; I think he might snap.
posted by nubs at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2022 [15 favorites]
posted by nubs at 11:57 AM on January 27, 2022 [15 favorites]
The piece linked in the FPP, "The Adults in the Room," offers some theories about exactly why G/O works the way it does.
As to alternatives, I can't recommend New Gawker with a straight face (I read it and it occasionally puts out some good stuff along with the dumb stuff, but its ratio of good:dumb is like 1:10), but Defector is staggeringly good. The other Gawker spin-off (well, spin-off of Splinter News, which was the original Gawker spin-off) is Discourse Blog, which has a lot of good writers but is much too one-note for my liking.
A few former writers have Substacks: Tom Scocca's and Max Read's are both good, and Ashley Feinberg's was obviously post-for-post just pure gold, for the approximately four times she used it. Oddly, the publication that seemed to hire the most ex-Gawker/Splinter/Deadspin/etc writers was Slate, but I'm not sure they retained any.
As far as pop culture goes, Vulture and The Ringer are both adequate AV Club substitutes, I guess. I have no idea what replaces The Root, and from the sounds of things, the former writers of The Root don't know either.
posted by rorgy at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
As to alternatives, I can't recommend New Gawker with a straight face (I read it and it occasionally puts out some good stuff along with the dumb stuff, but its ratio of good:dumb is like 1:10), but Defector is staggeringly good. The other Gawker spin-off (well, spin-off of Splinter News, which was the original Gawker spin-off) is Discourse Blog, which has a lot of good writers but is much too one-note for my liking.
A few former writers have Substacks: Tom Scocca's and Max Read's are both good, and Ashley Feinberg's was obviously post-for-post just pure gold, for the approximately four times she used it. Oddly, the publication that seemed to hire the most ex-Gawker/Splinter/Deadspin/etc writers was Slate, but I'm not sure they retained any.
As far as pop culture goes, Vulture and The Ringer are both adequate AV Club substitutes, I guess. I have no idea what replaces The Root, and from the sounds of things, the former writers of The Root don't know either.
posted by rorgy at 12:00 PM on January 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
inanity is multiple buy-outs resulting in the same outcome
posted by clavdivs at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 12:20 PM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
Vulture and The Ringer are both adequate AV Club substitutes, I guess
Except we keep getting shittier and shittier monetized substitutes without real content. AV Club itself was a shitty substitute for Television Without Pity (spare the snark, spoil the networks). Articles were shorter and had less depth. I just keep seeing site after site die because someone felt they weren’t squeezing every last dime out. We are entering a terrible media age and I don’t know what to do about it.
posted by corb at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2022 [30 favorites]
Except we keep getting shittier and shittier monetized substitutes without real content. AV Club itself was a shitty substitute for Television Without Pity (spare the snark, spoil the networks). Articles were shorter and had less depth. I just keep seeing site after site die because someone felt they weren’t squeezing every last dime out. We are entering a terrible media age and I don’t know what to do about it.
posted by corb at 12:28 PM on January 27, 2022 [30 favorites]
I wish that journalism was still a viable career option. I miss being involved with it but am grateful every day that I'm not trying to still make a career of it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:47 PM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
Why does G/O Media keep acquiring successful media sites it does not like and then killing them trying to change them?
It's reputation mining. You buy the name, defund the production that produced the reputation while still cashing in on the name recognition until you have fully depleted the reputation. It is a quicker payoff because you cut costs right at the start increasing your profit margins and as you ride the decline your margins stay high because you are no longer funding quality and the expensive people leave. Actively managing a successful business long term requires investment, intelligence, effort and risk. Reputation mining on the other hand requires much less of all of those things.
posted by srboisvert at 12:50 PM on January 27, 2022 [45 favorites]
It's reputation mining. You buy the name, defund the production that produced the reputation while still cashing in on the name recognition until you have fully depleted the reputation. It is a quicker payoff because you cut costs right at the start increasing your profit margins and as you ride the decline your margins stay high because you are no longer funding quality and the expensive people leave. Actively managing a successful business long term requires investment, intelligence, effort and risk. Reputation mining on the other hand requires much less of all of those things.
posted by srboisvert at 12:50 PM on January 27, 2022 [45 favorites]
We are entering a terrible media age and I don’t know what to do about it.
I think we have to pay for media directly, not through ads or information-mining.
So, until the economic issues are better, the mass of small payments either supports long-tail but small-scale writers, or non specialized bigger endeavors.
posted by clew at 1:25 PM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
I think we have to pay for media directly, not through ads or information-mining.
So, until the economic issues are better, the mass of small payments either supports long-tail but small-scale writers, or non specialized bigger endeavors.
posted by clew at 1:25 PM on January 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
I think we have to pay for media directly, not through ads or information-mining.
But MeFi seems to delight in providing work-arounds and paywall-busting links - right?
posted by davidmsc at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
But MeFi seems to delight in providing work-arounds and paywall-busting links - right?
posted by davidmsc at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
Some of it does, some of it doesn't.
posted by clew at 1:55 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 1:55 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also paid-for doesn't mean paywalled. I pay for some reporting specifically because it is then free for anyone on the 'net to read.
posted by clew at 1:56 PM on January 27, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by clew at 1:56 PM on January 27, 2022 [10 favorites]
Problem is, you're just not going to subscribe to every single website. There'd be too many. You're not going to subscribe to a website where you want to read one article today and that's it. I don't live in Detroit, I'm not gonna subscribe to them for one article on a topic I'm curious about. Nobody wants to do micropayments per article and that would make everything even more clickbaity than it already is if we did. Also, we already have the issue of sharing links at paywalled places and I think not being able to easily share paywalled links is part of the deterrent to subscribing everywhere.
Nobody has a solution for the problem of journalism if paid ads in the newspaper/online/whatever don't subsidize the paper any more.
About the only thing I can think of is kind of based off of something they do at my work: let's say that a bunch of news websites have some kind of group payment function thing. You pay, I dunno, a thousand dollars (I'm picking some number, I don't know how much it would actually be) a year and then you can read whatever you want on however many websites are in the group for the year, that thousand dollars is divvied up among the subscribing websites. But I'm not a business person and I'm sure there's a billion problems with that idea as well, and nothing works in the end except to build a time machine and go back in it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:21 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Nobody has a solution for the problem of journalism if paid ads in the newspaper/online/whatever don't subsidize the paper any more.
About the only thing I can think of is kind of based off of something they do at my work: let's say that a bunch of news websites have some kind of group payment function thing. You pay, I dunno, a thousand dollars (I'm picking some number, I don't know how much it would actually be) a year and then you can read whatever you want on however many websites are in the group for the year, that thousand dollars is divvied up among the subscribing websites. But I'm not a business person and I'm sure there's a billion problems with that idea as well, and nothing works in the end except to build a time machine and go back in it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:21 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
a bunch of news websites have some kind of group payment function thing
Apple News+ wants so, so badly to be this thing.
posted by box at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Apple News+ wants so, so badly to be this thing.
posted by box at 2:24 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Like many others here, I would love people's recommendations for alternates to each of the sites.
Though it is big-corp-owned, ArsTechnica still delivers good, solid tech coverage. During the week, anyway. Weekend posts tend to be reposts of fluff from Wired. Ars’ pandemic coverage has been strong, and staunchly pro-science.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2022 [13 favorites]
Though it is big-corp-owned, ArsTechnica still delivers good, solid tech coverage. During the week, anyway. Weekend posts tend to be reposts of fluff from Wired. Ars’ pandemic coverage has been strong, and staunchly pro-science.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:26 PM on January 27, 2022 [13 favorites]
Goddamn it, I love the G/O sites and this sucks.
I subscribed to Defector mainly for Drew Magary but other than that I don't enjoy it as much as I used to enjoy the old Deadspin. But what I really miss is Grantland. (By the way, Magary also writes for SF Gate.)
I must confess I've been going to the desiccated husk of Deadspin because footbaw playoffs. Don't judge me, love me.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I subscribed to Defector mainly for Drew Magary but other than that I don't enjoy it as much as I used to enjoy the old Deadspin. But what I really miss is Grantland. (By the way, Magary also writes for SF Gate.)
I must confess I've been going to the desiccated husk of Deadspin because footbaw playoffs. Don't judge me, love me.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:40 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's reputation mining. You buy the name, defund the production that produced the reputation while still cashing in on the name recognition until you have fully depleted the reputation.
My wife works in a different industry, but we were lucky when her company was bought by a competitor. Everyone including the competitor knew that the talented people at my wife's company were responsible for their more successful brand, so all the creative people kept their jobs after the buyout.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:45 PM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
My wife works in a different industry, but we were lucky when her company was bought by a competitor. Everyone including the competitor knew that the talented people at my wife's company were responsible for their more successful brand, so all the creative people kept their jobs after the buyout.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:45 PM on January 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
More like J/O Media.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Another vote for ArsTechnica -- they grew up basically being the best at what they do. I was gutted when Conde Nast bought them, but CN has left them basically alone and they're still great.
You'd think the best writing about information security for layfolk would come from the many, many infosec folks who do a lot of what they do for love, right? Nah. Go check out the Malwarebytes blog. There is nothing better, anywhere, and Malwarebytes is a for-profit anti-malware company!
Money doesn't have to poison journalism. Damn shame when it does.
posted by humbug at 4:29 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
You'd think the best writing about information security for layfolk would come from the many, many infosec folks who do a lot of what they do for love, right? Nah. Go check out the Malwarebytes blog. There is nothing better, anywhere, and Malwarebytes is a for-profit anti-malware company!
Money doesn't have to poison journalism. Damn shame when it does.
posted by humbug at 4:29 PM on January 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Apple News+ wants so, so badly to be this thing.
It's too bad that that it is DRM'd via an expensive hardware dongle.
posted by Mitheral at 5:07 PM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
It's too bad that that it is DRM'd via an expensive hardware dongle.
posted by Mitheral at 5:07 PM on January 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
~Apple News+ wants so, so badly to be this thing.
~It's too bad that that it is DRM'd via an expensive hardware dongle.
Ummm...Only in that it’s exclusive to Apple devices. I’d hardly call an iPhone a dongle, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:40 PM on January 27, 2022
~It's too bad that that it is DRM'd via an expensive hardware dongle.
Ummm...Only in that it’s exclusive to Apple devices. I’d hardly call an iPhone a dongle, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:40 PM on January 27, 2022
I would if I thought one hearer in ten would remember what a dongle was.
posted by clew at 6:04 PM on January 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by clew at 6:04 PM on January 27, 2022 [5 favorites]
Somehow I missed Harriot’s goodbye post. I will not miss G/O sites, I will miss the iterations that existed, GMG, whatever they were under Univision, and Gawker Media. It’s hard to quantify my hatred for Spanfeller and venture capitalism in general, but it’s profound, deep, and, like many things, much more directly harmful to my own health and sense of well being than any of the targets of it.
I’ve been quite vocal about Deadspin, and Gawker, and Splinter, but the Root was an absolutely invaluable website. I learned so much through the writers there, and at Jezebel as well, that they became daily reads for me, a place where I could listen and gain some understanding of the world from a distinctly different set of experiences from my own. Those daily reads diminished over the last year, to the point that I had missed most of this, and most wondered where all the good writing was on the few times I’d visited.
It’s so damn hard to explain to others just how good, how valuable these blogs were, how much they were at the forefront of things, how often they were ahead of pretty much any other outlet. They managed to amass such amazing talent, from writers to editors to artists, and all in one place, all with a welcoming, disarming sort of charm. The writers are still out there, still writing, but that space is gone, and I don’t know that The Way Things Are will ever really permit something like that to exist again. It’s gone, and it hurts, and somehow the fact that trying to even explain that hurt will just be met with blank stares and confusion just makes it worse. This should be bigger news, and the fact that the loudest voices talking about its demise were always the ones belonging to those with the most power, the biggest audience should be the strongest reminder of how important these blogs were.
Gizmodo was my last active bookmark there. I started reading Giz I don’t even know how long ago as a different voice from Engadget, and then followed along as they were rolled up into the group of blogs being built up into the Gawker group. I followed links to the other sites, many of them becoming daily reads, the way I’d start most mornings. Hell of a cliched ending, Gizmodo being the last bookmark I delete at the end of all of this.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on January 27, 2022 [26 favorites]
I’ve been quite vocal about Deadspin, and Gawker, and Splinter, but the Root was an absolutely invaluable website. I learned so much through the writers there, and at Jezebel as well, that they became daily reads for me, a place where I could listen and gain some understanding of the world from a distinctly different set of experiences from my own. Those daily reads diminished over the last year, to the point that I had missed most of this, and most wondered where all the good writing was on the few times I’d visited.
It’s so damn hard to explain to others just how good, how valuable these blogs were, how much they were at the forefront of things, how often they were ahead of pretty much any other outlet. They managed to amass such amazing talent, from writers to editors to artists, and all in one place, all with a welcoming, disarming sort of charm. The writers are still out there, still writing, but that space is gone, and I don’t know that The Way Things Are will ever really permit something like that to exist again. It’s gone, and it hurts, and somehow the fact that trying to even explain that hurt will just be met with blank stares and confusion just makes it worse. This should be bigger news, and the fact that the loudest voices talking about its demise were always the ones belonging to those with the most power, the biggest audience should be the strongest reminder of how important these blogs were.
Gizmodo was my last active bookmark there. I started reading Giz I don’t even know how long ago as a different voice from Engadget, and then followed along as they were rolled up into the group of blogs being built up into the Gawker group. I followed links to the other sites, many of them becoming daily reads, the way I’d start most mornings. Hell of a cliched ending, Gizmodo being the last bookmark I delete at the end of all of this.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on January 27, 2022 [26 favorites]
I came here to post almost exactly what Nelson posted.
I think The Root was an excellent "we're not writing for you: we're writing for us" news vehicle that let me catch angles on stories I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 12:48 AM on January 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think The Root was an excellent "we're not writing for you: we're writing for us" news vehicle that let me catch angles on stories I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 12:48 AM on January 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Another vote for ArsTechnica -- they grew up basically being the best at what they do. I was gutted when Conde Nast bought them, but CN has left them basically alone and they're still great.
Condé Nast would have to be playing a very long game to get around to changing things thirteen years after acquiring Ars Technica, but I have been wondering if there's been a recent shift in direction for the site. A lot more reviews of mechanical keyboards, for one thing, and the gap left by Jim Salter in terms of filesystem geekery, etc. has yet to be filled. I subscribed for the first time last year and kind of regret not having done so earlier when I would have gotten more value for my money (not that there was any way of predicting this).
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 2:09 AM on January 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Condé Nast would have to be playing a very long game to get around to changing things thirteen years after acquiring Ars Technica, but I have been wondering if there's been a recent shift in direction for the site. A lot more reviews of mechanical keyboards, for one thing, and the gap left by Jim Salter in terms of filesystem geekery, etc. has yet to be filled. I subscribed for the first time last year and kind of regret not having done so earlier when I would have gotten more value for my money (not that there was any way of predicting this).
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 2:09 AM on January 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Panama Jackson (one half of Very Smart Brothas) is also joining TheGriot. Damon Young (the other VSB) is joining the Washington Post.
posted by TwoStride at 4:39 AM on January 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by TwoStride at 4:39 AM on January 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Thanks, TwoStride. I heard that he had left, but not any news of where he was heading.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:19 AM on January 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Ghidorah at 5:19 AM on January 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Thanks from me as well; VSB was what I'll miss most from the old Root.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:56 AM on January 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:56 AM on January 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Coming back a week later to say The Grio is doing a pretty good job filling in the hole that The Root's decline has left. The web presentation isn't great, particularly the aggressive video embeds, but the writing and subject matter are very good. Today's stories I like include a kids' doll teaching computer science and better reporting on a development in the investigation into Michael K. Williams's death than The Root's equivalent story.
posted by Nelson at 9:18 AM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 9:18 AM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
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