"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit)
06/11/2016 at 10:04 • Filed to: bankruptcy, gawker, new ownership, hulkmania, hulkamania, oppoocalypse
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"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit)
06/11/2016 at 10:04 • Filed to: bankruptcy, gawker, new ownership, hulkmania, hulkamania, oppoocalypse | 1
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I know a lot of people are in a panic because Nick Denton has claimed Gawker will be put up for sale during the bankruptcy. What this means for Jalopniks overwhelmingly likely to be...absolutely nothing. Business is likely just going to continue on as usual - all your favorite editors for the most part are likely going to stay, and I’m willing to bet Oppo’s staying too.
What in effect’s going to happen is a change of ownership - which is going to occur at levels so high above Jalopnik itself (let alone Oppo) that the changes will be noticeable but in a “hey we have a different flavor of donuts this morning” kind of way - unless the new owner decides to make drastic changes for the hell of it (hopefully not). If you’ve ever worked at a job - say a car dealership - that has had new ownership (or worked in a civil job that’s had a change of top-level management, like a new fire chief) it’s pretty much the same thing - a new person in charge but the business itself is still there. Chances are there probably weren’t that many changes anyway. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to happen to Jalopnik.
So I can’t say Jalopnik is permanent - but I’m pretty damn sure I can say it’s going to be here for a damn long time. Chances are so will Oppo. In fact chances are you won’t even notice anything.
Flavien Vidal
> No, I don't thank you for the fish at all
06/11/2016 at 10:14 |
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Something that draws this many millions of page clicks per month is not going to go away anytime soon. What COULD happen though is a change in editorial freedom in terms of what the new owners want to do with it. Either transform the whole thing into a click bait heaven (as much as we complain about it, it’s FAR from it as of right now), or maybe, we can only hope, will shift they focus more on high quality content. That could be bad news for the Jalopnik staff though, as it’s fairly easy for them to just get a couple of VERY good writers with lots of followers in the community already and a couple of other to stay in charge of the “buzzfeed” like types of articles (which are enjoyable and necessary too, if the website does not end up solely relying on that). A couple of writers will produce lots of high quality content, and a 1 or 2 other will do that youtube video copy/paste stuff.
So either they reduce staff and try to keep some sort of equuilibrium in term of article quality or they go full retard, get rid of all the more expensive (and let’s be honest, better) writers that have been here for a while (Raph, Jason, Patrick) and replace them with copy paste masters in chief and aim for click bait.
That is why WHO will buy back Gawker matters.
But whatever happens, I think some more people will be repalced for “cheaper” ones... It may not be writers, if we’re “lucky”... But Gawker media will get rid of people for sure.
BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
> No, I don't thank you for the fish at all
06/11/2016 at 10:18 |
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Though I agree, It could be a new owner does not see potential in the free blogging part of Kinja, and decides to shut that down. Thus killing Oppo, LaLD and the rest of the (personal) blogs, while keeping Jalopnik and the other Gawker Media blogs alive.
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Flavien Vidal
> BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/11/2016 at 10:26 |
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Oh don’t worry too much about that. They see the advantages of Oppo. Oppo has provided MILLIONS of 100% free page views to Gawker over the years. Random people producing content shared on the front page, without ever getting paid. Oppo is not going away :)
This freeblogging is not sued (ok... I meant to write “used”, but I think, “sued” works pretty well lol) as much in other Gawker “brands”, but any businessman would be utterly stupid for shutting us down. Heck, if they could, they’d throw Patrick, Raph and Jason back to Oppo, stop paying them and elect Justin as copy-paste master for Jalopnik, to choose and share their work from Oppo :)
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BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
> Flavien Vidal
06/11/2016 at 10:32 |
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Yeah, I guess you are right, as long as the balance with the free page views and content holds up against the costs for running the servers for Oppo we should be fine.
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Flavien Vidal
> BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/11/2016 at 10:39 |
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Costs for running Oppo are small... The only reason there is traffic here, is because of the articles that get reshared. Other than that, we’re just 200+ active retards, writing stupid stuff all day long. Once in a while, something good comes out of us, and it gets shared, therefore drawing traffic toward Oppo.
On average, an Oppo post gets what? 200 views, before getting lost into Oppo’s abyss(es?)? And there is like, 50 posts per day? 60? That’s 10/12000 page views per day for Oppo IF nothing gets shared on more popular websites.
What MAY cost money to Gawker is the way it works right now, as Gawker, rehosts any picture shared on their webiste. They also do this to keep trace of anything potentially valuable that goes through their site.
But Oppo in itself, if nothing gets shared out of it, costs nothing to run. Really. Nothing.
MCS2014
> No, I don't thank you for the fish at all
06/11/2016 at 10:48 |
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Agree, I do hope that is what happens.
Parts of gawker have been messed up, I understand the rage with outing people, divulging sex tapes, just punching on who is down. So maybe jalops will find a better home....
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MCS2014
> BvdV - The Dutch Engineer
06/11/2016 at 10:49 |
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I think it's hard to kill the blogs if you expect to maintain the traffic to the media sites. Whoever buys will do his or her math
f86sabre
> Flavien Vidal
06/11/2016 at 13:18 |
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Disclaimer: I agree and hope everything you say is correct, but...
I think we have to be careful assuming that someone would want to buy GN. Barriers to entry in this space are not that high in the grand scheme and there are plenty of players in the market. Yes, GN drives a high number of clicks, but we have limited visibility to the revenue delivered by each site. Certain properties could be sold off independently. Another interesting consideration is GN is a unionized workforce. I’m no saying that is good/bad on principle, but that does make things more complicated for any new owners. If all this piles up a potential buyer could get the physical assets and domains in CH 7 proceedings.