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John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

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Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#161
This absolutely has nothing to do with John's involvement with the No Agenda podcast and the talking points of this particular podcast.

Nope.

Just budget issues which suddenly pop up after 36 years without any problems.

Sure...

Do the people involved really think John and his fanbase are THAT stupid?

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#162

About 12 years ago I was working for a PC Magazine competitor when they cut the Managing Editor loose, a man who'd worked there 20+ years and was in his late 50s. I ran into him in the bathroom, tears in his eyes, asking me what he was going to do now? That this is how they reward decades of loyalty? Ironically that magazine, dedicated to predicting future technology trends, would go down the toilet some years later…

[dead]

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#163

The funny thing is, if you gave me the option of reading a Dvorak article or an arbitrary PC Mag article, all other factors held fixed, I would pick Dvorak every time. That is, they just laid off an asset that was more valuable than the rest of the company.

Absolutely true. Dvorak should start his own venture...a lot of fans would jump (the sinking) ship in an instant.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#164
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s not 36 years old, he’s 66 years old. He’s a 36-year veteran.

I bet you're fun at parties.

Personal attacks will get you banned here. More generally, please don't post uncivil or unsubstantive comments.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When an employer will happily use up your most productive years and let you go as soon as it isn't constantly profitable... A job might as well be for a lifetime. It's not an uncommon story, true. But it's a pretty shitty one.

The firing happened because company ran out of money. That's what happened to most magazines lately.

I totally agree. Economics in the media industry (print or web) have been hellish for 10 years or more. Paywalls are unpopular, don't work and go against the 'free information' culture of the internet. However, the email he was sent firing him which he screenshotted to Twitter, was indeed so curt as to be rude, as he said. Its just that these editors and publishers are so behind the 8-ball to be desensitized to the types of cost-cutting that they do everyday. It must have never occurred to that editor that they were in this case firing someone who is a near-institution in the PC periodical literature.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#167
post #8

If you need your JCD fix, he does a bi-weekly podcast with Adam Curry called No Agenda. [0] [0]: http://noagendashow.com

They don't have advertisers (listener funded) so they're able to sift through the news in a reasonably balanced way. Each show also has crowd-sourced, listener produced podcast album art that's generated about an hour after the show airs live. Try listening to the noagendashow at 2X speed to start.

Agree except for the 2x part, Dvorak has a deep, slow, gravelly delivery that does not lend well to artificial acceleration.

Also the audio production on the show is absolutely top notch for being done by one dude, the co-host, co-inventor of podcasting, and former MTV VJ, Adam Curry.

Plus the “morning zoo” bit is just a hilarious ruse; don’t let the “light tone” distract too much from the serious media deconstruction happening.

Twice weekly on Thursdays. ;)

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#168
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dvorak's greatest hits: "nobody wants a mouse", "Steve Jobs going the way of pet rocks", "cable modems are a dead end", "the mac is dead", "ipod is a niche product", "wikipedia is a dead end", "podcasting is a dead end", "linux is a dead end", "time to short apple", "the iphone's a flop", "ipad's a flop", "apple watch's a flop", etc.

When I used to listen to the TWIT podcast (its been years..), I liked Dvorak's cynical perspective vs the love everything new and tech of the other hosts. He was cranky. I give him bonus points for remembering lotus's Jazz software in the podcast (and calling it out for its problems when it came out). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Jazz

Cranky Geeks was a great podcast.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have advertisers (listener funded) so they're able to sift through the news in a reasonably balanced way. Each show also has crowd-sourced, listener produced podcast album art that's generated about an hour after the show airs live. Try listening to the noagendashow at 2X speed to start.

Agree except for the 2x part, Dvorak has a deep, slow, gravelly delivery that does not lend well to artificial acceleration. Also the audio production on the show is absolutely top notch for being done by one dude, the co-host, co-inventor of podcasting, and former MTV VJ, Adam Curry. Plus the “morning zoo” bit is just a hilarious ruse; don’t let the “light tone” distract too much from the serious media deconstructio…

There is no "media deconstruction" happening. All they do is play cable news clips and give their uninformed and often offensive commentary. Zero journalistic work of any kind, just idiotic hot takes shot from the hip.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't have advertisers (listener funded) so they're able to sift through the news in a reasonably balanced way. Each show also has crowd-sourced, listener produced podcast album art that's generated about an hour after the show airs live. Try listening to the noagendashow at 2X speed to start.

I've tried to listen to NoAgenda twice and both times it was conspiracy theory borderline-racist garbage

You didn't miss anything, that's what the show is.
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