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ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

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Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#181

Post by ryukoposting »

rurp wrote: post #24

It's wild to me how often I see corporate America both: 1. Spend immense amounts trying to build and improve a brand. 2. Toss well known brands aside as if they are useless. Not that it's always the same company doing both at the same time, but it's crazy 538 was just left to die. It was a very recognizable brand among wonky professionals, a very desirable customer base. It's not as if politics and sports have gotten…

Five thirty eight's relevance in the public eye peaked about 10 years ago. They missed on the Trump 1 election so badly it's like they weren't even aiming at the target. I think that damaged their credibility in a lot of folks' minds (mine, for example). That's the problem with hitching your reputation to your predictive ability. One big miss and you're discredited, forever.

Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#182

Post by IAmBroom »

Hamuko wrote: post #155
lesuorac wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly is Nate even wrong here? IIRC, he got to keep all of the models and etc from 538 which is kinda all that mattered about it. Like anybody is really going to lookup the 2016 election in 2030 but they're definitely want the model's output in 2030 for 2030. Management seems to be clearly inept and if somebody wants to give you a wheelbarrow of cash for something worthless you're generally foolish to not accept.

He never sold the prediction models, and only leased them to ABC/538, so they left with him as he left the company.

Which is just restating what the parent comment said...

Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#183

Post by IAmBroom »

ownlife wrote: post #172
vintermann wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's petty even for a corporation. It's not exactly maximizing shareholder value. But yeah, it's the sort of stuff corporations (especially media corporations) can be expected to do. I think Nate has become better at this sort of stuff in recent years. But still, he said that Disney "hardly ever" interfered in their editorial process, oblivious to the implication. (What it means is that Disney/ABC were perfectly will…

How can we jump to that conclusion? Maybe they were only willing to interfere in that process in extreme cases.

Which means they interfered when they really wanted to, which is the point you were responding to.

Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#184

Post by IAmBroom »

ryukoposting wrote: post #181
rurp wrote: post #24

It's wild to me how often I see corporate America both: 1. Spend immense amounts trying to build and improve a brand. 2. Toss well known brands aside as if they are useless. Not that it's always the same company doing both at the same time, but it's crazy 538 was just left to die. It was a very recognizable brand among wonky professionals, a very desirable customer base. It's not as if politics and sports have gotten…

Five thirty eight's relevance in the public eye peaked about 10 years ago. They missed on the Trump 1 election so badly it's like they weren't even aiming at the target. I think that damaged their credibility in a lot of folks' minds (mine, for example). That's the problem with hitching your reputation to your predictive ability. One big miss and you're discredited, forever.

EVERYONE missed on the Trump-1 election. Even Trump (IMO) didn't expect to win; he was copying another bad candidate's example of cashing out on a book deal.

Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#185

Post by sanitycheck »

spprashant wrote: post #27

538 was fun while it lasted. The podcasts were also a good listen. Things got worse after Disney had their first round of layoffs. Their problem was they weren't profitable outside the presidential election years when interest peaked in the general public. 3 out of 4 years only diehard election polling wonks tuned in.

In case you (or others) didn't know, Galen has his own podcast: www.gdpolitics.com

It feels a lot like the 538 one, with lots of familiar contributors. The latest ep is a live show with Nate & Clare, might be to your taste.

Re: ABC News has taken all FiveThirtyEight articles offline

#186

Post by rldjbpin »

finally one of the things from the past i could say inspired me, like in the obituaries made by the vets in other posts!

while the content had zero relevance to my daily life, the data storytelling was quite inspiring during the time i was deciding which career to pursue.

i went through their github as pointed out by others, but did not see how they would actually make the visualisations. anybody can guide me in the right direction before that acc also get pulled off?

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