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Macworld lays off most staff

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Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#71

Post by Someone »

josteink wrote: post #40
yarou wrote: post #32

I think it speaks volumes to the downward trend of Apple these days.

More like dead trees delivered at your door-step a month after things happened. Apple mags will just be the first to go. The rest will eventually follow.

First? http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_World:

"On July 10, 2013 owner IDG announced that the magazine would cease its 30-year print run. The August 2013 issue was the last printed of PC World magazine, future issues will be digital-only."

(Once) famous earlier examples:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Dobbs: "In January 2009 Jonathan Erickson, the editor-in-chief, announced the magazine would become a section of InformationWeek called Dr Dobb's Report. and a Web site."

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_(magazine): "Print publication ceased in 1998 and online publication in 2013"

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#72

Post by Touche »

cdnsteve wrote: post #69

We're at the turning point where great journalists are getting pushed out of their careers because jobs are vanishing under their feet. The content model has completely changed, some argue for the better. In the long term I fear the quality of content written will suffer, article accuracy will be reduced and we'll all be reading each others blogs about medicine [insert other topics here] (without ever having studied…

Journalists job is not to know about the thing they are covering; usually they have only slightly more knowledge than the layman; their job is to have relationships with people who can give them information the public doesn't easily have.

These relationships that lead to information becoming available won't and isn't going away, the people doing the reporting (now called bloggers) just aren't getting paid (much) for it. It's now a hobby. And that's ok.

As far as writings from experts; science journals still exist and AFAIK are not hurting or are in danger of being scaled back. Maybe someone with more knowledge can speak on the state of academic journals.

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#74

Post by RickHull »

caster_cp wrote: post #50
chc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What moral obligation do you feel was neglected here? Surely hiring someone doesn't create a moral obligation to never lay them off if you can't afford to pay them anymore.

As I said, I don't have the specifics so I can't judge the Macworld case. Assuming it was an unexpected layoff right after a very demanding day of work, I can see some wrong things there. First, you should inform people as soon as you made up your mind that you were going to fire them. Letting them work (a lot) and just after that letting them go is wrong. Is using them. Explaining the reasons for the layoff is the m…

> First, you should inform people as soon as you made up your mind that you were going to fire them. Letting them work (a lot) and just after that letting them go is wrong. Is using them.

You're on very shaky moral ground, and I don't find it persuasive. I don't understand the moral obligation to inform as soon as the decision is made. Employment is a 2 way street. By this logic, employees are "using" their employers if they continue working while hunting for a new job. I don't buy that moral logic.

Moreover, morale is important for both employer and employee. You don't want to keep a disgruntled employee around to sap morale. A significant blow to morale can sink the entire enterprise, multiplying the number of layoffs.

> A simple way to assess that you're up to no good is to see how the employees treat and refer to you after you let them go.

Entirely too simple. An entirely legitimate difference of opinion can result in a disgruntled employee. Employees can have wildly inaccurate estimates of their own value and productivity. Losing your job almost always feels unfair. Even the most amicable of splits can still result in latent bitterness.

So if a former employee does go on a rampage, it's unreasonable to conclude that his employer was "up to no good".

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#76

Post by tormeh »

ska wrote: post #68
convex wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current quality and quantity of information previously classified as "news" is far beyond what has ever existed previously. Look at any news event and compare the information that's immediately available now compared to similar news events 20 or 30 years ago. People on the ground publish pictures, videos, and reports as the events are happening, and we can read reports from any source in the world translated inst…

I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. Straightforward reporting is in very good shape right now, particularly due to the effects you mention. Long form journalism and in-depth reporting is not doing nearly as well, and is not well supported currently.

Well, there are still a couple of good ones. The Economist is exceptional, but it's there. Foreign Policy is also pretty good, though it the opinions are less polished - it seems written by people who haven't had to defend their article in front of colleagues before publishing. Anyway, it's good. On the tech front there's Anandtech and partly Ars Technica. I doubt the world has seen much better journalism than those four.

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#77

Post by AJ007 »

37prime wrote: post #66
aikah wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> almost all of the money is falling out of it. Well no money because nobody's paying for it,and since nobody's paying for it the content is usually average at best. Free information is great,but let's face it,quality news cost money and time. What have we today?in the tech world? content farms (readwrite,thenextweb,techcrunch,mashable...) where writers often know nothing about the subject,or are using social justice…

I rolled my eyes every time someone linked to the “publications” you’ve mentioned: readwrite, thenextweb, techcrunch, mashable… add venturebeat, buzzfeed, cnet, business insider, the street, and many more…… It is all in the name of page hit, no longer about useful information.

The pageview journalism model is fascinating. Initially you just had to produce cheap content in volume. Now you actually have to build the incentive structure so that most of your content is free. The payouts to writers become somewhat of a skill based lottery.

Much like Bitcoin mining, there are only so many pageviews per day. You can optimize certain behaviors to increase your pageviews and ad impressions -- more ad units, auto reloading pages, slideshows, more side links, etc. Publishers doing this increase their slice of the pie. Big brand advertisers appear to not track sales at all so quality publishers basically subsidize the low quality content farms.

Fighting back is possible. If you see a weird article that friends are sharing, look up the writer. Many of these people are amateur writers or college students. Facts are wrong (happens in real journalism too.) Some of the 'controversies' in technology today are almost completely made up but they attract pageviews, so they keep getting written about.

One thing I learned when I was earlier was that a lot of articles in the professional business press where complete trash for an entrepreneur -- Fortune, Forbes, Harvard Business Review. They had some basis in fact but consisted of a lot of noise written by writers who probably didn't know what they were writing about (with exceptions, which is why I kept reading.) What happens when the people who do read get not only noise but noise that no one fact checked? Twitter, Youtube, and fact based organizations (Human Rights Watch, ACLU) publishing material to all instantly balance even this ocean of crap out. I think despite the negatives we remain much better informed than the past.

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#78

Post by smrtinsert »

munificent wrote: post #46

Today is a great time to be a writer. There are virtually no middlemen between you putting together a sentence and millions being able to read it. There are countless communities where you can find people to give you good feedback to hone your craft. Unfortunately, that also means it's a really terrible time to be a writer for a living. Like every job that is (a) creative and (b) can be distributed digitally, almost…

This is not really true. If your job prior to the internet was to earn six figures from covering celebrities then yes, your suffering. However, if your job as a writer was to use proper grammar and write logical correct and intelligent works, you can still find a lot of work paid very well. I'm consistently surprised how high writers are compensated in urban centers (although a lot seem to work remotely as well).

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#79

Post by fiatmoney »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #70
munificent wrote: post #46

Today is a great time to be a writer. There are virtually no middlemen between you putting together a sentence and millions being able to read it. There are countless communities where you can find people to give you good feedback to hone your craft. Unfortunately, that also means it's a really terrible time to be a writer for a living. Like every job that is (a) creative and (b) can be distributed digitally, almost…

>> almost all of the money is falling out of it. This always struck me as odd. Writers are clearly aware making money in their industry now is an uphill battle, yet in music (which has the very same environment), people seem to think the industry is thriving.

Musicians get significant non-pecuniary benefits. Eg, groupies.

Re: Macworld lays off most staff

#80

Post by stonogo »

mikeash wrote: post #38
CamperBob2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Shrug) Stressful or not, it's one of those jobs that someone, somewhere, will cheerfully do for free.

So what? There are plenty of things that are really great to do once for fun, but still devolve to a grind when you do it all the time for work. I'd drive a tractor trailer or a tank for free, or work on a 787 assembly line. But that doesn't mean the people who do it every day for a living consider it a perk to do their jobs. Additionally, the people who cheerfully do this stuff for free are often the people you don'…

Are you seriously suggesting that we need more than, say, one person per language to type the things Tim Cook says into twitter? I think you're overstating the journalistic impact of MacWorld.
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